St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1946-03-15
Negro Played
In Organized
Ball In 1884
By DIR. EDWIN B. HENDERSON

/
Historians are usually skeptica,
Of "frsts." When Branch Hickey
of the Brooklyn Dodgers signed
John Roosevelt Robinson for his
Montreal Club, Jackie was heralded
as being the first coIored player tC
break into organized baseball
Immediately the chroniclers began
to search the records.
From Oberlin College came a
lengthy discourse showing that a
number Of Negroes played in or
ganized baseball as early as 1880.
One Of the famous Negro pitchers
Of that day was George Stovey,
who won IS games in one season
for Newark in the old international
League and set up a record that
has never been equalled.
At Oberlin College, Moses Fleet
wood Walker is acclaimed as the
first Negro to play professional
baseball in the major leagues.
Fleet" Walker prepared for col
lege in 1877 and was admitted to
Oberlin in 1878. He attended ODER
lin for three years and spent two
additional years at the University
Of Michigan although graduated
from neither. He won his letter
from Ann Arbor in baseball in
1882 and 1888.
Oberlin began playing baseball
in 1868, but not until 1881 was in
ter-collegiate baseball played. In
the first game played in the new
field dedicated in October, 1880,
Fleet" Walker and Weldy Walker,
brothers, were regulars. Elect"
was catcher for the varsity nine.
In 1883, Fleet" Walker Joined
the Toledo Ball Club, then a men,
Der Of the Northwestern League,
minor league operating west Of
the Alleghenies and including To
ledO, Saginaw, Bay City, Grand
Rapids, Peoria, Quincy, Springfield
and Fort Wayne. Toledo opened
its season on the home grounds on
May 3, 1888, with Thomas J. Poor
man pitching and Walker receiv.
ing. In that game, which con.
stitutes Walkers debut as a pro-
fessional, he hit one two-bagger,
scored one run, was credited with
b put-outs, two assists and no err
rors. During the season, he caught
90 games and had a batting aver
age OF PSI. During this season,
Walker caught the pitching Of
Henry Hank" o'Day of later UNI
pire fame.
In 1884, Toledo secured a fran
chise in the old American Associa-
ton, which operated as a major
league from 1882 to 1891 and con-
sisted, at the outset, of clubs from
New York, Columbus, Louisville,
st. Louis, Cincinnati, Baltimore,
Toledo, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, In
dianapolis and Washington-the or
der in which the teams finished the
season Of 1884. Walker, then a
big Lacquer" played in 46 games
and again batted .251.
Walker played one Of his worst
games at Louisville with the St.
Louis club on May 8, 1884. He
made five errors. The BLADE" re-
ported that the spectators ''hissedo
and "insulted" Walker because he
was colored." The BLADE" also
said, Walker is one Of the most
reliable men in the club but his
poor playing in a city where the
color line is closely drawn as it is
IN Louisville should not be
counted against him." When the
Louisville club played in Toledo
later, the team was so roundly
bOoed that the BLADE" found it
necessary to remind its readers
that the Kentucky club was COM
posed Of gentlemen and was not
responsible for the conduct of the
Louisville people.
From Cleveland, Walker went to
Waterbury and played there to the
end Of 1886. The next year, he
played with Newark and caught
George Stovey during that season.
In 1888 he played with Syracuse
and in 1890 with Terre Haute of
the Western Association. His last
professional season was with the
Oconto, Wisconsin team.
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