• Charlie Grant nearly broke baseball's color barrier decades before Jackie Robinson when John McGraw disguised him as a Native American named "Charlie Tokohama"?
• Joe Hatten was the Brooklyn Dodgers' Opening Day starting pitcher when Jackie Robinson broke the color line in Major League Baseball on April 15, 1947?

Facts on topics related to Baseball color line

Negro league baseball

• Negro League catcher Biz Mackey was regarded in his prime as superior to Josh Gibson, won two batting titles, and mentored the young Roy Campanella?
• Negro league baseball pitcher Dave Brown disappeared in 1925 after murdering a man in a bar fight, but was rumored to have secretly resumed pitching under the alias "Lefty Wilson"?
• Negro league baseball executive Cum Posey organized the East-West League in 1932, but the league folded before the end of the season?
• writer Robert W. Peterson, whose seminal 1970 book Only the Ball was White called attention to the overlooked history of Negro league baseball, was also a prolific writer of magazine articles for the Boy Scouts of America?

Homestead Grays

• the Homestead Grays were the Negro League world champs every year from 1937 through 1945?

Birmingham Black Barons

• Artie Wilson, who hit .402 in 1948 with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues, is often considered the last professional major league baseball player to bat over .400 for a season?