White was a black baseball pioneer who played for several white minor league teams in the 1880s, when blacks were allowed in organized baseball. In 1887 he hit .381 for the Ohio State League’s Wheeling, WV, team, playing third base, but was cut when the color line was drawn the next year. In the integrated Eastern Interstate League, he played second base and hit .358 for the 1891 York Monarchs. The last integrated team he appeared with was Fort Wayne, IN (Western Inter-State League). He went on to play for numerous black teams.
With H. Walter Schlichter, in 1902 White founded and captained the Philadelphia Giants, a top black team of the early 1900s. They claimed the Black World Championship in 1905-07. White managed the New York Lincoln Giants in 1911, the Boston Giants in 1912, and the Negro National League Cleveland Browns in 1924. His 1907 book, Sol White’s Official Base Ball Guide, is the only surviving record of the early years of black baseball.
