Ichiro Suzuki achieved baseball immortality last night, eclipsing the 84-year-old record for hits in a season with hits in his first two at-bats at Safeco Field. The record is the most important historic achievement ever by a Seattle Mariner, mesmerizing the region and easing the bitterness of a dismal season.
Moses Fleetwood Walker played one season, 1884, in the majors, 63 years before Jackie Robinson's debut. Mark Palmer wanders through a cemetery in a southeastern Ohio steel town looking for a man most of the world has forgotten. Years ago, Palmer's grandmother told him the story of the man buried here. That's my uncle, she said, your great-grand uncle. His name was Moses Fleetwood Walker, and he was the first black baseball player in the major leagues. Advertisement Palmer occasionally mentioned this to his boyhood friends.
Who were the first black NBA players? There has been a lot of recent publicity about Jackie Robinson being the first black player in Major League Baseball, thanks to the excellent movie 42 and fine articles such as those by John Kass (ââ42â may open the eyes of a new generation,â Columns, April 14).