Jim Toy (baseball)

Infobox MLB retired
name=Jim Toy
position=First baseman/Catcher


bgcolor1=#263473
bgcolor2=#A50024
textcolor1=white
textcolor2=white
bats=Unknown
throws=Unknown
birthdate=September 20 1858
city-state|Beaver Falls|Pennsylvania
deathdate=death date and age|1919|3|13|1858|9|20
city-state|Cresson|Pennsylvania
debutdate= April 20
debutyear= by|1887
debutteam= Cleveland Blues
finaldate= July 30
finalyear= by|1890
finalteam= Brooklyn Gladiators
stat1label=Batting average
stat1value=.211
stat2label=Runs scored
stat2value=67
stat3label=RBIs
stat3value=63
teams=
* Cleveland Blues (by|1887)
* Brooklyn Gladiators (by|1890)
highlights=

James Madison Toy (February 20 1858 – March 13, 1919) was an early Major League Baseball player of Native American descent, having a short two-year career with the Cleveland Blues of the American Association and the Brooklyn Gladiators of the Players League.cite web| title = Jim Toy's Stats | work = retrosheet.org | url=http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/T/Ptoy-j101.htm | accessdate = 2008-05-22 ]

Career

Born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, Jim began his professional baseball career in the International League for the Utica, New York team. He showed his versatility by playing many different positions, as well as having a well known good throwing arm. He helped lead the Utica team to the International League championship in by|1886.cite web| title = Baseball Encyclopedia and the Baseball Hall of Fame: Jim Toy | work = bcshof.org | url=http://www.bcshof.org/halloffamers/toy1998.htm | accessdate = 2008-05-22 ]

This showing earned him a spot on the Cleveland Blues for the by|1887 season, where he played in 109 games, batted .222, and played mainly at first base, but again showed his ability at other positions, including catcher, and all three outfield positions.

Toy played minor league baseball in Brooklyn, New York for the by|1889 and by|1890 seasons, mainly as a catcher. He joined the Gladiators later that season, playing in 44 games, batting .181, and gathering only seven RBI. His career ended after suffering an injury when he was hit with a foul tip in the groin. Because of the lack of modern medical attention, the injury plagued him throughout the rest of his life along with cutting his career short.

First Native American Player?

According to writer Ed Rice, Louis Sockalexis was the first American Indian player in major league baseball. In 1963, baseball writer Lee Allen claimed that James Toy, an early American Association catcher, had a Lakota (Sioux) father. This claim has been proven unfounded by Ed Rice (Baseball's First Indian, Tidemark Press, 2003.) Mr. Rice has located Jim Toy's death certificate, which lists Toy's race as "white." Controversy still remains on this subject, due to the inaccuracy of many birth records during that time period.

Modern historians have become less worried about whether the player is a "full-blooded" Native American, but rather if the player identified and aligned himself socially and culturally with his native people. Sockalexis fits this view of history, unlike Toy, who did not.cite book|last=Fleitz|title=Louis Sockalexis: The First Cleveland Indian | year=2002| pages=p.69]

Jim died at the age of 60 in Cresson, Pennsylvania, and is interred at Beaver Cemetery in Beaver, Pennsylvania.

References

External links

*
*