The forgotten chapter in Baseball integration

Eldon Ham’s op ed ‘Chicago’s All-Star ‘game of the century’ in Tuesday’s Sun Times missed an oft overlooked history of the first black players in the Big Leagues.

He correctly gives credit for breaking the color barrier to Branch Ricky and Bill Veeck for playing Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby respectively in early ’47. But he omits Bill DeWitt, Hank Thompson and Willard Brown.

Bill DeWitt one-upped both Rickey and Veeck in '47 by signing two black players, Hank Thompson and Willard Brown to the Majors most Southern team, the lowly St. Louis Browns. He made history on July 20, 1947, by inserting both in the Brownies lineup. Brown even hit the first home run by an American League black player in the Bigs on August 13, ’47, ahead of Larry Doby.

Why has Thompson and Brown’s groundbreaking ’47 season largely been benched in MLB history. Neither fared well and didn’t make it back in ’48 (tho Thompson became a star for the NY Giants starting in ’49). Thompson batted just .256 and Brown a lowly ‘128. Racism among the ironically named Browns didn’t help. When Brown returned to the dugout after his historic homer on August 13, he discovered his bat had been broken.

Their erasure from one of the most important chapters in the civil rights struggle is a shame…didn’t fit the storybook narrative of Rickey, Veeck, Robinson and Doby. The woeful Browns’ owner and their 2 black groundbreakers deserve better.