Nashville All Stars · Nashville, Tennessee · 1914

Said to be fastest bunch in South

In March 1914 the Nashville All Stars took out the biggest want ad in baseball: a letter to the Freeman in Indianapolis challenging all clubs willing to give a fair guarantee. Every man a born athlete, conceded by fans to be the fastest bunch of young colored players ever gotten together in the south, and not a single result to check any of it against.

In March 1914 the Nashville All Stars went looking for opponents the old fashioned way, by writing to the paper. Their letter ran in the Freeman of Indianapolis on March 28 under the heading “THE NASHVILLE ALL STARS. Said To Be Fastest Bunch in South.”

The club wished “to challenge through the columns of your paper, all baseball clubs, that will be willing to give us a fair guarantee.” Credentials followed. “Our club is composed of the cream of the Capitol City League and every man is a born athlete and well trained and they are conceded by fans to be the fastest bunch of young colored players that has been gotten together in the south.” That would be the same Nashville league that had put its all stars up against Rube Foster’s American Giants the September before, so the cream had been tested against the very top of the bottle. Booking agents were assured that “they will not be dissappointed as we have proved a drawing card wherever we went.”

The sign-off is the best part. “Hoping that this letter will reach the eye of some enterprising manager and that your valued paper will have a prosperous year, we are, Respectfully yours, NASHVILLE ALL STARS. Thomas R. Bryant, Pres. and Sec.” Note the craft: flatter the paper, flatter the manager, promise the gate. Thomas R. Bryant understood that base ball is played nine to a side but booked one letter at a time.