The intense stare of Moses Fleetwood Walker, the first African-American major league baseball player, is back in a Toledo baseball stadium.

His portrait now gazes at Fifth Third Field from a sign designating the corner of Huron and Washington streets as Moses Fleetwood Walker Square.

Mayor Jack Ford helped a group of children pull the cover off the sign yesterday for the dedication.

“Any youngster who is walking down the street who happens to see this sign will be educated on the spot,” Mr. Ford said.

Mr. Walker played catcher barehanded for the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1883. His skill helped Toledo win the minor league championship that year. The following year, renamed the Toledos, the club joined the American Association, the major leagues of the era, for one season.

A better-than-average hitter, with a powerful throwing arm, and extraordinary catching ability, Mr. Walker was accepted by the fans and the press in Toledo, said Walter Johnson, a member of the Toledo Mud Hens Baseball Club board of directors. He attended yesterday's dedication.

But many of the white players didn't want to play with blacks, he said.

“It wasn't just the owners. They wanted the best players they could get. It was the players mostly that had a problem with it,” Mr. Johnson said. “They saw the competition.”

By 1889, blacks were uniformly barred from the high minor leagues and the major leagues, and it stayed in effect until 1947 when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers.

City Council approved the honorary renaming of the corner on Sept. 10. The measure was sponsored by Council President Peter Ujvagi.

Mr. Ujvagi said the city has applied for an Ohio Bicentennial Commission marker, which would replace the sign placed yesterday.

Born in 1857 in Steubenville, Ohio, Mr. Walker also played for Oberlin College and the University of Michigan. He died May 11, 1924, and is buried in Union Cemetery in Steubenville, Ohio.

First Published October 2, 2002, 10:36 a.m.