caption bats death_date death_place birth_place image_size position birth_date image article_title name throws
-lrb- january 1922 -rrb- right 23 february 1922 indianapolis , indiana anderson , south carolina 200px 2nd baseman / manager 20 january 1875 c.i. taylor 1922.jpg c. i. taylor
 charles isham `` c.i '' taylor right
c. i. taylor

charles isham taylor -lrb- january 20 , 1875 - february 23 , 1922 -rrb- was an american second baseman , manager and executive in negro league baseball .
born in anderson , south carolina , he was the oldest among four sons of a methodist minister - including candy jim , ben and johnny - who made a remarkable impact on black baseball .
after serving in the spanish-american war in the philippines , taylor attended clark college in atlanta , georgia .
in 1904 he started the first black professional baseball team in birmingham , alabama , the birmingham giants , recruiting from southern colleges .
in 1914 he became half-owner , along with thomas bowser , and manager of the indianapolis abc 's , and over the next several seasons developed the team into a power rivaled only by rube foster 's chicago american giants .
when world war i drew off many players from his roster , he personally toured washington , d.c. with them , pointing out the various government institutions and instilling in them a sense of their duty to their nation .
he was also a co-founder and vice president of the negro national league before his death at age 47 in indianapolis , indiana .
his widow continued to operate the abc 's for three years , with his brother ben as manager for the first year , before the team folded in 1926 .
the negro leagues baseball museum awards the c.i. taylor legacy award to the best manager of each mlb league annually .
