Jimmy Claxton blazed trails via baseball cards
Those would all be solid, educated guesses, but they would all miss the mark. The first Black player to appear on an American card is likely a name unfamiliar to most fans of the game, even the diehards who study and appreciate baseball history. He was a player who never played in the American League or the National League, but did later play in the Negro Leagues. He would appear on a card as a minor league player despite the fact that his tenure in the Pacific Coast League lasted all of two games.
The player? It was a pitcher named Jimmy Claxton. Though Black players appeared on Cuban baseball cards as early as 1909, Claxton became part of history when his 1916 card appeared.
Who was Jimmy Claxton? Born in a mining town in the Canadian province of British Columbia in 1892, Claxton came from a background that consisted of multiple races and nationalities: Black, Native American, English, Irish and French. According to his biography at the Society for American Baseball Research web site: “Claxton described his ethnic heritage as being Negro, French and Indian on his father’s side, and Irish and English on his mother’s.” Census-takers classified him under a variety of categories. When Claxton registered for the draft during World War I, his official registration card listed him as “Ethiopian.”
Claxton carved out a long career in baseball, but besides the 1916 card, no other baseball cards depicted him, either in or out of a uniform.
If not for that card, Claxton might be completely forgotten. But for collectors of vintage, high-end cards, the Claxton has become highly desired, a holy grail of sorts. Only nine of the cards exist in graded condition, making it a rarity. And perhaps that’s only fitting for this obscure pioneer of Black baseball.
Bruce Markusen is the manager of digital and outreach learning at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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