Philadelphia Baseball History

Octavius V. Catto was honored today when his statue was unveiled in front of Philadelphia City Hall. Fans of the Ken Burns documentary "Baseball" will recall Catto as being a civil rights leader who attempted to integrate baseball before the professional leagues were founded. Catto worked as an educator. His friend, the principal of the Roberts Vaux Consolidated School, Jacob White, founded an African American baseball team, the Philadelphia Pythians in the 1860s. Catto was the star shortstop of the Pythians.  In 1867, White first attempted to join the Pennsylvania Base Ball Players Association, but was persuaded to withdraw that application on account of racism. Later that year, the Pythians applied to join the National Base Ball Players Association, but was again infamously rebuffed due to the team's racial make-up. This did not deter Catto, who used baseball as a tool to educate African Americans on civil rights. After a game, Catto would take the opportunity to ...

William J. Kovatch, Jr.             In 1947, Jackie Robinson burst on the scene, breaking the color barrier that plagued the major leagues for seventy years.   Adept with the bat and quick on the base path, Robinson helped make the Dodgers perennial contenders and eventually World Champions in 1955.             Robinson’s accomplishments were made possible by Dodger General Manager Branch Rickey, one of the game’s greatest innovators.   Through Robinson, Rickey was exorcizing his own demons.   As the manager of the Ohio Wesleyan University baseball team in the early twentieth century, Rickey’s star catcher was Charles Thomas, the only black player on the team.   Rickey watched as Thomas encountered racism across the Midwest, and was refused lodging during the team’s road trips.   The memory of the mistreatment Thomas suffered haunted Rickey f...