The Jet

[GeoPoto]

Jethroe seemed to have been welcomed by Braves fans. “The people in Boston were crazy about me,” he remembered later. “Everyone crowded around me for autographs after my first game. There was this woman who wanted to take me to dinner. A white woman. I didn’t do it because I figured that was one of the reasons they didn’t want us in the majors to begin with.” Jethroe had been married since November 11, 1942 to Elsie Allen, whom he had met that year at a dance in Erie, Pennsylvania.

There was no indication that Jethroe received any razzing at Braves Field. In early 2015, there remained a few fans who had seen Jethroe break in with the Braves more than 60 years earlier. None recall racial slurs or even muttering at Braves Field. In fact, the opposite seemed to be true. A young Braves fan named Mort Bloomberg remembered, “A wave of excitement rose from the stands when he stepped to the plate (even noticeable when attendance fell sharply) because he was our hometown answer to Jackie Robinson–a self-assured threat to steal one or more bases each time he reached first…Boos when he came to bat? Never. We just wanted to see Sammy run.”

A story in July 1950 showed that the Boston press was picking up on Braves fans’ affection for Jethroe. “Fans of Wigwam Sing Sam’s Song” was the headline on George C. Carens’ article in the Traveler. It was his base-stealing ability that captured the imagination. Yes, it was fine that Gordon, Torgeson, and Bob Elliott already had a combined 40 homers, “but the faithful followers are not happy until Sam Jethroe gets aboard. The hum when he comes up to the plate is based on the hope that he will become a base-runner…when the subject changes to the Negro center fielder’s fancy footwork on the basepaths, everyone switches to superlatives. Thousands breathe the hope that Sam can show his stuff…the sensational sorties of Jethroe have Boston all a-quiver.”

Jack Barnes worked briefly as a vendor at Braves Field, but went to many more games as a teenage fan. He recalled more than 60 years later, “We never had too many full houses at Braves Field – maybe there’d be 10 or 12,000 of us there – but the racial question, I’m gonna tell you, there was never anybody booing or hissing Sam. We loved him. Everybody would chant, ‘Go, Sam, go.’ Sam the Jet at Braves Field was a hero. Everybody loved to see Sam run. He brought some life to the ball team. We weren’t a very fast team and he was a breath of fresh air to us. I went to a lot of games when Sam was playing and I never heard anybody…I never heard any racial slurs, or anything but admiration for Sam the Jet . Everybody loved Sam the Jet. I sat in those stands many times. I was a teenager and I was listening, and boy there was nobody booing Sam the Jet. The drunks were there at all the ballgames and they’d be raising their beer and toasting Sam as he was stealing second base. ‘Hey, Sam!!!’”

Frank McNulty worked as the visiting team’s batboy at Braves Field from 1945 through 1949, with his first year as home batboy being 1950. Had he recalled hearing any negativity from the stands? “I don’t remember anything from the general public, anything close to discrimination.”

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