October 7

Fleet Walker (1856)

Brickyard Kennedy (1867)

Bill Walker (1903)
Chuck Klein (1904)
Frank Baumholtz (1918)
Grady Hatton (1922)\
Bud Daley (1932)
Phil Ortega (1939)
Jose Cardenal (1943)
Rich DeLucia (1964)
Evan Longoria (1985)
Kohl Stewart (1994)

Moses Fleetwood "Fleet" Walker is credited as the first African-American to play major league baseball.  A catcher, he appeared in forty-two games for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association in 1884, until rival owners and players demanded that he be removed from the roster.  In those forty-two games, he batted .263/.325/.316.

Right-hander Kohl Robert Stewart made his Twins debut in 2018.  Born and raised in Houston, he was drafted by Minnesota with the fourth pick of the 2013 draft.  He pitched quite well in the low minors, reaching low-A in 2014, high-A in 2015, and AA in 2016.  He started to have control issues, however, and they got worse when he repeated AA in 2017.  He seemed to overcome them in 2018 in AA, made seven appearances in AAA, and then reached the majors in mid-August.  He made four August starts and did not do very well, but did much better in four "primary pitcher" appearances in September. The control issues returned in 2019, however, as he pitched poorly in nine major league appearances and not much better in nineteen starts in Rochester.  He turns twenty-five today.  A year ago, we said, "He doesn't appear to be headed for superstardom, but if he can get the walks down there's no obvious reason he can't be an effective major league pitcher."  We still believe that can happen, but he's already been passed by several pitchers in the Twins organization.  If Kohl Stewart is going to have a good major league career, he'd better get started pretty soon.