One of the forerunners of America’s favorite pastime – and a former Binghamton resident – will soon be honored with a stop on the Downtown Binghamton Freedom Trail.
A memorial honoring Bud Fowler is set to be unveiled ahead of the Binghamton Rumble Ponies game Friday, Sept. 1, near the Mirabito Stadium box office.
Fowler was one of the first Black players to integrate professional baseball in the late 19th century, more than half a century before Jackie Robinson ever swung a bat. Robinson was born six years after Fowler’s death in 1913.
“We all know baseball is as American as apple pie,” said Anne Bailey, history professor at Binghamton University and director of the Harriet Tubman Center for Freedom and Equity. “We’d like civil rights to be as American as apple pie, too.”
“You can have a plaque – there’s nothing wrong with that – but sometimes it’s lost on the wall and people walk right past it,” she continued, highlighting the marker’s prominent location near the flagpole at the corner of Henry and Lewis streets.
Born John W. Jackson Jr. in 1858 in Fort Plain, Fowler was raised in Cooperstown. By his own estimation, he played for more than 60 teams across 22 states and Ontario throughout his two-decade career, much of which occurred before Black players were officially banned from the American, National and minor leagues in 1887.
That same year, Fowler was forced off the Binghamton Bingos, despite being credited as one of the preeminent pitchers and infielders of his era. He batted .350 in 34 games there.
“My skin is against me,” Fowler is quoted as having written in 1895. “The race prejudice is so strong that my Black skin barred me.”
Fowler had first integrated a pro team as a pitcher in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1878. He pitched, caught, played second base, managed and worked to establish Black teams and leagues over the next two decades. Fowler also played two stints with the Binghamton Crickets.
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