List of first black Major League Baseball players
Below is a list of the first black players in Major League Baseball in chronological order, since the abolition of the Baseball color line. During the 1880s, Moses Fleetwood Walker, a black man, had played for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association (his brother Welday Walker also played a few games with the club), and it was essentially against Fleetwood Walker that the line was originally drawn. African-Americans had been excluded from major league baseball since 1884, and from all of professional baseball since 1889.
† | Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame |
Overall
Player | Team | League | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Jackie Robinson † | Brooklyn Dodgers | NL | April 15, 1947 |
Larry Doby † | Cleveland Indians | AL | July 5, 1947 |
Hank Thompson | St. Louis Browns | AL | July 17, 1947 |
Willard Brown † | St. Louis Browns | AL | July 19, 1947 |
Dan Bankhead | Brooklyn Dodgers | NL | August 26, 1947 |
Roy Campanella † | Brooklyn Dodgers | NL | April 20, 1948 |
Satchel Paige † | Cleveland Indians | AL | July 9, 1948 |
Minnie Miñoso | Cleveland Indians | AL | April 19, 1949 |
Don Newcombe | Brooklyn Dodgers | NL | May 20, 1949 |
Monte Irvin † | New York Giants | NL | July 8, 1949 |
Luke Easter | Cleveland Indians | AL | August 11, 1949 |
Sam Jethroe | Boston Braves | NL | April 18, 1950 |
Luis Márquez | Boston Braves | NL | April 18, 1951 |
Ray Noble | New York Giants | NL | |
Artie Wilson | New York Giants | NL | |
Harry Simpson | Cleveland Indians | AL | April 21, 1951 |
Willie Mays † | New York Giants | NL | May 25, 1951 |
Sam Hairston | Chicago White Sox | AL | July 21, 1951 |
Bob Boyd | Chicago White Sox | AL | September 8, 1951 |
Sam Jones | Cleveland Indians | AL | September 22, 1951 |
Johnny Wright was the second black player signed to a contract by the Dodgers, and was on the roster of the 1946 Montreal Royals at the same time as Jackie Robinson.[1]
By team
- Teams are listed by franchise; i.e., teams that relocated to a new city after already breaking the color line are not listed a second time.
- Expansion teams that joined the National and American Leagues after 1961 have been integrated from their first game and are not listed.
Player | Team | League | Date[2] |
---|---|---|---|
Jackie Robinson † | Brooklyn Dodgers | NL | April 15, 1947 |
Larry Doby † | Cleveland Indians | AL | July 5, 1947 |
Hank Thompson | St. Louis Browns | AL | July 17, 1947 |
Hank Thompson | New York Giants | NL | July 8, 1949‡ |
Monte Irvin † | |||
Sam Jethroe | Boston Braves | NL | April 18, 1950 |
Minnie Miñoso | Chicago White Sox | AL | May 1, 1951 |
Bob Trice | Philadelphia Athletics | AL | September 13, 1953 |
Ernie Banks † | Chicago Cubs | NL | September 17, 1953 |
Curt Roberts* | Pittsburgh Pirates | NL | April 13, 1954 |
Tom Alston | St. Louis Cardinals | NL | April 13, 1954 |
Nino Escalera | Cincinnati Reds | NL | April 17, 1954 |
Chuck Harmon[3] | |||
Carlos Paula | Washington Senators | AL | September 6, 1954 |
Elston Howard | New York Yankees | AL | April 14, 1955 |
John Kennedy | Philadelphia Phillies | NL | April 22, 1957 |
Ozzie Virgil, Sr.[4] | Detroit Tigers | AL | June 6, 1958 |
Pumpsie Green | Boston Red Sox | AL | July 21, 1959 |
* Major League Baseball recognizes Curt Roberts as the Pirates' first black player, however Carlos Bernier of Puerto Rico, also a black man, debuted on April 22, 1953.[5]
‡ Thompson and Irvin broke in with the Giants during the same game on July 8, 1949. Hank was the starting third baseman, and Monte pinch hit in the eighth.[1]
See also
References
- 1 2 Men Kleinknecht. "Integration of Baseball After World War II". Society for American Baseball Research.
- ↑ O'Connell, Jack (2007-04-13). "Robinson's many peers follow his lead". MLB.com. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
- ↑ http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100511&content_id=9962586&vkey=news_cin&fext=.jsp&c_id=cin
- ↑ Tygiel, Jules (1983), Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy, New York: Oxford University Press, p. 329, ISBN 0195033000
- ↑ http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/carlos-bernier-more-than-a-footnote-683364/