Native American Baseball Players, Part I

We had a funeral for a friend last month. Even though he was 84 and had been in declining health, there’s still sadness over losing someone that so many knew and loved. My friend Bob was a Meskwaki Indian. The Meskwaki Nation is part of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi. The People of the Red Earth.

In life, he was what us baseball people would call a five-tool person. He was smart, funny, good-looking, friendly and trustworthy. There are other good qualities of a person, of course, but you get the general idea. Bob, who also went by the name of Chief, had a huge personality. A lot of people say about a loved one, “He never met a stranger.” With Bob, that was very true.

Several years…