The Negro League baseball history fact for today -
February 7, 2013
Al Smith was born in Kirkwood, Missouri on this
date; 1928. Smith spent two years in
Negro League baseball (1947, 1948) with the Cleveland Buckeyes who the Negro American
League pennant in 1947. He was one of
eight Negro League players that made their Major League debut in 1953. An outfielder and third baseman, Smith had a 12
year Major League career which included playing on the 1954 American League
champion Cleveland Indians and the 1959 American League champion Chicago White
Sox.
Rookie class of 1963
Spring training for Major League baseball teams will
be in full swing by the end of this month.
Baseball fans will be watching to see if any young players will have a
breakout spring and make their Major League debut this summer.
In the spring training camps fifty years ago, there
were young players who would get their first taste of the Major Leagues in 1963. Baseball’s all-time hits leader Pete Rose, 21
years old, was the 1963 National League Rookie of the Year. A 20 year old Joe Morgan played in the first
eight games of his Hall of Fame career that year with the Houston Colt 45’s. Dick
Allen, who was also 21 and would be the 1964 National League Rookie of the
Year, got his first two career RBI’s in the ten games he played in 1963. Three members of the Detroit Tigers 1968
World Series champion made their debut; Willie Horton (played in 20 games and
hit his Major League career home run) was 20 years, Mickey Lolich (won his
first five Major League career games) was 22, and Denny Mclain (won his first
two Major League career games) was 19.
Who was your favorite Major League rookie player? 
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