Rice implores Mainers to support Sockalexis cause

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As a man who has run thousands of solitary miles in training and has competed in 27 marathons, I understand and appreciate the concept of running alone. But, as the author of a book entitled “Baseball’s First Indian, Louis Sockalexis: Penobscot Legend, Cleveland Indian,” I am hoping I can “enlist” as many citizens of Maine to “run” alongside me and help promote a campaign I have initiated to either (1) restore legacies Sockalexis has had stripped from him or (2) celebrate achievements for which he has never received credit but is deserving of recognition.

Running alone will not get this done. I need anyone and everyone who believes and supports any or all of the issues that follow to get involved.

When I spoke at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., last June, I tried to make as informative and persuasive a talk as I could that Louis Sockalexis deserves the following:

1. Louis Sockalexis was the first known and, indeed, the very first American Indian to play major league baseball, during the 1897 season. When Baseball Hall of Fame historian Lee Allen stripped the title of “First American Indian baseball player” from Sockalexis and bestowed it upon James Madison Toy in 1963, in an article issued nationwide, it took the title from its rightful athlete and anointed another on sheer hearsay and oral family history.

When James Madison Toy played professional baseball, from 1889-1891, there is not a single mention of an American Indian background (unlike Sockalexis’s experience seven years later when he is continuously identified for his race), nor is there a single shred of physical evidence (birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate) that proves Toy has any American Indian background.

Until such time as the family and residents of Beaver Falls, Pa., can prove an American Indian background for James Madison Toy, neither they nor anyone else has the right to make the claim that Toy is the “first professional baseball player with an American Indian background.”

2. Louis Sockalexis is, without question, the inspiration for the nickname “Indians,” first adopted by the Cleveland major league franchise during March of 1897 and then officially adopted in February of 1915. Whether the official nickname, when adopted in 1915, was intended “in honor of” Sockalexis is an issue lost to history; but there should be no further questioning of the fact that it was the very presence of the Penobscot Indian outfielder in Cleveland during spring training of 1897 that led to the termination of the nickname “Spiders” and the creation of the nickname “Indians.”

3. Louis Sockalexis was subjected to racism, from the media, from the fans of baseball, and from his fellow baseball players. He is an unrecognized Jackie Robinson-figure, breaking the color line and playing baseball under terrible conditions, 50 years before Jackie Robinson played and broke the “black” color line. It is time for the state of Maine to stand up and recognize the first man known to break a color barrier in professional sports and welcome others across the nation to do so with us.

4. Louis Sockalexis paved the way for the quick ascension of more American Indian baseball players, such as Charlie Bender, John Myers and Jim Thorpe. Connie Mack, who wrote in his autobiography about what a wonderful player Sockalexis had been, brought Bender to the Philadelphia A’s. John McGraw, who played against Sockalexis as a member of the Baltimore Orioles (and is quoted by Hall of Fame player-manager Hughie Jennings as having said, “If Sockalexis had stayed up for five years he would have been as a great a player as Ruth, Wagner, or Cobb”), brought John Meyers and Jim Thorpe to the New York Giants team he managed. You only need “one degree of separation” to connect the dots between Louis Sockalexis and the very next Native Americans to play major league baseball.

It is long past time that Louis Sockalexis received his due.

Therefore:

1. Whereas, the National Baseball Hall of Fame has shown disrespect to the legacies of Louis Sockalexis in two ways: (1) Allen wrongly stripped the title of First American Indian to play Major League Baseball, in 1963, away from Sockalexis and bestowed said title on Toy; (2) the Baseball Hall of Fame continues to disregard the history of the American Indian baseball player, while presently displaying timelines and honoring the tradition of the Hispanic player, the African-American player and the female player.

ACTION STEP: We, in Maine, encourage the National Baseball Hall of Fame to recognize Sockalexis as: (1) the first American Indian to play major league baseball; (2) the man who inspired the nickname “Indians” for the Cleveland franchise, officially adopted in 1915; (3) the man who endured a Jackie Robinson-like experience in 1897 and paved the way for great American Indian players like Charlie Bender, John Meyers and Jim Thorpe.

These sentences, for Sockalexis, plus more sentences recognizing the contribution of the American Indian baseball player should be adopted as soon as possible by the Baseball Hall of Fame. You can write in care of: Bradford Horn, director of public relations, National Baseball Hall of Fame, 25 Main Street, Cooperstown, N.Y. 13326.

2. Whereas, the Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball team continues to show disrespect to the memory of Louis Sockalexis, through its use of the racist, caricature mascot “Chief Wahoo,” and continues to show outright disrespect to the Penobscot Nation by ignoring the petition presented to the Cleveland club, in the year 2000, by the Penobscot Nation Tribal Council to “cease and desist” from using this offensive mascot.

ACTION STEP: We, in Maine, encourage the Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball team to immediately drop the mascot “Chief Wahoo,” demonstrating it understands the disrespect this symbol represents to the Penobscot Nation, the rest of the residents of Maine, and to the legacy of Louis Sockalexis. You can write in care of: Bob DiBiasio, vice president, public relations, Cleveland Indians, Jacobs Field, 2401 Ontario Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44115-4003.

Ed Rice is a college English instructor and journalist who lives in Orono.