The Negro League is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the very first Negro League World Series back in 1924. Missouri played a major role in showcasing black talent on the diamond and producing major league legends.

           The 1924 Colored World Series was a best-of-nine match-up. The Kansas City Monarchs represented Missouri.  The first game of the championship series opened at Philadelphia on October 3, 1924, between the Kansas City Monarchs of the NNL and the Hilldale Club of the ECL; the final game was played at Chicago on October 20, with the Monarchs emerging as the series winner.  The Monarchs defeated Hilldale five games to four.

​           The Negro World Series was a post-season baseball tournament that was held from 1924 to 1927 and from 1942 to 1948 between the champions of the Negro leagues, matching the mid-western winners against their east-coast counterparts. The series was also known as the Colored World Series, especially during the 1920s, and as the Negro League World Series, in more recent books, though contemporary black newspapers usually called it simply, the "World Series", without any modification. A total of eleven Series were contested in its prime, which ultimately saw nine teams compete for a championship and seven who won at least one. The Homestead Grays were the winningest and most present team in the tournament, winning three times in five appearances, while Dave Malarcher and Candy Jim Taylor won the most titles as manager with two each.

      The Negro Leagues World Series was not to be measured in immediate monetary terms but in what the series might mean for the future of the black game.  The World Series payoff for players was less than what many had expected–$4,927.32 to be split among the winners; $3,284.88 to the losers.

​          Segregated baseball suffered a collapse after the integration of Major League Baseball in 1947 with the arrival of Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, as several players would later defect onto MLB and other various leagues. By 1949, the Negro leagues were essentially considered a minor league circuit, particularly with the demise of the Negro National League. Black baseball continued on anyway, albeit with dwindling crowds and quality in pursuit of money that awarded a champion until 1957, albeit without a Series to determine a champion, but with record (the East–West All-Star Game, which played from 1933 to 1962, was generally considered a surrogate championship game by the press); as barnstorming units, teams came and went, but most stopped playing after the demise of the NAL in 1962 (with the exception of the Indianapolis Clowns, who barnstormed until 1989).

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​Teams participating in World Series:  Homestead Grays: 5 (1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1948) ; Kansas City Monarchs: 4 (1924, 1925, 1942, 1946 ; Birmingham Black Barons: 3 (1943, 1944, 1948); Hilldale: 2 (1924, 1925); Chicago American Giants: 2 (1926, 1927);Bacharach Giants: 2 (1926, 1927); Cleveland Buckeyes: 2 (1945, 1947); Newark Eagles: 1 (1946) and  New York Cubans: 1 (1947) 

 

World Series Champions:  Homestead Grays: 3 (1943, 1944, 1948); Chicago American Giants: 2 (1926, 1927); Kansas City Monarchs: 2 (1924, 1942); Cleveland Buckeyes: 1 (1945); Hilldale: 1 (1925); Newark Eagles: 1 (1946) and New York Cubans: 1 (1947)

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Noted: The Eastern Colored League folded mid-season in 1928, therefore no World Series could be played. However, the St. Louis Stars defeated the Chicago American Giants, 5 games to 4 games billed as the "World Series of the Negro National League."