The focus for my blog posts during this COVID 19 shortened 2020 Major League baseball season has been baseball time capsules from the 1950s. During that decade, the pace of integration in the Major Leagues slowly, but steadily went forward. As a consequence, due to a decrease in its talent pool, Negro League baseball had begun a journey towards extinction by the early 1960s. All of this with the early Civil Rights movement as a back drop.
This week’s post is about Tom
Alston, the first African American to appear in a Major League game for the St.
Louis Cardinals. On May 2, 1954, in a
doubleheader against the New York Giants, the rookie first baseman had the best
game of his short Major League career. In the first game Alston had four hits
including a home run, his third of the young season, and two RBIs. The second game he hit a bases loaded double
(3 RBIs) in the Cardinals’ first inning.
He ended the day batting .313.
In 1947, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers erased Major League baseball’s “invisible color line” that had kept out African American and dark-skinned Latino players since the end of the 19th century. Over the next six years, along with the Dodgers, African American and/or dark-skinned Latinos would play with seven other teams; the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns, New York Giants, Milwaukee Braves, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, and Philadelphia A’s. In 1954, the color line would be erased on four other teams; the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Washington Senators, and St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cardinals, one of the Major League’s most renowned franchises, had been reluctant to accept the changing winds for racial diversity in professional baseball. The progress of racial integration in St. Louis mirrored that of cities in southern states at that time. Many stores and restaurants refused to serve African American customers. Also, the Cardinals were the last Major League team to abolish racially segregated seating at their home stadium. However after buying the team in 1953, new Cardinals' owner August A. Busch, Jr. wanted the team to be reflective of the African American target market for his Budweiser beer.
Born 1/31/26 in Greensboro, North Carolina; Thomas Edison Alston played baseball at North Carolina A & T following a stint in the military. After two minor league seasons on teams coached by former Negro League pitcher Chet Brewer, he caught the Cardinals’ attention while playing for San Diego (Pacific Coast League) in 1953. With Alston having a power hitters’ body (6’, 5” and 210 lbs.) along with good agility for playing first base, the Cardinals paid $100,000 to obtain his contract.
For the first time in the franchise’s history, the 1954 Cardinal team would have African American players; Alston along with pitcher Brook Lawrence and former Negro League pitcher Bill Greason. The 28 year old Alston made his Major League debut on April 13 becoming the first African American to play in a game for the St. Louis Cardinals. Although not as historic, his debut occurred a little more than a month before the 1954 landmark US Supreme Court Brown vs Board of Education ruling (May 17) that struck the first blow in making racial segregation against African Americans unconstitutional.
After a slow start, hitting only .211 in April, Alston hit .411 the first 11 days of May which included that May 2 doubleheader against the New York Giants. However, National League pitchers discovered his weakness; the high inside fastball. After Alston hit .181 in June with no homes runs, the Cardinals sent him to the minor leagues and moved Hall of Fame outfielder Stan Musial to first base. Alston tried regaining his batting stroke in the minor leagues, hitting 21 home runs with 80 RBI playing for AAA Omaha in 1956. However, it never resurfaced for him at the Major League level. In 1955 – 1957, he hit .139 in 25 Cardinal games.
Alston began a battle with mental illness his last season with the Cardinals. Diagnosed as having schizophrenia in 1958, Alston would spend the next 11 years in a North Carolina psychiatric institution. Although not known his rookie season, could Alston’s mental condition have played a role in his inability to handle the pressure of being the Cardinals’ first African American player? That is unclear. However, what is forever clear is that on May 2, 1954 Tom Alston had the best day of his short Major League baseball career.
All pictures via Google Images For my daily historical notices go to Kevin L. Mitchell @Lasttraintocoop
