Charlie Grant - Tokohama

Tokohama

After spending 1900 with Columbia, Grant was working as a bellhop at the Eastland Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas in March 1901. John McGraw and the new American League's Baltimore Orioles began training that season in Hot Springs and staying at the Eastland. McGraw saw Grant playing baseball with his co-workers around the hotel and recognized that Grant had a level of talent suitable for the major leagues. McGraw decided to disguise the light-skinned, straight-haired Grant as a Cherokee and gave him the name Charlie Tokohama, anecdotally after noticing a creek named "Tokohama" on a map in the hotel.

McGraw's scheme began unravelling when the team travelled to Chicago, where Grant had played for the previous few years. To celebrate Grant's return, his African American friends staged a conspicuous ceremony, including a flower bouquet. Chicago White Sox President Charles Comiskey soon objected to "Tokohama" and affirmed that he was actually Grant. Grant maintained his disguise, claiming that his father was white and that his mother was Cherokee and living in Lawrence, Kansas. McGraw initially persisted but later claimed that "Tokohama" was inexperienced, especially on defense, and left him off his Opening Day roster. Grant returned to the Columbia Giants and never played in the major leagues.