Atlanta Braves history: Bill Lucas becomes baseball’s first Black GM

As the Atlanta Braves join with the rest of baseball to celebrate Jackie Robinson day, we take a look back at the franchise’s history with the African-American community.

The Atlanta Braves weren’t the first team to integrate their roster, but they were among the first to make it a priority.

Just over two years after Jackie Robinson’s first game, Boston Braves GM John Quinn sent Al Epperly, Dee Phillips, Don Thompson, and $100K to the Dodgers for two rookie outfielders, Sam Jethroe and Bob Addis. That deal made Jethroe the first African American player in the history of the franchise.

Branch Rickey later told Gus Steiger of the New York Daily Mirror, “It might be the biggest mistake I ever made in baseball.”

According to April 21, 1950: A barrier partially falls: Sam Jethroe’s first game in Boston, Jethroe first took the field in Boston for a City Series exhibition game against the Red Sox at Braves Field on April 15, 1950.

He went 2-for-4, scored one run, and drove in one run. He also played in the next day’s game at Fenway Park, in a game – albeit an exhibition game – at the same park and on the fifth anniversary of the April 16, 1945 date when he and Jackie Robinson and Marvin Williams had tried out for the Red Sox in 1945

The 1950 season saw a 33-year-old Jethroe duplicate Robinson’s first year by winning NL Rookie of the year. Robinson finished fifth in NL MVP voting in 1947, and Jethroe finished 27th in NL MVP voting in 1950.

Injury, age, and a bigoted manager limited Jethroe’s career with the Braves, a sad fact that haunts the history of every team in baseball at that time. However, the Braves franchise continued to sign terrific African-American players.

We know about the success of other Black players like Wes Covington, Bill Bruton, and Hank Aaron in the history of the franchise, now known as the Atlanta Braves. However, the franchise has its own claim to breaking the color barrier.