We all heard and know about Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier in 1947. Have you heard of Elston Howard? Yankee fans may have or elderly baseball fans of the game would know the name I’m sure.

Elston Howard was born in St. Louis, Missouri on February 23, 1929 where he grew up and began playing baseball. At 16 years old, he was discovered playing baseball in a sandlot and was offered to join a semi-pro team called the St. Louis Braves.

Howard was a roommate of the great Hall of Famer Ernie banks of the Kansas City Monarchs, for a sum of $500 a month (which was mailed directly to his mother). Elston Howard broke the color barrier with the Yankees in 1955, eight years after Jackie Robinson had become the first black player in MLB. Howard would have played in 1951-52, but he was in the military and went to serve in the Korean War.

The integration process was slow at this time. It was 2 full years until the next team, the New York Giants, would have its first black players. It was in the 1953 season, only 6 of the AL and NL’s 16 teams had integrated. At this point black players were already All-Stars, MVPs and key pieces of World Series Championship teams. 6 more teams integrated by the end of the 1954, leaving just ‘4’ teams: the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox as having never had a black player.

During the 1955 season Howard came in the second game of the season in the 6th inning at Fenway Park when the Yanks were taking on their rivals the Red Sox to replace the ejected Irv Noren. Howard making his Yankees debut and integrating the team. He drove in Mickey Mantle with an RBI single in his only at bat that game. The impact of his appearance was something of history. Elston’s legacy on NY and the game as whole went on for 13 more seasons.

Elston Howard would go on to be selected to 12 All-Star teams, win 4 World series Championships with the Yankees, 2 Gold Glove Awards and won the MVP in 1963, Howard hit 28 HR, 85 RBI, 140 HITS and had a .342 on base percentage. He played 4 more seasons in the Bronx after the MVP campaign, then he was traded to the rival Boston Red Sox in 1967.

After his playing days in Boston; Howard became the first black coach for an American League team, and he would remain as a Yankees coach for the rest of his life.

In February 1979, Howard was diagnosed with myocarditis (heart condition), and was told to rest by his doctors. George Steinbrenner kept him on payroll and reassured him that his coaching role would be waiting for him when he was healthy.

In 1980 he was reassigned by Steinbrenner to a scouting and ambassador role with their front office staff. Sadly, he was admitted to the hospital on December 4, 1980 as his heart was giving out, Howard would pass away 2 weeks later at 51 years old.

In 1984 the Yankees retired his #32 and dedicated a plaque in his honor at Monument Park. In 2020 the baseball field on the site of the old Yankee Stadium was renamed Elston Howard Field in his honor.

Elston Howard was definitely one of the Black Baseball Pioneers of the game. *teaser alert* I am working on an upcoming article on 6 more African American Icons in NY Yankee History, stay tuned.

Photo Credit; MLB.com, Pinstripe Alley

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