Honoring Louis Sockalexis: a forgotten baseball pioneer
WORCESTER—There seems to be a lot more legend than fact surrounding the baseball career of Louis Sockalexis, the classic shooting star athlete who first came to prominence at the College of the Holy Cross. Sockalexis played baseball at the school for just two years. He played a mere 94 games of Major League Baseball, all with the Cleveland Spiders of the National League in the 19th Century.
Sorrowfully Dissolving Our Louis Sockalexis Statue Fund
For almost 15 years after first publishing my biography of Louis Sockalexis, BASEBALL’S FIRST INDIAN, in 2003, I dreamed of seeing a statue to him built in my home state of Maine. And then I acted upon it. Between 2017-2018, as a non-Native American, I put together a wonderful coalition, with three well-respected Native Americans from Maine: John Bear Mitchell, Penobscot storyteller, actor and long-time faculty member for the Native American Studies Program at the University of Maine at Orono; David Slagger, Ph.D. candidate and former Maliseet tribal representative to the Maine State Legislature; and the late Theodore “Wayne” Bear Mitchell, the last Penobscot Nation representative to the Maine State Legislature.
Opinion: Silence derails recognition of Louis Sockalexis
At the end of May, Major League Baseball announced it would finally recognize all the records, the statistical achievements, of the players from the Negro Leagues. Hallelujah!
‘Guardians’ is fine, and fine is good enough
CLEVELAND, OHIO --[The Guardians of Traffic sculptures on the Hope Memorial Bridge near Progressive Field are the inspiration for the renaming of the Cleveland Indians to the Cleveland Guardians at the end of the 2021 season. The Indians announced the change at Progressive Field on July 23, 2021, in Cleveland, Ohio. ]
Maine banned Native American mascots. ‘Why haven’t others followed?’
[The BDN Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom, and does not set policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.] “Maine remains only state to fully ban Native American mascots. Why haven’t others followed?” USA Today asked in a headline last week. It’s a good question.
This Penobscot baseball player inspired the Cleveland Indians name ‘for all the wrong reasons’
It was a historic day in 1897 when Louis Sockalexis, a 26-year-old member of the Penobscot tribe, became the first Native American Major League Baseball player, taking the field for the Cleveland Spiders.
Cleveland Indians to drop controversial nickname affiliated with player from Maine’s Penobscot Nation
Ed Rice’s phone was ringing off the hook on Monday. People wanted to talk about the news that Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians intend to abandon their longstanding name, one that is considered by many to be offensive.
Cleveland to Change Nickname
Cleveland’s major-league baseball team announced Monday that it will drop its “Indians” nickname — in place for more than a century — to “unify our community,” a decision quickly praised by Native American groups, including some members of a Maine tribe with a historic connection to the team.
Celebrating end of Indian mascots in Maine high schools
MAINE VOICES: No schools in Maine retain Native American nicknames, mascots – that’s something to celebrate The focus has been on the bill banning the practice in the future, but it should be on the heroes who brought about its end.
Biographer hits home run with Sockalexis story at Holy Cross
WORCESTER - One of baseball’s most delicious ironies is that this city, the only one whose major league team had no nickname, produced a player that inspired one.
Hidden heroes have done the right thing on Indian mascots
All through the late 1990s and well into the 2000s, I was part of the growing national movement to get the Cleveland Indians to drop Chief Wahoo — perhaps, the most racist caricature in use in American society. Frustration with that effort, ultimately successful after many years, led me to more than a decade of trying to work to see that all such offensive nicknames and mascots end in my home state of Maine.
Skowhegan has opportunity again to cleanse itself of insensitive mascot
I’m seeing two inconvenient truths as the Skowhegan Area High School’s 23-member school board — again — considers whether to do the right thing, and end its use of an insensitive Indians nickname and mascot, or, maintain the status quo by continuing to bury its head in the sand, bringing shame and condemnation upon its communities.
‘Friends of Sockalexis’ raising funds for monument honoring Indian Island baseball pioneer
BANGOR — Ed Rice, author of a book about Indian Island native and former major league baseball player Louis Sockalexis, is again at the forefront of an effort to recognize the groundbreaking athlete. Rice has teamed up with Theodore Bear Mitchell and John Bear Mitchell on the board of directors of the “Friends of Sockalexis,” a committee that will raise money to build a monument dedicated to Sockalexis.
Demise of Cleveland’s ‘Chief Wahoo’
Thanks to the courage and persistence of just one man, the end of the appearance of Chief Wahoo on the playing uniforms of the Cleveland Indians will finally end but, sadly, not until the start of the 2019 season. While I’m not sure Rob Manfred, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, knows anything about the history of Louis Sockalexis, I do know he cared enough to make a stand against an image that many people believe is the most racially insensitive logo/mascot in use in America today. Bravo, commissioner Manfred.
Neither Chief Wahoo nor the Indians’ nickname honor the Penobscot man that inspired them
Earlier this week, after continued pressure from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, the Cleveland Indians announced they will strip the controversial Chief Wahoo logos from their on-field uniforms starting in 2019. The club will still sell some merchandise with the racist imagery, but doing so will prevent others from profiting off use of the smiling, red-faced caricature.
The baseball immortality of Beaver County’s James Madison Toy
James Madison Toy was an average, 19th century major league baseball player — and average might be generous. In two unremarkable seasons, he batted .211. He finished his career with one home run. And he played on awful teams, which combined to win 65 games and lose 165.
Curse of Sockalexis…
Not meant to be anywhere near as darkly humorous as Boston’s celebrated “Curse of the Bambino” or the Chicago Cubs’ concerns about curses related to a billy goat or a reviled fan named Bartman, a curse from the late Native American political activist Russell Means was put on the Cleveland Indians baseball team for its inappropriate nickname and racist caricature logo/mascot, Chief Wahoo.
Skowhegan adults desperately need a mascot lesson. Students could teach it to them
Recently, a friend of mine, who was an anti-Vietnam War activist, had a surprising message for me, concerning my involvement in a now six-year campaign to end the use of Native American nicknames and mascots in my home state of Maine.
Sockalexis Again
So, you probably heard that Toronto Blue Jays announcing legend Jerry Howarth will not say "Indians," when referring to Cleveland's baseball team during this year's American League Championship Series. He apparently has refused to use the word since 1992, when he received an eloquent letter from a Native American about the hurt caused by such nicknames.
Maine’s do-nothing Board of Education needs to take on school mascot disrespect
know many conservatives revere the notion of “local control.” But I believe here in Maine, probably as a direct result of five combative, wholly divisive years of ultra-conservative LePage administration policies, we have come face to face with a very sinister version of this philosophy that merely allows elected officials to ignore injustice and abrogate governmental responsibility.