This is Amy Wagenaar from the Historical Society of Michigan with a Michigan history moment. The baseball team was called the Page fence giants. In four years, from 1895 through 1898, the team from Adrian, Michigan racked up a 500 to 76 record as they toured the Midwest. Despite their success on the ball diamond, the Giants traveled in their own rail car. Because they could not eat at restaurants or sleep in hotels. They sang songs or did cartwheels when running the bases to defuse tensions if they were winning. Why the Page Fence Giants was an African American team. In 1894, three European Americans from Adrian partnered with two top African American ballplayers, John Fowler and Grant Johnson, to form an all star African American ball club. Fowler had announced that he intended to form the club and base it in Findlay, Ohio. His team, the Findlay Sluggers, had recently played in Adrian. Fowler liked the town and revealed that he might be willing to locate his team there. Howard and Rolla Taylor, who owned the local hardware store and town postmaster Len Hock, made Fowler a winning offer. They persuaded J. Wallace Page, owner of the Page Woven Wire Fence Company to provide the financing. John Fowler hired some of America's best African American ball players to form the new Page Fence Giants. He and Grant Johnson were joined by catcher Vasco Graham and pitchers Joseph Miller and William Holland, to name just a few. They outfitted the team with a luxurious private rail car to travel between towns, partly because many restaurants and hotels refused to serve African Americans. The Giants toured the Midwest in 1895, posting a 121 to 31 record. They even played the major league Cincinnati Reds twice. They lost both games, but managed to hold a lead halfway through one of them. The next year, the giants won a 15 game world championship series with another African American team, the Cuban Ex Giants of New York City. They clinched the series in Cairo, Michigan, with shortstop Grant Johnson making a rare appearance as pitcher. Economic troubles for the Page Woven Fire Fence Company and the loss of their home field for a planned railroad depot led to the team's transfer to a group of African American businessmen from Chicago in 1898. But Adrian, Michigan could boast that the Page Fence Giants had made it the African American baseball capital of the world. This Michigan history moment was brought to you by michiganhistorymagazine.org.