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Louis "Chief" Sockalexis (born October 24, 1871 on a Penobscot Indian reservation outside Old Town, Maine) was an early Major League Baseball player of Native American descent, having a short trey-season career using the Cleveland Spiders.

Sockalexis attended College of the Holy Cross before transferring to the University of Notre Dame, where he would yet exist as expelled. The extremely gifted jock, Sockalexis would evolve the condition by owning alcoholism that would stay with him a rest of his life.

When existence expelled within 1897 he signed a major league locate a Cleveland Spiders. He posted the .338 batting average and became a fan preferred around Cleveland, although his heritage made him the target of racist derision within more cities. Yet, Sockalexis's alcoholism had him inside pain oftentimes, & he would play just periodically above a next deuce seasons. Fallowing allowing baseball, what happened to Sockalexis is undecipherable; occasionally believe he taught baseball to boys in his old reservation, however a few believe he roamed New England as a transient. He died around 1913 at age 42 of coronary failure.

He is normally believed to become a foremost Native U.s. streaming video player in the majors, however he was actually predated per American Association's James Toy. These are besides ordinarily believed that his popularity led to a Naps existence renamed the Cleveland Indians, but this was the controversial belief & in time refuted per Indians. A title experienced actually been chosen by retiring team captain Napoleon Lajoie and the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1915.

The Baseball Reliquary: The Story of Louis Sockalexis
Biography of the first American Indian ballplayer and pictures of his shrine.

Baseball Library: Lou Sockalexis
Profile and stats of the Penobscot ballplayer.

A Season of Brilliance
Biography of Sockalexis, the first Native American baseball player.


Society: Ethnicity: The Americas: Indigenous: Native Americans: Sports
Society: Ethnicity: The Americas: Indigenous: Native Americans: Tribes, Nations and Bands: P: Penobscot
Sports: Baseball: Major League




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