1884: Growth and Integration in Major League Baseball

For all its sheer mystique and symbolic beauty, the ability to render the greatest and most powerful nation silent with the crack of a maple wooden bat and bounce of a minuscule white ball does great justice to putting in perspective the game of baseball's profound effect upon the United States of America. Never has a sport like baseball had its history so closely connected to America's history, on a social, political and economic level; the immense struggles and celebrated successes of the U.S. can be interwoven in the pages of our national pastime. Yet, as we stand here today, May 1st, 1884, a young unassuming Michigan Law graduate from working-class Oberlin, Ohio took the field behind home plate with a few boos and sneers directed towards him. Those jeers weren't directed at his skills, which were more than adequate, or his demeanor, which was quite calm given the enormity of the moment; No, Moses Fleetwood Walker was under wrath from the crowd not for what he had already done, but what he was about to do; be the first African-American to play in a Major League Baseball game. In an era in the midst of great social upheaval, folks today have gone to bed tonight not knowing that a racial barrier was broken, while planting the seeds for an unequaled social revolution; or, as Walker called it, "just another day at the ballpark."

Moses, or "Fleet" Walker as he is affectionately called, had his roots in baseball not from an overly athletic background, but because he exemplifies the intellect that is required at this time to play baseball. Though an everyday sport in most aspects, professional baseball has been reserved for the upper class intellectuals due to its sometimes agonizing costs to play it and its lack of widespread recognition. Despite the stereotypes attributed to Walker's skin color, his educational background and intellectual prowess are important attributes in gaining the respect of his resentful teammates. A graduate of Oberlin College, Walker also was a student in the prestigious University of Michigan Law School; a resume made even more impressive given that African-Americans are rarely let into universities, much less prestigious law schools. Yet, as Walker was attending Law School, he was also playing baseball for Michigan. His natural gifts in the game of baseball were well timed as he decided to join the minor league ranks to help pay for his law school tuition. Walker joined the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1883, where he was welcomed to the professional ranks through the harsh reality of race relations. A famous ballplayer still well-renowned throughout the world of baseball here in the Mid-West, a player by the name of Cap Anson, plays for the Chicago White Stockings as a power hitting first baseman. As a result of his unrelenting ego and racist inclinations, once Anson saw Walker take the field in a minor-league exhibition game in 1883, he refused to play in the game. This act by arguably baseball's most prominent player reveals the deep racial underpinnings within our current Gilded Age society. A ballplayer, who bats, throws, fields and rides the occasional pinewood for a few innings just like every other of our time, cannot earn his respect on the field. Instead, hatred and injustice negate all the qualities of fair play and sportsmanship that the game of baseball so dearly values. Though cooler heads prevailed and Anson was forced to play in fear of forfeiting the game, no significance was lost in Anson's stance towards playing with "Fleet" Walker in that it symbolizes even when it's only a minor-league exhibition game, the social virtues of present-day society shine through.

The term, "breaking the color barrier" represents different aspects in the context of each society. With the somewhat recent failure of the Freedman's Bureau and with added burdens of poll taxes and grandfather clauses added to voting restrictions, breaking the color barrier for African-Americans in terms of life here and now in 1884 may mean the ability to participate and function within the confines of their own country. Which is why any achievement, no matter what realm it may take place in, can illuminate the breaking signs of racial injustice. A landmark day in the seemingly never-ending struggle of civil rights? On the 1st of May, no one who came to the ballpark to see the Toledo Blue Stockings take on the Louisville Eclipse even thought of such a preposterous description to attach to this normal regular season game. Any significance in who was starting at catcher for the Blue Stockings on this day may be easily magnified by the impact it has on perceptions between black and white. In a time which racial injustice rears its ugly head in all corners of American life, if there could be, whether metaphorically or physically speaking, a "playing field" in which race only judges the shade of their skin and not their abilities as a human being. But, before it's revealed how Moses Fleetwood Walker made history on this day, we must analyze the society in which we live to reveal the true value of his merits. We live in a time in which lynchings are deemed social gatherings and even in the game of baseball the ever ironic "gentleman's agreement" means the act of excluding African-Americans from playing professional baseball. Such blatant forms of prejudice and injustice have not gone unchallenged by "Fleet" Walker himself. At this time, the International League and Ohio League (which Walker plays under) has just passed a law that states each team is allowed only one African-American player. As a highly educated man, Walker had finally reached a bursting point and wrote an eloquent and passionate reply to the Ohio State League President stating "The law is a disgrace to the present age, and casts derision at the laws of Ohio-the voice of the people-that say all men are equal. I would suggest that your honorable body, in case that black law is not repealed, pass one making it criminal for a colored man or woman to be found on a ball ground...There should be some broader cause-such as a lack of ability, behavior and intelligence- for barring a player, rather than his color." It was a man of such conviction, as his fiery letter shows, that on a humid spring afternoon took the field among uncertainty of the times. Yearning just to be a man of his time and respected by his teammates and fans; yet it took a more than ordinary man in a less than ordinary time to add a special new chapter in baseball's history.