Walter McCoy

Walter Loreo McCoy (February 20, 1920 – November 10, 2015) was an American Negro league baseball and Minor League Baseball pitcher. Listed at 5' 11" (1.80 m), 172 lbs (78 kg), he batted and threw right handed. Born in Leavenworth, Kansas, McCoy grew up in San Diego, California where he was a sandlot ball star before pitching in the Negro leagues in the mid-1940s. In between, he entered military service in 1942 and earned an MVP Award while pitching on the U.S. Army special services team.<ref name=NLBMuseum>Walter McCoy biography. Negro Leagues Baseball Museum website. Retrieved on January 26, 2019.</ref> Following his discharge in 1945, McCoy played for the Chicago American Giants and Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro leagues in a four-season span from 1945 to 1948. He had decent success before moving to organized baseball in 1949, playing in various Minor League clubs and also in the Mexican League before retiring from baseball in 1955. McCoy spent 1949 with the Visalia Cubs of the California League. Then, in 1950, he became the first black ballplayer to appear in a game for the Sacramento Solons in the AAA Pacific Coast League.