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Bud Fowler, who was born in the Montgomery County community, was the first Black man in professional, organized baseball. He will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Everybody knows the name of the first Black professional baseball player, right? 

Not so fast. Though Jackie Robinson was the first Black player in Major League Baseball, Bud Fowler, who was born in Fort Plain, had already played professional baseball nearly 70 years earlier.

For that distinction, earned when he took the field for the Lynn, Mass., Oaks of the International Association in 1878, his stellar career as a player and his work as an organizer and promoter of Black baseball teams, Fowler will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.

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