"A biography of Penobscot Indian Louis Sockalexis, who pursued his childhood love of baseball and eventually joined the Major Leagues, where he faced racism and discrimination with humility and courage as the first Native American to play professional baseball."--Provided by publisher.

Louis Sockalexis, a Penobscot Indian from Maine, was one of the greatest college baseball stars of the 1890s. Following his days playing for Holy Cross and Notre Dame, he went directly into the major leagues with Cleveland's National League team in 1897, becoming the first of his race to play in the majors and the first minority athlete to play in the National League. This is a complete biography of Sockalexis, known during his playing days as "Chief of Sockem" and "Deerfoot of the Diamond." For three months, Sockalexis batted well over .300, hit home runs, and made incredible throws from the outfield, but he found it difficult to adjust to playing in the major leagues. He often found himself the object of ridicule and hatred from sportswriters and fans in other cities. Sockalexis began drinking heavily and was suspended by the Cleveland team for playing while intoxicated. His alcoholism brought his career to an unfortunate and premature end in 1899, and he died in 1913 at the age of 42. Shortly after his death, Cleveland's American League team was named the Indians and Chief Wahoo was adopted as its mascot, something that has sparked controversy in recent years and brought attention to Sockalexis once again.

Born in 1871 on Maine's Penobscot Indian reservation and nephew of a chief, Louis Sockalexis became professional baseball's first American Indian player. Ultimately, his prowess on the diamond inspired the name Cleveland's baseball team carries today. Exploring the brilliant but too-brief major league career of the "Deerfoot of the Diamond," Baseball's First Indian follows Sockalexis's rise to the majors, his fall to the minor leagues of New England, and his final return to the reservation in Maine, where he continued to coach baseball and work as an umpire. This fascinating study of the life of Louis Sockalexis is filled with game action and leavened by the flamboyant and colorful stories of 19th century sportswriters who frequently invented what the truth would not supply. It's a treasure for every student of baseball history.

It is our national pastime, a sport as American as apple pie. Yet until now no one has told the story of the Native American who first played it, just 7 years after Wounded Knee and half a century before Jackie Robinson broke the league's color barrier. His name was Louis Francis Sockalexis, grandson of a Penobscot chief. The story goes that he developed his amazing arm throwing rocks across a lake near his home in Old Town, Maine. In 1897, he was signed by the team then known as the Cleveland Spiders and was considered one of the finest 'natural athletes' ever seen in the game until alcohol-and perhaps the mix of fame and racist hatred from some fans-took its toll. Years later, after his near anonymous death, the team would change its name to the Cleveland Indians in his honor. McDonald's vivid writing brings to life the raucous stadiums from the turn of the century, filled with rowdy fans, hard-drinking players, and corrupt team owners with ties to organized crime.

Following an extraordinary debut—17th place in the 1911 Boston Marathon—Penobscot Indian Andrew Sockalexis returned to run a spectacular Boston Marathon on a muddy, rainy course on April 19, 1912. Only twenty years old, running just his third marathon ever, he came in second and narrowly missed breaking the record time for that course. The greatest number of Native Americans ever to represent the United States occurred when Andrew Sockalexis joined Louis Tewanima and the legendary Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. As the American favorite to win the marathon, Sockalexis finished a gallant fourth on a brutally hot day that saw half the participants drop out and one runner die of heat stroke. Ed Rice chronicles the tragically short life of Sockalexis—he died at the age of twenty-seven from tuberculosis—focusing on his running and the races that earned him recognition from the sports community and made him revered at home.

Mainers are known to be fiercely loyal, to their culture, history, and heritage, and to their favorite hometown sports heroes. Many of these heroes have gone on to have legendary careers on the national stage from Louis Sockalexis, the first Native American to play professional baseball, to Joan Benoit Samuelson, the first woman to win gold in an Olympic marathon. There’s Seth Wescott, Olympic gold medal snowboarder; Joey Gamache, junior lightweight world champion boxer, and "Fly Rod" Crosby, Maine's first Registered Maine Guide. For every household name, there are countless local legends that are just as revered. Journalist Nancy Griffin presents a surprising range of athletes in this collection of short profiles and achievements. You’ll find superstars in everything from baseball and hockey to golf, shooting, and harness racing.