Baseball - African American athletes - Blacks in Sports: 1947-1992: The Legacy

Ebony, August, 1992 by Walter Leavy

WHEN Jackie Robinson made his major-league baseball debut at Ebbets Field, he not only broke the color barrier, but he also paved the way for other Black players who, like Robinson, brought new dimensions to the game and redefined the limits of what could be accomplished in the sport.

As the first Black player to join the major leagues in the modern era, Robinson was taunted, ridiculed and had to deal math one racial insult and indignity after another. But he chose to fight back with his performance on the field and earned the Rookie of the Year award with a .297 batting average, 12 home runs and 48 runs batted in.

"Many times Jackie would slide into a base and jump up wiping his face," says Joe Black, who later became one of Robinson's Brooklyn Dodgers teammates. "Fans thought he was wiping perspiration, but in actuality an opposing player had spit in his face. I don't know any other player who could have gone through what he did and been as successful."

Robinson's immediate success led other teams to follow the Dodgers' lead, the first being the Cleveland Indians who signed first baseman/outfielder Larry Doby on july 6,1947, making him the first Black player in the American League. The browning of the major leagues continued at a slow and methodical pace, with teams turning first to the Negro leagues to pluck the best talent. The Dodgers, indians and New York Giants led the way as the only teams who were willing to sign more than a token number of Black players (In 1950, the Dodgers alone had four Black players--Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe and Dan Bankhead). Some teams were so hesitant to add Black players that it took 12 years to fully integrate and it wasn't until the Boston Red Sox signed Elijah (Pumpsie) Green in July 1959 that each major league team had at least one Black player on its roster.

The most dramatic and noticeable element Black players brought to the game was speed. In his first year, Robinson stole a league-leading 29 bases, 15 more than his closest competitor. Perhaps the most memorable example of his speed came when he dramatically stole home during the 1955 World Series against the New York Yankees.

The introduction of faster players to the game forced managers to change their strategies so they could either take advantage of or defense against these speedsters. After Robinson, a host of fleet-of-foot players followed in his footsteps and continued to redefine the limits on the base paths. Sam (The Jet) Jethroe, a Boston Braves speedster, led the National League in stolen bases in 1950 and 1951 with 35 each year, and Bill Bruton took honors in the National League with the most stolen bases in 1953, 1954 and 1955. But their accomplishments didn't compare to the single-season record set by Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Maury Wills, who amazingly stole 104 bases in 1962. Lou Brock broke that record with 118 thefts in 1974, and Rickey Henderson of the Oakland A's erased the St. Louis Cardinals outfielder's mark when he swiped 130 bases in 1982 (Henderson also broke Brock's all-time stolen base record when he stole his 939th base on May 1, 1991).

The blazing speed of Black players wasn't confined to the base paths and was frequently showcased by outfielders like Willie Mays, who demonstrated for the world the value of his speed when he made his amazing over-the-shoulder catch in deep center field during the 1954 World Series to save the game for the New York Giants. Mays, who is considered by many to be the best all-around player in history, was the first major leaguer to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season. During the '50s, he and several other bigname Black stars entered the majors and went onto distinguish themselves throughout the 60s and early 70s.

Besides Mays, that group includes such Hall of Famers as Ernie Banks, Willie McCovey, Cy Young Award winer Bob Gibson and Frank Robinson, who won Rookie of the Year honors in the National League in 1956, and who enjoys the distinction of being the only major leaguer to win the coveted MVP award in both leagues--in the National League as a Cincinnati Red in 1961 and in the American League in 1966 as a member of the Baltimore Orioles. He also is the only Black player to win the "triple crown"--leading the league in batting average (.316), home runs (49) and runs batted in (122) in 1966 (the same year the first Black umpire, Emmett Ashford, joined the majors).

Perhaps the most heralded star of this wave of Black players was Hank Aaron, who persevered and broke the legendary Babe Ruth's "unbreakable" home run record on April 8, 1974, when he hit his 715th homer in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Aaron, who earned only 8,000 a year when he joined the Milwaukee Braves lineup on May 13, 1954, had to contend with death threats and other serious distractions as he closed in on the record, but it was his determination, he says, that allowed him to continue the pursuit and surpass one of the most treasured records in sports.