Batting average .324 Role Baseball player Name Walt McCredie | Runs batted in 20 Home runs 0 | |
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Died July 29, 1934, Portland, Oregon, United States | ||
Walter Henry McCredie (November 9, 1876 in Manchester, Iowa – July 29, 1934 in Portland, Oregon), was a professional baseball player who played outfield for the Brooklyn Superbas during the 1903 baseball season. He managed for 18 years in the minor leagues, from 1905-1921 and 1934, 17 years of which was for the Portland Beavers, and one year of which (1917) was with the Salt Lake City Bees, both of the Pacific Coast League.
Views on the baseball color line
While serving as manager, McCredie consistently tested baseball's unwritten rule of barring African Americans and certain minorities from organized professional baseball. McCredie often paid Negro league baseball teams to play against his teams in spring training. In 1914 McCredie signed Lang Akana who was born in Hawaii and of Chinese descent. According to The Oregonian several Pacific Coast League players said they would boycott games if Akana played for the Beavers. McCreidie released him after a few weeks, but told The Oregonian that "I don't think the color of skin ought to be a barrier in baseball ... Here in the Pacific Coast League we have a Mexican and a Hawaiian and yet the laws of baseball bar Negroes from organized diamonds ... The crack Negro ballplayer should not be thus discriminated against. He is welcome in nearly every other branch of athletics."