A native of Mount Pleasant, Ohio, and a star athlete at Oberlin College as well as the University of Michigan, Walker played for semi-professional and minor league baseball clubs before joining the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association (AA) for the 1884 season.

Moses Fleetwood Walker was born in 1856 in Mount Pleasant, a working-class town in Eastern Ohio that had served as a sanctuary for runaway slaves since 1815.

[4] According to Walker's biographer David W. Zang, his father came to Ohio from Pennsylvania, likely a beneficiary of Quaker patronage, and married O'Harra, who was a native of the state, on June 11, 1843.

[10] Walker gained stardom and was mentioned in the school newspaper, The Oberlin Review, for his ball-handling and ability to hit long home runs.

[7][12] By Oberlin pitcher Harlan Burket's account, Walker's performance in the season finale persuaded the University of Michigan to recruit him to their own program.

[14] During his time at Michigan, Walker was paid by the White Sewing Machine Company of Cleveland to play for their semi-professional ball club in August 1881.

[16] More issues arose during game time: members of the Louisville Eclipse protested Walker's participation; Cleveland relented and held him out of the lineup.

[17] In mid-1883, Walker left his studies at Michigan and was signed to his first professional baseball contract by William Voltz, manager of the Toledo Blue Stockings, a Northwestern League team.

[18] Although Walker hit in decent numbers, recording a .251 batting average, he became revered for his play behind the plate and his durability during an era where catchers wore little to no protective equipment and injuries were frequent.

The Blue Stockings' ball boy recalled Walker "occasionally wore ordinary lambskin gloves with the fingers slit and slightly padded in the palm; more often he caught barehanded".

At the core of the team's success, one sportswriter at Sporting Life pointed out, were Walker and pitcher Hank O'Day, which he considered "one of the most remarkable batteries in the country.

In response, Charlie Morton, who replaced Voltz as Toledo's manager at mid-season, challenged Anson's ultimatum by not only warning him of the risk of forfeiting gate receipts, but also by starting Walker at right field.

[citation needed] Walker's first appearance as a major league ballplayer was an away game against the Louisville Eclipse on May 1, 1884; he went hitless in three at-bats and committed four errors in a 5–1 loss.

The rest of the team was also hampered by numerous injuries: circumstances led to Walker's brother, Weldy, joining the Blue Stockings for six games in the outfield.

Richmond did not want to face Walker, so they penned a letter to the Blue Stockings manager, stating, "We hope you will listen to our words of warning, so there will be no trouble, and if you do not, there certainly will be."

[28] Billed as the "Spanish battery" by fans, Stovey recorded 35 wins in the season, while Walker posted career highs in games played, fielding percentage, and BA.

Although he slumped at the plate during his two years playing for the Stars, he was popular among Syracuse fans, so much so that Walker was their unofficial spokesman and established business ties in the city.

[37] After his release during the turn of the century, Walker jointly owned the Union Hotel in Steubenville with Weldy and managed the Opera House, a movie theater in nearby Cadiz.

Regarded as "the most learned book a professional athlete ever wrote," Our Home Colony shared Walker's thesis on the victimization of the black race and a proposal for African-Americans to emigrate back to Africa.

[41] In 2007, researcher Pete Morris discovered that another ball player, the formerly enslaved William Edward White, actually played a single game for the Providence Grays around five years before Walker debuted for the Blue Stockings.