Eddie Klep

Edward Joseph Klep (October 12, 1918-1981) was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. Most notably, Klep became the first white American to play baseball in the Negro leagues when he pitched seven innings for the Cleveland Buckeyes on May 29, 1946, in a game against the American Giants in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

*Klep was featured on the cover of the Spring 2002 issue of "Elysian Fields Quarterly" (

*Singer-songwriter Chuck Brodsky memorialized Klep's time in the Negro leagues in a song entitled, "The Ballad Of Eddie Klepp".
*A few years after Klep's turn with the Buckeyes he was playing baseball at Rockview State Prison in central Pennsylvania.
*Klep died in 1981, in a state home in Los Angeles, of conditions related to long-term alcoholism.

References

*cite journal | author=Gerlach, L. R. | title=Baseball's other "great experiment": Eddie Klep and the integration of the Negro leagues | journal= Journal of Sport History| year=1998| issue=25 | pages= 453–481
*Jonathan Tilove, [http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/tilove030205.html "A Robinson in Reverse, Eddie Klep Integrated the Negro Leagues"] , "Newhouse News Service", March 5, 2005, retrieved October 22, 2006.