AMERICAN INDIAN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYERS

Every Major League Baseball Player who was an American Indian | Baseball Almanac

On April 22, 1897 Louis Sockalexis became the first American Indian to become a Major League ballplayer with the National League Cleveland Spiders.

Six years later Chief Bender became the first American Indian in the American League and one of two (Zack Wheat is the other) American Indians enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame to date.

The set of research immediately below is a comprehensive list of former Major League Baseball players who were also verifiable full-blooded American Indians.

NOTE: MLB players with a fraction of Native American blood are also included, at the bottom of this research, in the Fast Facts section. Research by Baseball Almanac.

Baseball Almanac Top Quote

"The reason I went into baseball as a profession was that when I left school, baseball offered me the best opportunity both for money and achievement. I adopted it because I played baseball better than I could do anything else, because the life and the game appealed to me and because there was so little of racial prejudice in the game. There has been scarcely a trace of sentiment against me on account of birth. I have been treated the same as other men." - Chief Bender in the Ottawa Citizen (Charles Albert, It's Man To Man In Baseball Says Chief Bender Of Athletics, 09/22/1911, Page 8)

American Indian Major League Baseball Players

by Baseball Almanac

1. Louis Sockalexis Penobscot 04-22-1897 05-13-1899
2. Bill Phyle Lakota 09-17-1898 09-15-1906
3. Chief Bender Ojibwe 04-20-1903 07-21-1925
4. Ed Pinnance Ojibwe 09-14-1903 09-29-1903
5. Lou Bruce Mohawk 06-22-1904 10-10-1904
6. Louis LeRoy Seneca 09-22-1905 04-20-1910
7. Frank Jude Ojibwe 07-09-1906 10-07-1906
8. Ed Summers Kickapoo 04-16-1908 06-01-1912
9. Chief Meyers Cahuilla 04-15-1909 10-04-1917
10. Chief Chouneau Ojibwe 10-09-1910 10-09-1910
11. Paddy Mayes Creek 06-11-1911 06-18-1911
12. Mike Balenti Cheyenne 07-19-1911 09-22-1913
13. Frank Harter Cherokee 08-31-1912 06-09-1914
14. Jim Thorpe Fox & Sac 04-14-1913 09-25-1919
15. Chief Johnson Winnebago 04-16-1913 09-30-1915
16. Ben Tincup Cherokee 05-22-1914 09-15-1928
17. Jim Bluejacket Cherokee 08-06-1914 07-16-1916
18. Mack Wheat Cherokee 04-14-1915 06-06-1921
19. William Marriott Cherokee 09-06-1917 04-28-1927
20. Virgil Cheeves Cherokee 09-07-1920 05-13-1927
21. Jesse Petty Cherokee 04-14-1921 09-28-1930
22. Chief Yellow Horse Pawnee 04-15-1921 10-01-1922
23. Chief Youngblood Choctaw 07-16-1922 07-31-1922
24. Ike Kahdot Potowatomie 09-05-1922 09-21-1922
25. Homer Blankenship Cherokee 09-06-1922 09-27-1928
26. Emmett Bowles Potowatomie 09-12-1922 09-12-1922
27. Pryor McBee Choctaw 05-22-1926 05-22-1926
28. Pepper Martin Osage 04-16-1928 10-01-1944
29. Art Daney Choctaw 05-25-1928 05-25-1928
30. Roy Johnson Cherokee 04-18-1929 04-27-1938
31. Chief Hogsett Cherokee 09-18-1929 06-03-1944
32. Bob Johnson Cherokee 04-12-1933 09-23-1945
33. Euel Moore Chickasaw 07-08-1934 07-26-1936
34. Rudy York Cherokee 08-22-1934 09-20-1948
35. Vallie Eaves Cherokee 09-12-1935 04-26-1942
36. Bob Neighbors Cherokee 09-16-1939 09-30-1939
37. Allie Reynolds Muscogee 09-17-1942 09-25-1954
38. Cal McLish Choctaw 05-13-1944 07-14-1964
39. Charlie Cozart Cherokee 04-17-1945 06-14-1945
40. Jess Pike Creek 04-18-1946 05-18-1946
41. Pat Cooper Choctaw 05-11-1946 09-06-1947
42. Jim Gladd Cherokee 09-09-1946 09-29-1946
43. Jack Aker Potowatomie 05-03-1964 09-27-1974
44. Gene Locklear Lumbee 04-05-1973 10-02-1977
45. Dwight Lowry Lumbee 04-03-1984 04-23-1988
46. Kyle Lohse Nomlaki Wintun 06-22-2001 07-19-2016
47. Bobby Madritsch Lakota 07-22-2004 04-06-2005
48. Jacoby Ellsbury Navajo 06-30-2007 10-17-2017
49. Joba Chamberlain Winnebago 08-07-2007 07-01-2016
50. Dallas Beeler Chickasaw 06-28-2014 07-28-2015
51. Ryan Helsley Cherokee 04-16-2019 Active
52. Brandon Bailey Chickasaw 07-26-2020 Active
American Indian MLB Players | Research by Baseball Almanac
Sources : Dictionary of North American Indians (Internet)
               : 60 Feet Six Inches by Todd Fuller (2002)
               : The Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball (1999)
               : The Library of Congress (Internet)
               : James Locklear (Locklear / Lowry Publicist)
               : Richard Green (Tribal Historian Chickasaw Nation)
               : Rod Nelson (SABR Scouts Historian)
               : New York Times (Confirmation of recent [2004-07] names)
               : REP1 Baseball (Brandon Bailey)
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baseball almanac fast facts

There are fourteen former ballplayers who were either commonly called "chief" or simply nicknamed "chief" and in the Encyclopedia of North American Indians they wrote, "It is worth pointing out that while American Indian ballplayers were nearly always called 'Chief,' this nickname was used much less often among Indians themselves. John 'Chief' Meyers, for example, a Mission Indian who played against Bender, referred to him as Charlie."

Did you know that the words King Gustav V of Sweden spoke in the 1912 Olympics — "You sir, are the greatest athlete in the world." — are inscribed on Jim Thorpe's rose granite sarcophagus?

1903 Fort Spokane Baseball Team
1903 Fort Spokane Baseball Team
1908 Skitwish Boys Baseball Team
1908 Skitwish Boys Baseball Team
1912 Tulalip Indian School Baseball Team
1912 Tulalip Indian School Baseball Team

Tribes have a LONG tradition of playing baseball, both on an off the reservation (as illustrated by some of the classic pre-1913 photos seen above). Other players have had a fraction of Native American blood including, but not limited to: Lane Adams, Gene Bearden, Johnny Bench, Howie Fox, Nippy Jones, Ernie Koy, Roy Meeker, Willie Stargell, Joseph Tipton, Jim Toy (possibly the first part-Indian player to make it to the Major Leagues), Thurman Tucker, Virgil Trucks, Zack Wheat, and Early Wynn.