My vote is Roy Campanella. He had to prove that Black catchers had the "intelligence" and the guts to handle white pitchers.

I also seem to remember that he was being groomed by the Dodgers to become a manager at the time of his tragedy.

I chose "other," and my vote goes to a little-known player, who never played in the minors, let alone the bigs.

Charles Thomas was an African-American student athlete at Ohio Wesleyan Univerisity. He was the starting catcher on the school's 1904 squad. On a road trip to play against the University of Notre Dame, the team went to check into the Oliver Hotel. Although arrangements have been made well in advance, the room clerk will not allow Thomas to check in. He suggests that Thomas should seek shelter at the town's YMCA. Ohio Wesleyan's team manager checks the YMCA to see if there are enough rooms for the entire team. There aren't. Humiliated, Charles Thomas is in tears and tells teammates he will return to school.

A teammate steps up and convinces the room clerk to allow Thomas to stay in his room until a colored family in town can be found to let Thomas spend the night with him. Once allowed up to the room, the teammate locks the door and refuses to let anyone come for Thomas. Thomas's plight weighs heavily on his teammate, and will stay with him the rest of his life. He remembers Thomas sitting on the room's bed repeating "Black skin, black skin. If I only could rub it off and make it white."

The teammate? Branch Rickey. Clarence Thomas was Rickey's impetus to his efforts to break the color barrier. And therefore I believe his influence on the game of baseball is second only to Jackie Robinson.

http://blackcollegenines.wordpress.c...s_osu_grad.jpg

You were right....guess I never looked, but I'm buying one today:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/161408989172...MakeTrack=true

Puerto Rico is part of the United States of America.

Rube Foster for organizing and getting black baseball started as mainstream and helping African-Americans get an opportunity to play organized baseball on a semi-national stage.
Curt Flood for his reserve clause stance which has helped all baseball players with free agency regardless of race, and indirectly helped the owners reap huge profits , as well as possibly the TV revenue we see today.
Rube Foster had a finite window of influence , but Flood's influence is still felt over 40 years later with every free agent signing and multi billion dollar tv contract. Flood's effect transcends race and time .
Maybe I am giving Flood too much credit but I think he started the snowball rolling that is still rolling today.
I think Aaron should get some nods because he introduced baseball to the south and won over a lot of racial barriers also...but has he had as lasting as an effect on baseball as Rube Foster or Curt Flood? I say no.

BUCK O'NEILL



And Foster

Hank Aaron. Given what he did, he has to be the most underappreciated player in history.

Even if so, he is not African. Same as some Dominicans, Cubans, etc., may have some ancestors that were from Africa, but they are not African either.

Curt Flood -
as a player, he represented all players when he led the charge against the owners and the reserve clause. In essence, he sacrificed himself for all current and future players' livelihood, not only in baseball, but, all other sports fell in line with what Curt Flood started. At the end of the day when the reserve clause was overturned, the players and the owners began to reap larger payouts. Popularity in sports exploded to the upside. Expansion teams were added in baseball, football and basketball began to expand like no other time. IMO, Curt Flood's impact and influence on all sports is impossible to measure.

Steve, I am envious. I'd give anything to go back in time to meet Buck O'Neil. Anything. Every time I watch the Ken Burns documentary, I enjoy his interview segments most of all. Not only was he a great man, and by all accounts a tremendously nice person, he was unmatched as a story teller. When he would talk about Satchel Page and Josh Gibson, it was as if he just watched them play. All those years later, he still had that spark in his eye. The man just loved baseball. One of my favorite recollections of his was when he talked about the first Negro League All Star Game, which I believe was in Chicago. And he talked about how everybody got dressed up to go to the ballpark.

I am so thankful that he lived long enough to recount his memories on film. He left a veritable treasure trove of baseball history for future generations to enjoy. I wish I could have met him. I wish I could have just say with him for an hour to talk about the game. Well, I'd have just listened. I stumbled across a book written by Joe Posnanski called Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America. Have you read it? I can't believe he and O'Neil toured America to watch the game at different stadiums...while he was 94 years old, no less. What an incredible treat that would have been.

When I heard that Mr. O'Neil had died, I wept. He was a mighty fine ball player. Maybe not up to the level of Gibson, or Paige, Cool Papa Bell or Smokey Joe Williams. But if there is a way to elect him as a contributor to the game, or a keeper of the game's spirit, Buck O'Neil should be in Cooperstown. He was a National Treasure, and the game will never see another man like him.

Well said!

Bill I agree with all you said . My favorite Buck moments from Burns' documentary are: 1. Him talking about Jackie Robinson and the gas station and using the restroom . And 2. The sound of a ball hitting a bat that he has only heard 3 times in his life.
Buck is probably the greatest ambassador baseball has ever known but as its most influential person or as a HoFer as a player unfortunately in my opinion no. However it would be great if he could get formal induction into the Hall somehow. Remember what he said when he did not make it in 2006.... He said he was already in the Hall because Satchel and Josh were in the Hall and that was enough for him. What a great guy. I met him once and it was an experience!!

I think Maury Wills deserves serious consideration. He was the Babe Ruth of his time so far as changing the game.

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Derek Jeter.

http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_e...baseballs-best

Aaron

(Shameless card posting)! But I did vote for Rube.

Ken, do you know who the suited man in the background is? If not, could you please email me a large scan of him? Thanks.

Clemente and Walker


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looks like a photobomb 1911-style. He is in the stands.

Doh! I didn't notice that.

I asked because it looks like Jack Johnson - Johnson was associated primarily with Kansas City teams during that period, but these guys were known to show up on teams and in photos, all across the midwest. Finding him with this team would have been historically significant.

May forever be unknown and highly doubted, but some would say baseball's most influential (part) African American was George Herman Ruth.

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...a9cc88316e.jpg

Aaron, and I chose him before looking at everyone else that is saying it. Played in the south during the heyday of the civil rights campaign. The crap he dealt with when he approached/broke the record. His near saint-like demeanor through all of it.

Has anybody tallied up the also rans for this pole? There were quite a few others tallied. Is there a total with the top 10 leading vote getters that weren't on the original list?

Chalk up another vote for Satchel Paige

Buck O'Neil for me.....

http://newtown100.heraldtribune.com/...seball-beyond/

Ok, I did it. Up to this post here are the "also rans" or "others" not listed in the original poll. Note that if you said more than one person, then l didn't count either. If I saw you post twice, the second "mention" didn't count. I'd give this list a good chance of being accurate (either that or I'm f*@&ing with you all and just making this up - nah.... :p)

Hank Aaron - 16
Satchel Paige - 7
Curt Flood - 6
Buck O'Neil - 4
Willie Mays - 3
Frank Robinson - 2

The following had a vote a piece: Josh Gibson, Jim Claxton, Doc Ellis, Pumpsie Green, Larry Doby, Roy Campenella, Clarence Thomas, Maury Wills, Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter.

I'd pick Aaron and F. Robinson.

John

I voted for "Other" with both Hank Aaron and Curt Flood in mind.

Have a nice day,
Steve

Other -
 

Voted 'other' with a tip o' the cap to Hammerin' Hank Aaron

Bob Gibson

Satchel Paige

Probably the greatest showman the game of baseball had ever seen. Legend has it that he regularly outdrew (attendance) MLB games when he pitched and that was sometimes on back to back days for different teams. He was an entertainer and that's what I really think people miss in today's game.

BRAD W------Many thanks and a tip of the hat for beating me to the punch with the name of Mr. Charles Thomas. Many years ago when I read Branch Rickey's story of that poor man crying and tearing at his skin, I starting bawling too. Esoteric choice, yes. Most influential, yes----to the man who counted the most, the man who witnessed the event and was so haunted by it that he determined in his heart and soul that if he ever could do anything about getting Black people allowed to play baseball, he would. According to Arnold Rampersad's fine biography of Jack, Branch Rickey was the coach of the Ohio Wesleyan baseball team. To think that happened in South Bend, Indiana; just 15 miles away from me.

To answer the actual question of the thread, I would join those who selected "OTHER", and fill in the name of Curt Flood.

Every Black athlete and major league baseball player should get down on their knees beside their bed and thank God Almighty for those four men (Thomas, Rickey, Robinson, Flood) on this Thanksgiving Day.

---Brian Powell