Post by Okwes on Jan 28, 2006 11:57:12 GMT -5
Record may prove man's status in baseball history
Thursday, January 26, 2006 - Bangor Daily News
www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=127766
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.
Although Rice wrote "Baseball's First Indian-Louis Sockalexis:
Penobscot Legend, Cleveland Indian" to make a case for Sockalexis, he
did not have solid proof that the Penobscot Indian was the first. He
believes he has that now in the form of the 1919 death certificate of
James Madison Toy, who is currently recognized as the first American
Indian to play professionally.
The delivery of a copy of that document caused Rice to set aside his
chores that afternoon. On the death certificate, Toy's race is listed
as white.
Information about Toy's father included on the death certificate
makes Rice confident he has all the evidence he needs to prove that
Sockalexis' name should be restored after a National Baseball Hall of
Fame historian proclaimed Toy, who was said to be a Sioux Indian, was
the first American Indian to play professionally in a 1963 paper.
"I want to turn this argument around," Rice said. "It's 43 years of a
hoax as far as I'm concerned. It wasn't a deliberate hoax, but it was
a hoax. A document puts me on the offensive rather than the
defensive."
The offensive for Rice will likely mean notifying the Hall of Fame of
his discovery. Rice is in contact with a number of people there,
including librarian Jim Gates. Rice, who is teaching journalism
classes at the University of Maine, has called a press conference for
1:30 p.m. today at the UM campus to announce his findings.
Hall of Fame Director of Research Tim Wiles declined to comment on
Rice's findings. Spokesman Brad Horn said the Hall would look at the
death certificate when Rice sends a copy to Cooperstown.
"As a research institute we always like to look at new information,"
Horn said. "We'd like to take a look at everything that is a part of
baseball history."
It's unlikely the Hall of Fame would make any proclamation about
Sockalexis, Horn added, but his picture and information could be
displayed in the museum if an exhibition calls for them.
"It's not our job to do that," Horn said. "Our job is to present the
history of the game."
The copy of the death certificate will go into the Hall's library
files about Sockalexis, Toy and American Indians in baseball.
Rice has said he doesn't dispute that Toy may have had Indian blood -
many people do, he said - but it was likely that Toy was never
subjected to the daily prejudices that Sockalexis faced at the
ballpark.
Sockalexis had a bright but brief career playing outfield for the
Spiders, as the Cleveland team was then known, and batted .328
through July 3, 1897, to rank behind future Hall of Famers Honus
Wagner and Big Ed Delehanty.
He was out of major league baseball two years later because of
injuries and alcohol abuse and died in 1913.
Toy played from April 20, 1887, through July 30, 1890, and had a .222
career batting average. Sockalexis' career batting average was .313,
according to the CNN/SI.com Web site.
Rice's breakthrough - the discovery that Toy had died in a different
town in Pennsylvania than Rice had believed based on his research for
the book - came just a few weeks ago.
Ever since the book was published in 2003, Rice has talked to
different groups around Maine about Sockalexis' story. He spoke last
June at a symposium in Cooperstown, N.Y., the site of the Hall of
Fame.
After he met with members of the Bangor Rotary in early December,
Rice was approached by Michael Palmer.
Palmer, the vice president and general manager of Bangor television
station WVII, is interested in baseball and genealogy and told the
author about a number of different research routes Rice could have
taken.
In his research about Toy, Rice found that he was born in Beaver
Falls, Pa., and was buried there, but Rice's understanding was that
the records had been destroyed in a town office fire in the 1920s.
Working on his own, Palmer found that Toy had died in the town of
Cresson, Pa., and not Beaver Falls. According to www.baseball-
reference.com, Toy died in Cresson.
Palmer notified Rice who contacted the town and the Pennsylvania
Division of Vital Records.
Rice found he could get a copy of Toy's death certificate, but only
if he was related to Toy. He marked on the form that he was kin and
submitted it electronically to the records department. When an
official called a few hours later to find out how he was related to
Toy, Rice lied and said he was a great-great cousin in Maine.
"I just took a deep breath and thought, if there's a record, God, why
aren't I entitled to get it out there into the public domain?" Rice
said. "I don't see that I'm doing harm other than I'm trying to get
my hands on a record once and for all."
The death certificate arrived a few days later on the Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. holiday._Rice was home preparing for the next
semester of classes he was to teach and catching up on housework when
he sat down and read the document.
The word "white" in the Color or Race section of the death
certificate first caught his eye. Caught off-guard momentarily, it
didn't take Rice long to realize what he was holding in his hands.
"I'm stunned," he said. "I've never had a document in my hands to be
able to say to the folks back at the Baseball Hall of Fame, we've got
to really take another look at this whole James Madison Toy file."
But that wasn't all the death certificate revealed. Through his own
research Rice had unearthed Toy's mother's maiden name and determined
she came from a white family, but Rice was never able to find Toy's
father's name. Now, thanks to the death certificate, he had that.
Toy's father's name was James Toy and the document stated he was born
in Pennsylvania.
James Toy's name disappeared from census records after James Madison
Toy was born in 1858.
Palmer set about researching Toys in other parts of the country who
claimed American Indian heritage. He was unable to find any in the
east or central parts of the U.S., but found some among Ute Indians
in Colorado.
However, plenty of Toys live in Beaver County, Pa. Palmer was unable
to find the exact line from which James Madison Toy was descended,
but he did find that the Toys there were all born in Pennsylvania or
had emigrated from Ireland.
"That is huge," Rice said. "We're talking about a man who is supposed
to be a Sioux Indian. What's a Sioux Indian doing off the reservation
in the early 1800s? This is a grown man who is no longer living with
his people in the Dakota country where the Sioux lived. He's just
wandering around."
Hoping that the Hall of Fame might see it that way, too, Rice intends
to submit what he's found and try again to convince officials in
Cooperstown of his belief that Sockalexis was the first American
Indian to play professional baseball.
Rice plans to submit his new material to national news outlets such
as Sports Illustrated and ESPN, which he said have rejected his story
ideas in the past.
Rice said he doesn't feel vindicated, but having an official piece of
paper strengthens his argument.
"I just wanted to present the idea that Louis was recognized as an
Indian and faced all this prejudice," Rice said. "... I feel as
though we've really flipped the balance on the scales right now. Now
I have a document."
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME
James Madison Toy (above) is currently recognized by the Baseball
Hall of Fame as the first American Indian to play the game. Author Ed
Rice has uncovered a death certificate that lists Toy's race as
white, and hopes that the document will help to prove his assertion
that Louis Sockalexis was the first American Indian in professional
baseball, not Toy.
Thursday, January 26, 2006 - Bangor Daily News
www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=127766
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.
Although Rice wrote "Baseball's First Indian-Louis Sockalexis:
Penobscot Legend, Cleveland Indian" to make a case for Sockalexis, he
did not have solid proof that the Penobscot Indian was the first. He
believes he has that now in the form of the 1919 death certificate of
James Madison Toy, who is currently recognized as the first American
Indian to play professionally.
The delivery of a copy of that document caused Rice to set aside his
chores that afternoon. On the death certificate, Toy's race is listed
as white.
Information about Toy's father included on the death certificate
makes Rice confident he has all the evidence he needs to prove that
Sockalexis' name should be restored after a National Baseball Hall of
Fame historian proclaimed Toy, who was said to be a Sioux Indian, was
the first American Indian to play professionally in a 1963 paper.
"I want to turn this argument around," Rice said. "It's 43 years of a
hoax as far as I'm concerned. It wasn't a deliberate hoax, but it was
a hoax. A document puts me on the offensive rather than the
defensive."
The offensive for Rice will likely mean notifying the Hall of Fame of
his discovery. Rice is in contact with a number of people there,
including librarian Jim Gates. Rice, who is teaching journalism
classes at the University of Maine, has called a press conference for
1:30 p.m. today at the UM campus to announce his findings.
Hall of Fame Director of Research Tim Wiles declined to comment on
Rice's findings. Spokesman Brad Horn said the Hall would look at the
death certificate when Rice sends a copy to Cooperstown.
"As a research institute we always like to look at new information,"
Horn said. "We'd like to take a look at everything that is a part of
baseball history."
It's unlikely the Hall of Fame would make any proclamation about
Sockalexis, Horn added, but his picture and information could be
displayed in the museum if an exhibition calls for them.
"It's not our job to do that," Horn said. "Our job is to present the
history of the game."
The copy of the death certificate will go into the Hall's library
files about Sockalexis, Toy and American Indians in baseball.
Rice has said he doesn't dispute that Toy may have had Indian blood -
many people do, he said - but it was likely that Toy was never
subjected to the daily prejudices that Sockalexis faced at the
ballpark.
Sockalexis had a bright but brief career playing outfield for the
Spiders, as the Cleveland team was then known, and batted .328
through July 3, 1897, to rank behind future Hall of Famers Honus
Wagner and Big Ed Delehanty.
He was out of major league baseball two years later because of
injuries and alcohol abuse and died in 1913.
Toy played from April 20, 1887, through July 30, 1890, and had a .222
career batting average. Sockalexis' career batting average was .313,
according to the CNN/SI.com Web site.
Rice's breakthrough - the discovery that Toy had died in a different
town in Pennsylvania than Rice had believed based on his research for
the book - came just a few weeks ago.
Ever since the book was published in 2003, Rice has talked to
different groups around Maine about Sockalexis' story. He spoke last
June at a symposium in Cooperstown, N.Y., the site of the Hall of
Fame.
After he met with members of the Bangor Rotary in early December,
Rice was approached by Michael Palmer.
Palmer, the vice president and general manager of Bangor television
station WVII, is interested in baseball and genealogy and told the
author about a number of different research routes Rice could have
taken.
In his research about Toy, Rice found that he was born in Beaver
Falls, Pa., and was buried there, but Rice's understanding was that
the records had been destroyed in a town office fire in the 1920s.
Working on his own, Palmer found that Toy had died in the town of
Cresson, Pa., and not Beaver Falls. According to www.baseball-
reference.com, Toy died in Cresson.
Palmer notified Rice who contacted the town and the Pennsylvania
Division of Vital Records.
Rice found he could get a copy of Toy's death certificate, but only
if he was related to Toy. He marked on the form that he was kin and
submitted it electronically to the records department. When an
official called a few hours later to find out how he was related to
Toy, Rice lied and said he was a great-great cousin in Maine.
"I just took a deep breath and thought, if there's a record, God, why
aren't I entitled to get it out there into the public domain?" Rice
said. "I don't see that I'm doing harm other than I'm trying to get
my hands on a record once and for all."
The death certificate arrived a few days later on the Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. holiday._Rice was home preparing for the next
semester of classes he was to teach and catching up on housework when
he sat down and read the document.
The word "white" in the Color or Race section of the death
certificate first caught his eye. Caught off-guard momentarily, it
didn't take Rice long to realize what he was holding in his hands.
"I'm stunned," he said. "I've never had a document in my hands to be
able to say to the folks back at the Baseball Hall of Fame, we've got
to really take another look at this whole James Madison Toy file."
But that wasn't all the death certificate revealed. Through his own
research Rice had unearthed Toy's mother's maiden name and determined
she came from a white family, but Rice was never able to find Toy's
father's name. Now, thanks to the death certificate, he had that.
Toy's father's name was James Toy and the document stated he was born
in Pennsylvania.
James Toy's name disappeared from census records after James Madison
Toy was born in 1858.
Palmer set about researching Toys in other parts of the country who
claimed American Indian heritage. He was unable to find any in the
east or central parts of the U.S., but found some among Ute Indians
in Colorado.
However, plenty of Toys live in Beaver County, Pa. Palmer was unable
to find the exact line from which James Madison Toy was descended,
but he did find that the Toys there were all born in Pennsylvania or
had emigrated from Ireland.
"That is huge," Rice said. "We're talking about a man who is supposed
to be a Sioux Indian. What's a Sioux Indian doing off the reservation
in the early 1800s? This is a grown man who is no longer living with
his people in the Dakota country where the Sioux lived. He's just
wandering around."
Hoping that the Hall of Fame might see it that way, too, Rice intends
to submit what he's found and try again to convince officials in
Cooperstown of his belief that Sockalexis was the first American
Indian to play professional baseball.
Rice plans to submit his new material to national news outlets such
as Sports Illustrated and ESPN, which he said have rejected his story
ideas in the past.
Rice said he doesn't feel vindicated, but having an official piece of
paper strengthens his argument.
"I just wanted to present the idea that Louis was recognized as an
Indian and faced all this prejudice," Rice said. "... I feel as
though we've really flipped the balance on the scales right now. Now
I have a document."
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME
James Madison Toy (above) is currently recognized by the Baseball
Hall of Fame as the first American Indian to play the game. Author Ed
Rice has uncovered a death certificate that lists Toy's race as
white, and hopes that the document will help to prove his assertion
that Louis Sockalexis was the first American Indian in professional
baseball, not Toy.