Black Sports : African Americans in Baseball

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Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982)

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, the first player to be inducted from the Negro leagues.

Paige was a right-handed pitcher and was the oldest rookie to play Major League Baseball at the age of 42. He played with the St. Louis Browns until age 47 and represented them in the Major League All-Star Game in both 1952 and 1953. His professional playing career lasted from 1926 until 1966.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satchel_Paige

 

[$$RICH$$]

one of baseball finest too , in a class by himself.

 

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The St. Paul Colored Gophers was a small club of black baseball players formed in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1907. The club lasted only 4 years, as the market in St. Paul was too small. They were not a formal Negro League team, as the Negro League was not created until 1920. However, like other barnstorming teams of the time, they had considerable impact on the desegregation of baseball.
In 1909, the Colored Gophers defeated what was considered to be the most powerful Negro baseball team, the Leland Giants.

Today, the Colored Gophers are rarely mentioned in Negro baseball history, and stats and rosters are hard to find. Twice, the Minnesota Twins have honored them by wearing replica throwback jerseys of the 1909 team. The Twins wore Gophers uniforms at home against Cleveland on July 13, 1997. They wore Gophers uniforms on July 10, 2005 in Kansas City against the Royals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul_Colored_Gophers

 

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"Pumpsie" Green


Elijah Jerry Green (born October 27, 1933 in Oakland, California)

Green now lives in El Cerrito, California, where he grew up and went to high school. He is the brother of Cornell Green, long-time safety for the Dallas Cowboys.

The Boston Red Sox and Racism
With New Owners, Team Confronts Legacy of Intolerance

Pumpsie Green was the first African American to play for the Boston Red Sox. He joined the team in 1959, a dozen years after Jackie Robinson broke the major league color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers....

Oct. 11, 2002 -- The Boston Red Sox were the last major league baseball team to integrate their roster. In 1959 -- 12 years after Jackie Robinson broke the league's color barrier by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers -- the Red Sox brought infielder Pumpsie Green up from the minors.....

..."You can't grow up in America as a sports fan and not recognize the role that baseball played both negatively and positively in the racial history of America," Lucchino says. "And the fact that it took until 1959 for Pumpsie Green to integrate the Sox infield speaks volumes."

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/oct/redsox/

Pumpsie Green with Sharon Robinson (daughter of Jackie Robinson)

 

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AMAZING sis our History runs deep on all four corners