1925 Colored World Series

The 1925 Colored World Series was the second edition of the championship series in Negro league baseball. The series featured a rematch between the Hilldale Club of Darby, Pennsylvania, champion of the Eastern Colored League (ECL), and the Kansas City Monarchs, champion of the Negro National League (NNL) and winner of the previous year's match in the first Colored World Series. In 1925, Hilldale won the best-of-nine series, five games to one.

On the eve of the series, the Monarchs' star pitcher, Bullet Rogan, who had pitched a shutout in the deciding Game 7 of the NNL championship series, was injured while playing with his child at home, when a needle ran into his leg, leaving him unable to play in the World Series. Kansas City's manager and occasional pitcher was future Hall of Famer, 38-year-old José Méndez. Hilldale featured three future Hall of Famers—catcher, Biz Mackey, third baseman, Judy Johnson, and 35-year-old backup catcher and pinch hitter, Louis Santop.

Attendance for series was disappointing—down more than 50 percent in comparison with the previous year's series. The financial results were so disappointing that one Kansas City Monarchs player said they would have been paid better barnstorming than playing in the series.

For both teams, the 1925 season would represent the end to a three-year run as league champions. (Both teams had won their league championships in 1923, when no world series was played.) Kansas City would eventually return to win additional championships, appearing in the 1942 and 1946 series and winning in 1942. For Hilldale, however, the 1925 championship would be its last, as the team folded in 1932.

In 1925, the NNL, which played in the Midwestern and Southern United States, held a split season championship, with 50 games scheduled for each half. The teams qualifying to play in the league were the Kansas City Monarchs, the St. Louis Stars, the Memphis Red Sox, the Chicago American Giants, the Birmingham Black Barons, the Detroit Stars, the Indianapolis ABCs, and the Cuban Stars (West). The first half opened on April 27 and closed on July 8, and the second half ran from July 11 through September 16.

The American Giants got off to an early lead in the NNL first half race, winning six of their first eight games. The next week, Detroit pulled ahead, but by May 26 the Monarchs reached first place when they took three games of four from the visiting Detroit Stars. The following week, the Monarchs took five straight from the American Giants, opening a lead on the other teams. In mid-June, the St. Louis Stars narrowed the lead but weren't able to catch the Monarchs, and on June 29 the Monarchs clinched the first-half title with a 2–1 victory over the Cuban Stars.

The St. Louis Stars started the second half going 7–1, jumping to an early lead. Soon the Chicago American Giants gained a slight lead, and during the first half of August the race between St. Louis and Chicago was neck and neck. When the American Giants dropped three games of four to the Monarchs from August 15–18 and then lost three straight to St. Louis on August 22–24, they dropped to third place and fell out of the race. Kansas City were now in second place, and when they swept four games against St. Louis on September 5–8, they moved to within just .005 the Stars. St. Louis held onto their lead, and finished the second half with a .760 winning percentage, .022 ahead of second place Kansas City.

The NNL scheduled a best-five-of-nine championship series, with the first three games in St. Louis on September 19–21 and the next three games (home games for the Monarchs) played in Chicago because the American Association's Kansas City Blues were finishing their season at home, tying up Muehlebach Field. Kansas City won the first game 8–6, as Bullet Rogan pitched a complete game and Newt Allen, Dobie Moore, and Frank Duncan hit home runs. St. Louis won the second game 6–3, behind the pitching of Roosevelt Davis and excellent plays in the field by Willie Wells, Cool Papa Bell, and Branch Russell.