Providence Grays
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The Providence Grays were a 19th century baseball team. The team was based in Providence, Rhode Island. They were a member of the National League from 1878 to 1885. They won the National League championship in 1879 and 1884. One of the leading players from that 1879 pennant winner was Hall of Famer John Montgomery Ward.
The team may have been the first Major League Baseball team to field an African-American baseball player, William Edward White, a Brown University player who played one game for the Grays on June 21, 1879. Evidence is strong but not conclusive: Peter Morris of the Society for American Baseball Research has researched this issue, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on January 30, 2004.
The Grays also were the first team to win a World Series, beating the American Association champion New York Metropolitans three games to none in 1884.