Black History Month: Who Are The Best Black Players In Phillies History?
Today, in the last week of Black History Month, we recall some of the first Black players to suit up for the Phillies and rank the all-time best Black players in club history.
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Did you know…
. . . After serving a stint in the army, John Kennedy was scouted by newly minted Hall of Famer and legendary baseball figure Buck O’Neil, who helped him join the Manitoba-Dakota League, a semi-pro baseball league comprising players from Canada and the United States, in 1950. O’Neil later scouted and signed many ballplayers who had long and successful Major League careers, including Lou Brock, Lee Smith, Joe Carter, and Ernie Banks.
. . . Though Kennedy was the first African-American baseball player to suit up for the Philadelphia Phillies, he was not the first person of color to put on a Phillies uniform. That honor went to Chico Fernandez, a Cuba native, who debuted for the Phillies on April 16, 1957, just six days before Kennedy. Fernandez’s Phillies career lasted much longer than Kennedy’s — he appeared in 342 games over three seasons in Philadelphia, compared to just five games for Kennedy.
Watch clips from Fernandez’s first Phillies game below!
Leading Off
Black History Month: 20 Greatest Black Players In Phillies History
By Matthew Veasey
To say that the Philadelphia Phillies were not a progressive organization during the early years of racial integration in Major League Baseball might be an understatement.
The last team in the National League to field a Black player, the Phillies ushered that player, shortstop John Kennedy, onto and then off the roster after just five games and two plate appearances in late April and early May of 1957.
“I would not say they made a huge commitment to the development of John Kennedy,” Chris Threston, author of The Integration of Baseball in Philadelphia, was quoted by Mark Dent at Billy Penn in a February 2017 piece. “They just wanted to get it over with.”
Kennedy first got into a game on April 22 as a pinch-runner while the Phillies were playing in, of all places, Jersey City, N.J. It was one of a handful of games hosted at Roosevelt Stadium by the Dodgers during their final two seasons in Brooklyn.
As fate would have it, Kennedy did not share the field that day with the man who broke baseball’s color barrier, Jackie Robinson. After playing the previous 10 seasons with the Dodgers, Robinson had been traded to the New York Giants on Dec. 13, 1956. Rather than report to the Dodgers’ arch rivals, Robinson chose instead to retire at age 37.
During his second game on April 24, his first home contest at Connie Mack Stadium, Kennedy further entered Phillies history by becoming the first Black player to cross the plate with a run scored and to take an official time at bat.
On April 30 came another first when Kennedy became the first Black player to field a position with the club. Kennedy was released days later and finished his Phillies career having officially gone 0-2 with a strikeout and a run scored. In his only two appearances in the field at shortstop he registered one assist, made one error, and participated in one double play.
Determining the first Black player to register a base hit with the Phillies is all about how you define it. Tony Curry certainly fits the description, so he gets the designation here. Just the second player in big league history to hail from the Bahamas, Curry also produced the first RBI by a Black player with the team.
Curry appeared in 110 games with the Phillies over the 1960-61 seasons. During his rookie season in 1960, Curry smacked that historic base hit and registered that RBI during the same plate appearance in an April 12 game at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.
The 1961 Phillies were the first team in franchise history to field multiple Black players at the same time: Curry, Wes Covington, and Choo-Choo Coleman. Curry also began 1962 with the club but was dealt to Cleveland on March 20.
In his fifth game with the team on April 28, 1961, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Coleman pinch-hit for starter Chris Short with the Phillies trailing the host Cardinals, 6-1. Coleman reached on an error by Cards second baseman Julian Javier, allowing Ruben Amaro to score.
Manager Gene Mauch kept Coleman in the game, giving starter Clay Dalrymple a rest at catcher. In his third plate appearance of the game in the top of the eighth inning, Coleman grounded a single to right off Lindy McDaniel. It was the first hit by an American-born Black player in Phillies history.
Developing in the organization’s Minor League system at that time was the Phillies’ first Black superstar, Dick Allen. He reached Philadelphia for a 1963 cup of coffee, then became the 1964 NL Rookie of the Year on his way to a career that warrants enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame one day.
Two years ago during Black History Month, I undertook the project of naming a Phillies All-Black team made up of the best Black players in franchise history at each position. Of the ten players who made that team, only two failed to make the below list: Coleman, the catcher, and relief pitcher Tom Gordon.
In looking back on that piece, I decided to take the idea a step further this year. Listed below are my choices for the top 20 Black players in Phillies history regardless of position.
Not wanting to be simply subjective in my selections, I chose to use Baseball Reference WAR as my ranking statistic. So, the players shown are the top 20 Black players ranked by their bWAR during years played with the Phillies.
Joe Morgan and Fergie Jenkins, who put up the numbers that elevated them to the Hall of Fame while with the Reds and Chicago Cubs respectively, were clearly among the greatest Black players to ever pull on a Phillies jersey. You won't find them listed below. Their brief time with the club did not result in bWAR numbers high enough to make the list.
Jimmy Rollins – 47.6
Dick Allen – 35.4
Garry Maddox – 28.9
Ryan Howard – 14.7
Bake McBride – 12.1
Dave Cash – 11.7
Doug Glanville – 8.7
Milt Thompson – 7.6
Bill White – 7.1
Robert Person – 6.2
Ben Revere – 4.9
Gary Matthews – 4.8
Ricky Jordan – 4.8
Al Holland – 4.7
Marlon Byrd – 4.5
Lonnie Smith – 4.3
Wes Covington – 4.1
Grant Jackson – 3.7
Ken Howell – 3.7
Kenny Lofton – 3.6
I would love to hear from my fellow Phillies fans. Who do you feel should be included on a list of the top 20 Black players in franchise history, who would you bump to make room, and why?
Matt Veasey is retired after serving three decades in Philadelphia law enforcement. You can find him at @PhilliesBell on Twitter providing Philadelphia Phillies news and history as well as general baseball items of interest. His email is matthew.veasey@verizon.net
Excellent commentary here. I would add Chico Fernandez to the discussion. Fernandez was actually the first person of color to play for the Phillies, just a few days before John Kennedy. Fernandez was from Cuba, but he was subjected to the same segregation as African American players. He stayed in separate accommodations and ate in separate restaurants for example. Chico always felt he did not get the credit he deserved for being a barrier breaker.