First-Known Native American Player?

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.

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!

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.

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.

Ed Rice was home doing chores on Jan. 16 when an envelope arrived via FedEx. What he found inside, he said, made his jaw drop. Rice, the author of a book about legendary Indian Island baseball player Louis Sockalexis, who played in 94 games for the Cleveland Spiders from 1897 to 1899, now has what he believes to be the most compelling piece of evidence that Sockalexis was in fact the first American Indian to play major league baseball.