Shortly after graduating from Emmett Scott in 1955, Cathcart moved first to Charlotte, NC, and a year later to Plainfield, NJ, to pursue his lifelong baseball dream. But the major and minor leagues were still mostly segregated in the 1950s, so Cathcart and his cousin played semiprofessional ball in the region. It was during this period that Cathcart met retired Dodger pitcher Joe Black, the first African American to win a World Series game.

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Black took Cathcart and his cousin under his wing, helping them both refine their baseball skills. In 1959 when the Brooklyn star formed the Joe Black National League All Stars, an integrated professional barnstorming team that played other clubs in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, he invited the two young men to join him. Cathcart pitched for two years with the All Stars before being drafted into the military. After serving two years, Cathcart returned to New Jersey. The All Stars had disbanded during this time, so he played semiprofessional ball briefly but as he had a family to support his dream of playing for the Dodgers came to an end.

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Cathcart visited his parents regularly while living in New Jersey, and in 1992 decided to move back to the family farm. He had helped children in the Garden State learn to plant and cultivate as a way of connecting urban youth to the soil and decided to implement a similar program shortly after arriving back home to South Carolina. Brother Wali, as he came to be called by the children, continues to work with young people today. He is committed to helping them understand how essential it is to know about the Black experience in America. To do otherwise “would mean a return to slavery in body, in spirit, or both.”