Friday, October 7, 2022

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)
Alex Cobb (1987)
Mookie Betts (1992)
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.  The Twins allowed him to become a free agent and he signed with Baltimore.  He was on the Orioles' sixty-man roster but did not pitch for them.  He was a free agent again after the season and signed with the Cubs.  He pitched very well in 26 AAA innings, not very well in 1.32 major league innings, but missed most of the season due to injury.  He became a free agent after the season, but did not sign with anyone.  If he's healthy and wants to give it another shot, the chances are that someone would at least take a look at him.  But it appears that he has decided it's time to move on, and so has joined his family business, Stewart Development, in the Houston area.

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