Louis Sockalexis

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Louis Sockalexis

Louis Sockalexis Penobscot(b. October 24, 1871 on Indian Island Old Town, Maine; d. December 24, 1913, in Burlington, Maine). Sockalexis was the first American Indian Major League Baseball player. His career with the National League team, the Cleveland Spiders, lasted three years.

Louis Sockalexis became a rising baseball star in Maine in his early twenties. He attended the College of the Holy Cross and excelled in baseball, football, and track. In the 1894 season, Sockalexis posted a .436 batting average and posted .444 in 1895. Handsome and popular, Sockalexis was the school's star athlete. His games attracted large crowds and "Sock," as he was called, was the most sought-after college ballplayer in the country.

Sockalexis transferred to the University of Notre Dame in December, 1896 but in early March 1897, was expelled for drinking and destroying a local brothel after the madam refused to provide her services to a "red man."

On March 9, 1897, Sockalexis signed a major league contract with the Cleveland Spiders. In his first three months, he posted a .338 batting average. Sockalexis generated great enthusiasm among sportswriters and fans with his spectacular plays in right field, speedy base-stealing and powerful hitting at the plate. Sockalexis hit only three major league home runs but each one was dramatic in the deadball era.

Fifty years before Jackie Robinson faced derision and abuse as the first African American in the majors, Sockalexis endured hostile crowds and racial taunting as the first Indian. In Cleveland as well as other cities, crowds jeered and showered him with abuse, but as Robinson did in his rookie year with the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, Sockalexis displayed restraint and dignity and soon won favor with his exciting plays on the field.

From his college days, Sockalexis had developed a drinking habit that worsened in Cleveland. By July 1897, his heavy drinking led to a literal fall from stardom with a leg injury and increasingly poor performance on the ballfield. In 1899 he was released from the team.

After leaving Cleveland, Sockalexis signed with various minor leagues in Connecticut. He finished the 1899 season under the careful management of former batting star Roger Connor. Without the pressures of national fame and racist abuse, Sockalexis excited the smaller crowds with a display of his former skills in clutch hitting and game-winning home runs. Unfortunately, Sockalexis's alcoholism had become so severe that he drifted as a vagrant for three years and was arrested several times.

In 1902, Sockalexis signed with the Lowell Tigers (see photo) and "spiked himself to the water cart" as the saying went. He played a complete season and posted a .288 batting average. By 1906, he had returned to his people and most likely stopped drinking or got it under control.

On Indian Island, Sockalexis operated the ferry across the Penobscot River and worked as a logger in the winter. He organized and coached a team of Penobscot youths, five of whom went on to the New England Leagues.

In his last years, Sockalexis signed up as an umpire for the Maine Leagues and was widely respected for his calls and extensive knowledge of the rules. His friends recalled him for his quiet dignity, generosity and humor.

Sockalexis developed numerous health problems and died prematurely of heart failure at age 42 while working in a logging camp.

In 1963, baseball writer Lee Allen named James Madison Toy, an early American Association (19th century) catcher as the first American Indian in the majors. However, in January, 2006, Sockalexis biographer Ed Rice obtained Toy's death certificate which listed Toy's ethnicity as Caucasian, supporting the claim that Louis Sockalexis was indeed the first American Indian Major League ballplayer.

Recently there has been controversy over the name of the Cleveland Indians and their mascot, Chief Wahoo. Although the "Indians" nickname dates back to Sockalexis' rookie season with the Spiders in 1897, the official name for the current American League team was selected by Cleveland sportswriters in 1915, not from a fan contest as was believed. Newspaper cartoons of that era, as well as the team's current Chief Wahoo mascot, were and continue to be racially offensive to some and bear no resemblance to Louis Sockalexis.

Sources:

1. "Baseball's First Indian: Louis Sockalexis, Penobscot Legend, Cleveland Indian" by Ed Rice (Tidemark Press, 2003)

2. "Louis Sockalexis: The First Cleveland Indian" by David Fleitz (McFarland & Company, 2002)