A pioneer — with ties to Findlay —gets his due

He was the first Black player in organized baseball. And, for a few years in the 1890s, he played – and operated out of – Findlay, Ohio. His name was Bud Fowler, and this weekend in Cooperstown, he will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Fowler, who died in 1913, will finally be getting his due. Many believe he's overdue. Fowler wasn't one of the first Blacks to play professional baseball, he was the first. His debut came in 1878, at 20 years old, when he played for a team in Massachusetts, the Lynne Live Oaks of the International Association. In Brian McKenna's piece on Fowler for the Society of Baseball Research, the player was described as a pioneer on several fronts. "He was the first to play on integrated teams, typically the only dark face on the roster; in fact, he preferred White clubs because they fielded the best nines and offered the stiffest competition through much of his career," McKenna wrote. "As such, he was the first significant Black player in the United States." He played just about every position, including pitcher and catcher, though he was best known as a middle infielder. But he was more than a player. He was a baseball promoter, someone who worked to push baseball – Black baseball – at stops all over the country. Baseball at the end of 19th century was not quite as organized as it would be even a decade later. A "Gentlemen's agreement" for teams not to hire Blacks for the Major League's came into effect in 1884 after Fleetwood Walker was banned. No Black player appeared in the Majors again until Jackie Robinson in 1947. "He was never held over from one year to the next with a minor league club," McKenna wrote. "Fowler did at least have a chance before Organized Baseball firmly established the color line before the close of the nineteenth century." In 1891, Fowler's baseball journey brought him to Findlay, where McKenna wrote he played for an "independent, integrated team." As he did throughout his career and life, Fowler bounced around to many teams, and many cities, per year. But he returned to Findlay in 1893. It was around that time he became associated with another great Black player – and Findlay native – Grant "Home Run" Johnson. In 1894, Johnson – a shortstop – was said to club 60 homers for the Findlay Sluggers, a team Fowler also was on. Fowler apparently recognized Johnson's talent, and potential drawing power, talking the 20-year old into joining a barnstorming team called the Findlay Colored Western Giants. But McKenna wrote that "the interest just wasn't there." The two were teammates on the Page Fence Giants, a team that is described in Fowler's Baseball Hall of Fame biography as a squad that "would go on to become one of the all-time great Black barnstorming teams." By 1899, Johnson – nearing the end of his playing career – used Findlay as something of a home base for his operations. In the book "Bud Fowler: Baseball's First Black Professional," the late author Jeffrey Michael Laing wrote that "Fowler's resolve to continue in his chosen profession was superhuman." By the end of the 19th century, much of those efforts involved Hancock County. While he – and Johnson – were top-notch ballplayers, they dealt with bigotry and racism, often from their own teammates. Johnson and Fowler had played on an integrated club in Findlay, but by 1899, McKenna wrote, "Despite Fowler's efforts in reorganizing the team, bringing in some solid players and performing the field manager duties, his White teammates wanted him and the other Black players gone." Fowler's business partner, Findlay businessman W.H Drake, acquiesced to those demands, but at the same time, worked with Fowler to create a Black baseball team, The All-American Black Tourists. Laing's book includes a passage from a letter Fowler wrote about his baseball team, and the teams that played in Findlay before. "Dr. Drake and I have purchased old grounds in the heart of the city, and have signed a first-class team," Fowler wrote. "The teams that represented Findlay in the past need no praise. They have always been stronger than most minor league aggregations." The group planned a tour that would stretch west of the Rockies, but soon after, the financing apparently fell apart. Fowler moved on. And on. Despite being a pioneer of the sport, it has taken Fowler a long time to get the recognition he deserved. He was first nominated for Baseball's Hall in 2006 – one of 94 up for consideration as part of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Special Committee on African American Baseball. Fowler did not make the final ballots. Fowler's breakthrough came this year, when he was included on the Early Baseball Era Committee ballot. Fowler – along with the late Negro League legend and baseball ambassador Buck O'Neil – was elected. One of the other interesting points about Fowler is where he was born. He was born John W. Jackson Jr. in White Plain, New York, and actually grew up in Cooperstown. Cooperstown is the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, because of the old story the game was invented there by Civil War Union General Abner Doubleday. Today, that story is generally regarded as mythical. But Fowler's contributions to the game are very real. Like Doubleday, he spent time in Cooperstown. Unlike Doubleday, he really was a pioneer for the sport. This weekend, Fowler comes home, to the Hall. In doing so, he solidifies Cooperstown's pre-Hall of Fame status in baseball history. A status that Findlay shares.