Sockalexis played a total of 94 games with Cleveland Spiders (then in the
National League) in 1897-1899. His lifetime stats are: batting average .313,
hit 3 HRs, 8 triples, and 12 doubles, and had 55 RBI. His best year was the
year he broke in, 1897, when in 66 games he hit .338, drove in 42 runs,
scored 43, and stole 16 bases. Source: _The Baseball Encyclopedia_ (8th
edition, "The Complete and Official Record of Major League Baseball." NY:
Macmillan, 1990), p. 1474
Sockalexis, who seems to have been the first Indain in major league baseball,
was considered by many at the time to have had the potential to have been
one of the best ever. But he was introduced to alcohol during that first year,
and rapidly became an alcoholic. His career disintegrated after that, although
not immediately. Before Cleveland, Sockalexis attended Holy Cross College
(MA.) and compiled very impressive stats. (Source: S.I. Thompson, "The
American Indian in the Major Leagues," _Baseball Research Journal_
(Twelfth Annual Historical and Statistical Review of the Society for American
Baseball Research [SABR], 1983), pp. 1-2.
Re: Cleveland Indians' earlier names.Thompson (same source as above) gives
a sequence like this:
1899 Cleveland Spiders National League
1900 ??
1901 Cleveland Bronchos American League
1902-1904 Cleveland Blues [ditto]
1905-1911 Cleveland Naps [ditto]
("Naps" referred to the team's current star, Napoleon Lajoie)
1912-1914 Cleveland Molly Maguires American League
1915 to present Cleveland Indians [ditto]
All this is according to S.I. Thompson's article. Thompson and several other
standard team histories (F. Lewis, _The Cleveland Indians_; J. Brannon,
_Cleveland Indians_ ) agree that a Cleveland newspaper held a contest for a
new name for the team after the 1914 season, and that a fan suggested
"Indians" because of, to quote Thompson, "Sockalexis' one brilliant season."
Roger Walke <rwalke@crs.loc.gov>
Library of Congress