The Jet

[GeoPoto]

Charlie Grimm had taken over as Braves manager early in the 1952 season and he had once called Jethroe “Sambo,” which didn’t endear him to Jethroe. “Charlie Grimm was a prejudiced man and he didn’t like me,” he told the Globe in 1979.

In 1953, the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee. Jethroe never played for the Milwaukee Braves. On April 13, he was optioned to Toledo on 24-hour recall, but was never recalled. He hit .309 with 28 homers, but with the emergence of Billy Bruton in their outfield the Braves may have felt they were in good enough shape. On the day after Christmas they traded Jethroe, along with five other players and $100,000, to the Pittsburgh Pirates for infielder Danny O’Connell. Clearly, the Braves wanted O’Connell.

Jethroe had one at-bat for Pittsburgh in 1954. Appearing in two games, he played right field for the final two innings of the April 14 game and he pinch hit the next day, in Brooklyn, grounding into a 4-6 force-out at second base. It was his last major-league appearance.

Jethroe spent his last six seasons (1953 through 1958) in the minors, the last five of them with the Toronto Maple Leafs, averaging .280 for those five years. He also styled a little, notably parking his orchid-colored Lincoln in front of the ballpark.

He also spent one more season back in Cuban winter league baseball, 1954-55 with Cienfuegos. And he played semipro ball into the 1970s.

This image portraying six African American ballplayers was taken on March 12, 1953, before a Miami, Florida spring training game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves. From left to right, it includes Jackie Robinson, George Crowe, Joe Black, Sam Jethroe, Roy Campanella and Bill Bruton. Its unquestionable spring training 1953 origin is due to the fact that Bill Bruton played his inaugural and/or rookie season in 1953 with the Milwaukee Braves, even though he is wearing a Boston cap in the illustration along with the two other Braves players (Crowe and Jethroe). So how is this possible? Remarkably, this photograph was taken only a single day before the Boston Braves were officially relocated to Milwaukee! Indeed, on March 13, 1953, Boston Braves owner Lou Perini announced that due to dwindling attendance, he was relocating his Boston Braves from Braves Field to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his team to now play their games at Milwaukee County Stadium. Known as Black Friday to startled Boston fans, they were quickly stripped of their beloved National League franchise, with the Red Sox now the only MLB franchise remaining in Beantown. The photograph depicts six African American MLB ballplayers who only seven years earlier would have never imagined taking part in an MLB photograph.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1684745507

[GeoPoto]

In his life after his playing career, Sam and Elsie operated Jethroe’s Bar and Restaurant, a steakhouse, in Erie, Pennsylvania. The business did well for several years but then in the 1990s the city’s redevelopment authority forced him to sell the property. Sportswriter Jim Auchmutey says he took out a loan and bought another place, but it was in a “tougher part of town where drug-dealing and gunplay are commonplace. Once there was a shooting death inside the bar.” The business declined rapidly, and Jethroe found himself forced to sell off his Rookie of the Year award for $3,500.84. By the end of 1994, after he’d lost his home to fire that November, he was living four blocks away in the bar.

Sam Jethroe came back to Boston twice, in 1992 and 1995, to attend player-fan reunions organized by the Boston Braves Historical Association. After the fire, the BBHA was able to raise over $2,100 and present him a check.

At a gathering in Cleveland to honor Larry Doby, Jethroe told his former Montreal roommate Don Newcombe of the difficulties he was having. Sam and Elsie were living in the bar with two grandchildren, aged 10 and 16.

An attorney friend of Newcombe’s, John Puttock, was present and felt moved to act. The pension rule at the time was that one had to have served four full years in the majors to qualify. Jethroe had three years and seven days of service time. Arguably, Jethroe and several former Negro Leaguers had been deprived of the opportunity to start sooner than they had. “We were held back because of the color of our skin,” said Newcombe.

A class action lawsuit was filed in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania contending that racial discrimination had prevented Jethroe from qualifying and receiving a major-league pension. The major leagues moved to dismiss the suit on the grounds that Jethroe had taken too long to file it, that the statute of limitations had long since expired. The suit was dismissed in October 1996.

Several people appear to have pitched in to help address the problem. One article says that one of Puttock’s friends mentioned the problem to U. S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Illinois), who talked to Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Reinsdorf reportedly persuaded the other owners to create a special fund that was announced in January 1997, providing annual payments of $7,500 to $10,000 to former Negro League players.

Murray Chass of the New York Times wrote that National League president Leonard Coleman and former pitcher Joe Black, who like Jethroe played in both the Negro Leagues and the majors, headed up the committee. Noted Negro League historian Larry Lester provided Major League Baseball with the names of qualified players and their mailing addresses.

“I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of what (the owners) have done,” said Jethroe, who by then had suffered a stroke and had other health issues. It did indeed offer him a little more hope, and a feeling of some validation, in his later years.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1684833837

[Mark17]

All 3 Braves players are wearing jerseys from 1951 in this photo. You can tell by the Brave patch on the right shoulder and the smaller glove patch on the left. Bruton could've been a spring training invitee.

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

This image portraying six African American ballplayers was taken on March 12, 1953, before a Miami, Florida spring training game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves. From left to right, it includes Jackie Robinson, George Crowe, Joe Black, Sam Jethroe, Roy Campanella and Bill Bruton. Its unquestionable spring training 1953 origin is due to the fact that Bill Bruton played his inaugural and/or rookie season in 1953 with the Milwaukee Braves, even though he is wearing a Boston cap in the illustration along with the two other Braves players (Crowe and Jethroe). So how is this possible? Remarkably, this photograph was taken only a single day before the Boston Braves were officially relocated to Milwaukee!
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1684745507

[GeoPoto]

Mark: Thanks for the very interesting response. Assuming you are right, that is a very astute catch. Everything I said was a condensed version of the hype authored by the AH, so I am not offering any of my own research or knowledge. Is it possible that the Braves began spring training wearing last year's uniforms? Be interesting to know if Bruton was in spring training with the Braves in 1952. Seems plausible that he was.

Edited to add: I'm sorry, you said 1951. That's even further away.

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

Mark: Thanks for the very interesting response. Assuming you are right, that is a very astute catch.

I noticed it because I have a 1953 (road) George Crowe jersey. He was one of the pioneers, along with Jethroe and the others in that pic, who came shortly after Jackie to trample the color barrier into oblivion.

[GeoPoto]

Jethroe had always been a forgiving man. Remembering being forced to stay in separate housing from his white teammates back at the beginning, he said, “You get used to it. And you let it go.” And after his teenage grandson, known as Sam Jethroe Jr., was killed by a drunk driver, he appeared in court and asked for mercy for the driver. “I don’t hold grudges,” he said.

On June 16, 2001 Sam Jethroe died of a heart attack in Erie, while he was recovering from pacemaker surgery a couple of weeks earlier.

Elsie Jethroe died on May 17, 2013. She had been preceded in death by their daughter Gloria.

Sam Jethroe’s story is that of a solid if not stellar major leaguer whose fate was to have been born the wrong color for his time and his chosen profession . But if he came to the majors late, it was not quite too late; he was one of the handful of African-American players who followed Robinson and, less gifted than he, still proved that blacks belonged in the middle tier of major leaguers as much as whites did. Boston Globe editor Marty Nolan, in an appreciation of Jethroe written after his death, said it this way: “The lesson in equality Jethroe taught is the civil right to be less than the best.”

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1684918638

[JustinD]

Outstanding photo George!

[olecow]

The latest episode of the Black Diamonds podcast is about Sam "The Jet" Jethroe. I haven't had a chance to listen to it but I'm looking forward to it.