As a fan of Major League Baseball, I'm happy to see them honor Jackie Robinson every year as he broke the color barrier and paved the way for other black baseball players. One of those gentleman was Bob Trice who is most famous for being the first black player in Philadelphia Athletics history. If you're interested in reading more about Mr. Trice... head over to SABR where you will find a comprehensive biography.
I'm writing this post to celebrate two things. First, I finally added his rookie card to my collection:
1954 Topps #148
I picked this card up on COMC for $2 last summer. Due to poor packaging, the card arrived damaged. There's a giant crease that runs along the top. But other than that, this card is gorgeous. I've always liked the 1954 Topps design, but after holding this card in my hand, it moved up a few spots in my all-time rankings.
The card back is fantastic too:
Bo over at Baseball Cards Come to Life! has singlehandedly gotten me to have a deeper appreciation for card back cartoons over the years. And this post by Night Owl reminded me of just how cool card numbers look when they're housed within baseballs.
Getting back to Mr. Trice, you can see that Topps talks about his time with the U.S. Navy and the Homestead Grays. And although his card back features his minor league statistics, Trice actually played his first game with the Philadelphia A's on September 13th, 1953 at Connie Mack Stadium.
But that's not the game I wanted to focus on in this post. Sixty-eight years ago, on April 24th, 1954... Bob Trice pitched the best game of his MLB career. That day he pitched the only complete game shutout against the mighty New York Yankees. He held both Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle hitless... and even struck out The Commerce Comet twice.
Offensively, he reached base twice that day. Harry Byrd hit him with a pitch in the 5th and in the 7th, Trice hit an infield single. Neither ended up producing any runs. Luckily Joe DeMaestri got the Athletics on the scoreboard with a leadoff home run in the 5th to help secure Trice's 1-0 shutout victory. This wasn't the only time DeMaestri helped Trice. He also hit a home run in Trice's first MLB game.
2015 Topps Tek Signers #102
"I like firsts. Good or bad, they're always memorable." -Ahsoka Tano
Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed researching for it. As a sports fan, I always like examining "firsts". Today's post honors Mr. Trice as being the first black baseball player in A's history... as well as the first and only complete game shutout of his MLB career.
Happy Sunday and sayonara!
I learned a lot about Bob Trice reading this post. I knew the name, but not much about him. I feel like more should be made of the different players who integrated the Major League franchises. Sadly, I belief there were a few teams who were not integrated until the late 1950s.
ReplyDeleteAll of this was new to me!
ReplyDeleteInteresting post, really like the background info on Trice.
ReplyDeleteThose are some great cartoons. The '54 Yankees might have actually been the best Yankee team of that era, and they didn't even win the pennant, so that was a heck of a game for Trice.
ReplyDeleteI always liked those early Topps card backs.
ReplyDeleteAwesome card (despite the unfortunate crease in the mail) and a very informative post, I hadn't known about Trice before reading it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteRoger McDowell wore Number 42 for the Mets to tie it all into the Seinfeld universe. What's your take on the Guardians/Commanders name changes? Long Over due in my opinion. Once again I'd like to bring up John Donaldson as an overlooked Legendary Pioneer/Trailblazer. Thanks for the History Fuji, God Bless!
ReplyDeleteI learned a ton just from reading this! Thanks for sharing and researching!
ReplyDeleteOh wow. Super interesting. Super glad we are honoring these gentlemen! I love firsts as well!
ReplyDeletethe snorting bull - i'm with you on opening the eyes of fans to these players who paved the way for others.
ReplyDeletejon - glad i was able to provide some new baseball information for you
crocodile - thanks. it was fun researching mr. trice
bo - i probably should have taken the time to zoom in on that cartoon, but i had already invested a lot of time into the research
runforekelloggs - you should check out bo's blog. he's always featuring cartoons on vintage cards
sean - thanks. glad i was able to share some new info.
xavier higgins - i believe that if people are offended, then change is needed. one of these days i'll have to dig through my sets and see if i own a card of donaldson.
mollie dalton - thank you for taking the time to read the blog!
sumomenkoman - i've been thinking about collecting a vintage card for as many of these "firsts" as i can accumulate.