Quote:
Originally Posted by jmb
The majority of the population aren't baseball historians like the folks here, let alone my 7 year old. I should have known that somebody would have something to say. There was a reason I put MLB and not organized. Flame away.
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I think that's fantastic about your daughter, and I don't think anybody here is saying otherwise, let alone flaming you. Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother Welday Walker both played in 1884 for Toledo in the American Association, which was a major league at the time, thus part of MLB. It was considered a major league by contemporaries, and it was officially classified as one retroactively by MLB in 1969. The Pirates, Dodgers, Reds, and Cardinals were all originally part of the American Association before moving to the National League during a period when the two leagues were at war for the best players and teams.
If anybody doesn't want to consider the 1884 American Association a major league, William Edward White, who was the son of a white plantation owner and his black slave, played in one game for the Providence Grays of the National League in 1879, and thus was (arguably) the real first black player in MLB, predating even the Walker brothers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Edward_White