Black History Month: Celebrating Wes Covington's Phillies Career
In today's issue, we look back at the Major League career of Wes Covington, the first Black player to receive regular playing time for the Philadelphia Phillies.
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . In 1952, his first year in the Minor Leagues with the Boston Braves organization, Wes Covington played for the Class C Eau Claire Bears in the Northern League. One of his teammates . . . none other than Hank Aaron. The two of them were only teammates in the Minors for one season, as Aaron came up to the Majors with the Braves in 1954 and Covington did not make his MLB debut until 1956. From there, the two both played for the Braves from 1956 until 1961.
Aaron so admired Covington that he wrote in his autobiography, “At that point [in the Minors], if people had known that one of our players would someday be the all-time Major League home run leader, everybody would have assumed that Covington would be the guy.”
Leading Off
Wes Covington: The Phillies’ First Significant Black Ballplayer
By Russ Walsh
Baseball history records that the Philadelphia Phillies were the last National League team to integrate, when on April 16, 1957, nearly 10 years to the day after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, utility infielder John Kennedy appeared as a pinch-runner in a game. That appearance immortalized Kennedy, but he only appeared in four more games with the Phillies before being sent to the Minors, never to return. Pitcher Hank Mason appeared in four games with the Phillies in 1958 and 1960, without recording a single decision.
During this period, other players of color appeared for the Phillies, including Humberto “Chico” Fernandez, Pancho Herrera, Ruben Gomez, Tony Taylor, Tony Gonzalez, Humberto Robinson, and Valmy Thomas. These players were all either from Latin America, or in Thomas’ case, from the Virgin Islands. The first African American player to have a significant impact on the Phillies was John Wesley (Wes) Covington, who arrived via trade on July 2, 1961.
By the time he joined a young and struggling Phillies team, Covington had already established himself as a Major League star. He was a powerfully built man who could launch baseballs to the far reaches of any stadium. He was also a consistent hitter and carried a lifetime .284 average into 1961. Covington had appeared in two World Series with the Milwaukee Braves and had made headlines with two spectacular catches in the outfield that helped the Braves defeat the New York Yankees in the 1957 Series.
But Covington also carried some baggage. Never known as a gazelle in the outfield, a knee injury had further slowed him in the field. There were also persistent rumors that Covington was a bad actor, difficult to manage, and difficult to sign at contract time. If any of that were true, that behavior was not evident when he joined the Phillies. What was evident was that Covington could hit.
In five years with the Phillies, Covington hit for average (.284) and power (61 home runs). He became famous for pinging balls off the high metal fence that made up Connie Mack Stadium’s right-field wall. On one memorable occasion, Covington became the first player to hit a ball over the right-center-field wall, between the mammoth scoreboard and the center-field fence. It was a gargantuan blast.
Much to their coaches’ consternation, Little Leaguers all over the Philadelphia region began to imitate Covington’s highly unusual batting stance. He stood feet wide apart, weight shifted to his back leg, bat dangling menacingly low over his left shoulder. When the pitch came, he unfurled his 6-foot-1, 205 lb. frame and took a mighty hack. This approach was not exactly textbook, but it got results for Covington.
Because of his unique stance, his prodigious power, and his smiling and often charming personality, Covington became a popular member of the floundering franchise. He seemed to settle into his role on the Phillies and in Philadelphia. A smart businessman, Covington opened a barbecue restaurant in town and invested in Philadelphia real estate. Covington not only integrated the Phillies, but he integrated himself into the community. This was no small feat on a team and in a city still trying to come to grips with its racist history.
With Covington mostly platooning in the outfield, the Phillies improved until they were genuine pennant contenders in 1964. Part of that team’s success was the emergence of the Phillies’ first African American superstar, Dick Allen. While Covington occasionally bristled at manager Gene Mauch’s platooning system, he combined with Allen and right fielder Johnny Callison to help power the Phillies to an early lead in the pennant race.
A June 20 profile of Covington by Ron Smith in the Philadelphia Inquirer described him as “a happy, determined, laughing man, [who] keeps fans and teammates smiling with his good humor.” Covington said, “We’re going all the way this year. Next stop, the World Series. And John Wesley will be in there swinging somewhere.”
As even a casual fan of baseball history knows, the Phillies did not “go all the way” in 1964. A late season 10-game losing streak saw the upstart Phillies lose the pennant to the St. Louis Cardinals on the last day of the season. For his part, Covington was complicit in the collapse. He hit just .150 with no home runs during those 10 games. He made no friends in the Phillies organization when he went around Philadelphia during the offseason pointing fingers at everyone but himself.
Covington’s fraught relationship with Mauch bubbled over in 1965. Mauch said that Covington had a tendency to “pop off and popup.” After a mediocre season in 1965, in which his batting average and his playing both time drop significantly, the 33-year-old Covington was traded to the Chicago Cubs for outfielder/pinch hitter Doug Clemens. The 1966 season was Covington’s last in the Major Leagues.
Despite the acrimonious ending to his time in Philadelphia, Covington was a ground breaker for the Phillies. As the first African American to play a significant role on the team, he paved the way for future stars like Allen, Dave Cash, Gary Maddox, Jimmy Rollins, and Ryan Howard. It can’t have been easy for Covington -- before Allen arrived in 1963, Wes was the only African American on the team. His imposing presence on the Phillies’ roster, however, was an important step in the right direction for a team with a checkered history of race relations.
Russ Walsh is a retired teacher, diehard Phillies fan, and student of the history of baseball with a special interest in the odd, quirky, and once in a lifetime events that happen on the baseball field. He writes for both the SABR BioProject and the SABR Games Project and maintains his own blog The Faith of a Phillies Fan. You can reach Russ on Twitter @faithofaphilli1