Moses J. "Chief" Yellow Horse (January 28, 1898 – April 10, 1964) was an American
professional baseball
Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world.
Modern professional ...
pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
. He played two seasons in
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
for the
Pittsburgh Pirates, 1921 and 1922. An
Oklahoma native, Yellow Horse, a
Native American from the
Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language:
* Pawnee people
* Pawnee language
Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States:
* Pawnee, Illinois
* Pawnee, Kansas
* Pawnee, Missouri
* Pawnee City, Nebraska ...
tribe, was the first
full-blooded American Indian to have played in the major leagues.
Early life
Yellow Horse was born in
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
(present-day Oklahoma) to Clara and Thomas Yellow Horse in early 1898 (one source lists his given name as "Mose", though all other sources give it as "Moses").
Yellow Horse was a full-blooded Native American since his parents were Native Americans of unmixed ancestry. Additionally, he was ordered to attend a traditional school by the
Indian Agency
In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the government.
Background
The federal regulation of Indian affairs in the United States first included development of t ...
. It was at the
Chilocco Indian Agricultural School that Yellow Horse started his baseball career. In 1917, he performed at a high level for the school, and compiled a
win–loss record
In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of matc ...
of 17–0.
Professional baseball career
After Yellow Horse left Chilocco, he went to pitch for the
Little Rock Travelers
The Little Rock Travelers were an American minor league baseball team located in Little Rock, Arkansas, and members (1902–1910, 1915–1958, 1960–1961) of the Southern Association, which as a Class A, A1 or Double-A circuit was typically two ...
of the minor league
Southern Association
The Southern Association was a higher-level minor league in American organized baseball from 1901 through 1961. For most of its existence, the Southern Association was two steps below the Major Leagues; it was graded Class A (1902–1935), Cla ...
. In 1920, under the tutelage of
Kid Elberfeld
Norman Arthur "Kid" Elberfeld (April 13, 1875 – January 13, 1944) was an American professional baseball shortstop. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies (1898), Cincinnati Reds (1899), Detroit Tigers (1901–1 ...
, he helped the team to its first
championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
.
In 1921, Yellow Horse joined the Pittsburgh Pirates. His major league debut was on April 15 in
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
of
Earl Hamilton. The Pirates won the game 3–1 over
Eppa Rixey
Eppa Rixey Jr. (May 3, 1891 – February 28, 1963), nicknamed "Jephtha", was an American baseball player who played 21 seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds in Major League Baseball from 1912 to 1933 as a left-handed p ...
and the
Cincinnati Reds.
Later that year, he ruptured his arm and had to have surgery. His injury forced him to sit out two months.
The next year, Yellow Horse injured his arm a second time. The injury was purportedly a result of a fall he took while drunk.
Over his two-year stay with the Pirates, Yellow Horse was used primarily as a reliever, and compiled a record of 8 wins and 4 losses.
While with the Pirates, Yellow Horse befriended
Rabbit Maranville
Walter James Vincent "Rabbit" Maranville (November 11, 1891 – January 6, 1954) was an American professional baseball shortstop, second baseman and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates, ...
. The relationship had a profound impact on his life as Maranville introduced Yellow Horse to
alcohol; he began to drink substantial amounts of liquor on a frequent basis. Later in life, Yellow Horse identified himself as an
alcoholic
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...
.
Unable to pitch in the major leagues, either because of his behavior and/or his injuries,
Yellow Horse went to play
minor league baseball. In 1923, he was sent to play with the
Sacramento Senators of the
Pacific Coast League. The next year, he suffered another serious arm injury and Sacramento traded him to
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...
. Shortly thereafter, Fort Worth returned him to Sacramento. He spent two more years with Sacramento when, in January 1926, Sacramento sold Moses to
Omaha. He pitched the final game of his professional career on May 1, 1926.
While Yellow Horse is believed to be the first full-blooded Native American to play major league baseball, there had been previous major league baseball players of Native American ancestry. These included
Louis Sockalexis
Louis Francis Sockalexis (October 24, 1871 – December 24, 1913), nicknamed the Deerfoot of the Diamond, was an American baseball player. Sockalexis played professional baseball in the National League for three seasons, spending his entire c ...
(
Cleveland Spiders
The Cleveland Spiders were an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The team competed at the major league level from 1887 to 1899, first for two seasons as a member of the now-defunct American Association (AA), followed ...
, 1897–1899),
Charles Albert (Chief) Bender (primarily the
Philadelphia Athletics, 1903–1917), and
John (Chief) Meyers (primarily the
New York Giants, 1909–1917).
Alcoholism and later life
By 1923, news of Yellow Horse's drinking problems reached the Pawnee tribal members in Oklahoma. In addition to the physical problems he had as a result of the drinking, this created tension between Yellow Horse and the tribe. After he retired from baseball, he spent the next 18 years working jobs that did not provide him with much disposable income. His continued drinking remained a divider between him and the tribe.
1945 was an important year for Yellow Horse. For unknown reasons, he stopped drinking
cold turkey
"Cold turkey" refers to the abrupt cessation of a substance dependence and the resulting unpleasant experience, as opposed to gradually easing the process through reduction over time or by using replacement medication.
Sudden withdrawal from dru ...
, and was able to find steady work. His first job was with the
Ponca City
Ponca City ( iow, Chína Uhánⁿdhe) is a city in Kay County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The city was named after the Ponca tribe. Ponca City had a population of 25,387 at the time of the 2010 census- and a population of 24,424 in the 2020 ...
farm team, and his second job was with the Oklahoma State Highway Department. Yellow Horse also served as
groundskeeper
Groundskeeping is the activity of tending an area of land for aesthetic or functional purposes, typically in an institutional setting. It includes mowing grass, trimming hedges, pulling weeds, planting flowers, etc. The U.S. Department of Labor e ...
for the Ponca City ballclub in 1947, and coached an all-Indian baseball team. Eventually, his relationship with the tribe improved and he became an honored member; a sports field was named after him in Pawnee, Oklahoma. He was also able to remain sober for the remainder of his life.
Yellow Horse died on April 10, 1964, at the age of 66 in Oklahoma.
Dick Tracy and Yellow Pony
Like Yellow Horse, cartoonist
Chester Gould
Chester Gould (; November 20, 1900 – May 11, 1985) was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the '' Dick Tracy'' comic strip, which he wrote and drew from 1931 to 1977, incorporating numerous colorful and monstrous villains.
...
was also born on the Pawnee reservation. Gould used Yellow Horse in his ''
Dick Tracy''
comic strip as the model for a character named
Yellow Pony. Other than the name, the only real similarity between live model and comic strip character was a big, strong physique.
Statistics
Notes
References
Further reading
*
Weber.eduPoems about Chief Yellow Horse
External links
, o
Baseball Almanac
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yellow Horse, Chief
Major League Baseball pitchers
Pittsburgh Pirates players
Des Moines Boosters players
Little Rock Travelers players
Sacramento Senators players
Omaha Buffaloes players
Baseball players from Oklahoma
20th-century Native Americans
Native American sportspeople
Pawnee people
People from Pawnee, Oklahoma
1898 births
1964 deaths
Dick Tracy