T he 20th and 21st centuries have experienced several pandemics: the 1918 Spanish Flu, 1957 Asian Flu, 1968 Hong Kong Flu, 1977 Russian Flu, 1997/2003/2018 Avian Flu, 2002 SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), the 2009/2010 H1N1 Flu, and now Coronavirus. All were/are contagious and virulent.

During these stressful times, sports can provide a much needed distraction. In 1918, baseball (the nation’s pastime) and football loomed large in American sports. “President Woodrow Wilson felt that football added to the overall morale of the country.” Fans wore masks to games.

In baseball, flu masks were common among players, umpires, and managers. That year, Major League Baseball cut one month off the end of the season—from 154 games to 130—as Boston became the epicenter of the second wave of the Spanish Flu outbreak due to the combination of soldiers returning from the Great War, public gatherings at Boston’s Fenway Park’s World Series games, a Liberty Loan parade, and a draft registration drive. The famed homerun hitter Babe Ruth came down with the Spanish Flu and was hospitalized, but recovered.

This artwork pays tribute to (1) the 1918 Major League baseball players whose season, like today’s games, was shortened and games cancelled, and (2) to Moses Fleetwood Walker—the first black baseball player in the major leagues. No it wasn’t Jackie Robinson, though he can claim to be the first black MLB player of the 20th century. Walker played one season for the Chicago White Stockings in 1883 as an outfielder, to give his hand a rest from his usual position as catcher—this was before players wore gloves.

Two other black baseball players also preceded Jackie Robinson—Moses Walker’s brother Weldy Wilberforce Walker, and former slave William Edward White (though it wasn’t until 2004 that researchers discovered he was black).

The Messenger was a 20th century political and literary magazine by and for black Americans, published between 1917 and 1928.