For the past months I have juggled coaching a
baseball team of eight to twelve years old kids while teaching a course on the
history of Negro League baseball; “Negro League Baseball: The Deep Roots of African Americans in
America’s National Pastime”, and visiting
grandchildren in Texas.
Included in this summer’s curriculum of
the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Kansas, the course
discussed the deep historical roots African Americans have in the sport due to
the Negro League baseball era. Although
he did not play in the Negro Leagues, I briefly mentioned former Major League
player Ed Charles in the introductory section of the course. I wanted to give the students a brief history
of how as a kid I fell in love with baseball.
Edwin Douglas Charles had a part in that history. In my course preparation research, I discovered
Charles had died last March 15th in the East Elmhurst section of the New York
City borough of Queens. The former third baseman was 84 years old.
A baby boomer born and raised in the
Kansas City area, I became a baseball fan through following the Kansas City A’s
in the late 1950s; a team that consistently finished near the bottom of the
American League standings. Much to the
chagrin of Kansas City baseball fans, the A’s functioned as a player
development team for the New York Yankees at that time. They would trade their best players to New
York; Hector Lopez, Harry “Suitcase” Simpson, Roger Maris, Bob Cerv, Ralph
Terry, and Clete Boyer, in exchange for utility players or those past their
prime. I saw Hank Bauer, Don Larson,
Marv Throneberry, Johnny Kucks, Norm Siebern, and other former Yankees dawn an
Athletics uniform. The A’s finished the 1960 season in last place
and were the only Major League team without an African-American or dark-skinned
Latino ballplayer.
In 1961, Charlie Finley purchased the
team and the next season racially diversified it adding to the roster John
Wyatt, Jose Tartabull, Diego Segui, Orlando Pena, Manny Jimenez, and Ed
Charles. A product of the depression era
and post-World War II “Jim Crow” south, born April 29, 1933 in Daytona Beach,
Florida, Charles had been obtained in a trade with the Milwaukee Braves. The team signed him in 1952 while still the
Boston Braves, but for 10 seasons he labored in its minor league system. That included stops at the A to AAA levels in
places such as Jacksonville, Louisville, Wichita, and Vancouver.
Although the “invisible color line” had
been erased, Charles along with other African-American and dark-skinned Latino
players in the 1950s experienced the racial prejudice that existed in professional
baseball’s minor league systems. Overall
he hit .291 in the minor leagues and showed occasional home run power. But Charles played 3rd base, the
position manned during that period by 2-time National League home run leader
and future Hall of Fame inductee (1978) Eddie Mathews. Charles had the versatility to play 2nd
base, but there is no evidence the Braves thought about a shift despite the
inconsistent performances at the position in 1959 and 1960 during Red
Schoendienst’s absence due to illness.
The A’s would finally give Ed Charles, at 29 years old, the opportunity
to prove himself as a Major League player.
Given that opportunity, Ed Charles over
the next five years became an above average, solid ballplayer on a team that
consistently finished near last in the American League. Also, he caught the eye
of a ten year old baseball fan that would hold on to a love for the sport that would
extend beyond the trading card collection years to
more than half a century.
