A man’s memories of when baseball integrated but towns didn’t
Paul Stewart was born in 1948 one year after Jackie Robinson integrated into the major leagues. He was three when spring training integrated in St. Petersburg Florida. These are his recollections from living around and in a home that boarded African-American (“negro” at the time) athletes that came to St. Petersburg to play, mostly in association with major league baseball. In, St. Petersburg this occurred in 1951 and from 1954 through 1961.
Paul lived mostly in the home of his grandparents Henry and Beatrice Harper (M/M H. H. Harper in news clippings). While he was young, his mother Ethlyn moved to Tallahassee to attend what is now Florida A & M University. She studied to be a teacher, then returned to St. Petersburg to embark on her career. She later married. So, Paul still remained mostly with his grandparents.
In 1951, Paul’s home was at 1500 5th Ave. S. now beneath the current I-175 which today passes just south of Tropicana Field. This marked the southern end of the Gas Plant historical negro district which Tropicana and its parking lot occupies today. Former major leaguer Ed Charles lived on the eastern end of the parking lot.
The Yankees trained in St. Petersburg with the exception of the WWII years, from 1925 through the 1961 spring seasons. Yankees co-owner Del Webb had a home in Arizona which he wanted to stay at for the spring season. As a condition of his lease with St. Petersburg, he could do so as long as another team took the Yankees place. Webb convinced Horace Stoneham, owner of the New York Giants that trained in Arizona to exchange training camps for the ’51 spring. The Yankees were still an all-white roster. The Giants had already integrated.
E. H. McLin, who was the Negro Recreation director for St. Petersburg and also wrote articles on sports and education for The St. Petersburg Times, reported that a Giants executive requested that he secure housing for eight non-white players. No hotel in St. Petersburg and barely any in Florida would allow integrated housing. At various times the reason was quoted as being state law, city law or just plain old customary. The Dodgers were the only integrated team to violate the “quota” system meaning no team would have more than four Negroes on the field at a time. The Dodgers carried three negro position players and two negro pitchers so they at no time would field a majority Negro line-up.
It is thought, perhaps because of the rumored quota, Stoneham only allowed four Negroes to come to camp in St. Pete. They were future Hall of Famer Monte Irvin, regular Hank (Henry) Thompson, back-up catcher and dark-skinned Ray (Rafael) Noble from Cuba and middle infielder Artie Wilson. Left at the minor league camp in Sanford, Fla. was the man who Commissioner Peter Ueberroth called. “the greatest third baseman to never play in the major leagues”, Ray Dandridge. Mickey Mantle made his first training camp with the Yankees in Arizona instead of St. Pete. Despite Giants manager Leo Durocher’s repeated requests, Stoneham would not allow what turned out to be another fabulous rookie to debut with the Giants in St. Pete – Willie Mays. He too was stuck in Sanford.
The four Negro Giants were boarded at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Miller Johnson at 1510 5th Ave. S., two doors down from where Paul Stewart was living. Paul says his earliest baseball memory is from a picture he has not been able to find. It is a picture of Hank Thompson in his Giants uniform with his arms draped around young Paul. It sat on the mantle in their home for many years. Negro Giants players had to get dressed at the home. Paul remembers that Hank’s glove nearly completely covered his torso.
Later, in 1954, the Yankees Elston Howard and the Cardinals Tom Alston boarded at the 1400 block of 5th Ave. S., with the Bill Miller family. Miller was the only Negro to own a business in downtown St. Pete, a shoe shop. Yankee players and executives got their shoes shined and hung out there at times. The traveling secretary talked to Bill about where he could house Howard and the Miller’s agreed to take him. Paul vaguely remembers the players being there until later years. As the years advanced and more Negro players came to camp, Paul’s grandparents would begin boarding players and some would be boarded at his cousin’s house. Both families lived near 15th Ave. S. by that time.
What has been Paul’s most talked about memory of that time (it would be mine too!) is that his bedroom had twin beds. The Pirates would come to town (from Ft. Myers) for three- to- four days and some would board there. The other bed at those times was occupied by Roberto Clemente. Paul remembers Roberto asking him about the English words for certain things. He also remembers playing baseball in the field out back and that the kids would notice all of a sudden that Roberto was out there. He would then work with them. Paul’s grandmother would tell Paul that Roberto would come in the front door from the day’s training, drop his tuff and head right out the back door to work with the neighborhood kids.
Another highlight of the Pirates visits was dinner with Willie Stargell at the table. Paul said the folks at the table would opine over who would get the biggest pork chop, Paul or Willie. Paul said dinners with Willie were tough. It was hard to chew when you were laughing the whole time!
Paul remembers Bill White staying on the sofa in their Florida room one spring. Paul loved watching Friday night horror movies. The only tv was in the Florida room. Paul’s grandmother made him get permission from Bill to watch them. It turned out that Bill was a fan of the Friday night horror shows too, so they would stay up and watch them together.
Paul said they had a driveway on each side of the yard. One spring, Frank Robinson had his brand-new Cadillac Eldorado parked in one driveway and Ellis Burton had his brand-new Corvette parked in the other. Paul said he would come home from school and wash their cars. He made one dollar per wash. Paul could have had a little Tom Sawyer in him. He let his friends help wash but instead of keeping the dollar to himself, he paid his friends a share. Paul said a dollar bought a lot of candy in those days!
Leon Wagner gave Paul his first baseball glove. Wagner threw right-handed but Paul is left- handed. He still managed to use it. ‘Daddy Wags’ also gave Paul a Banlon shirt which was a hit with his friends at school.
In 1961, Dr. Ralph Wimbish, head of the local NAACP chapter, and Dr. Robert Swain, who in the past had secured housing for the players, announced they would no longer do so. That created a stir throughout Florida spring training baseball. The Times reported that the Cardinals directly secured the Harpers (Paul’s grandparents) and the Coar (his cousin’s) homes to house their players. Mrs. Harper cooked for both homes. Bill remembers Bob Gibson and Curt Flood among those at the dinner table.
Likely during the 1961 winter instructional league season Paul remembers the family housing newlywed Chico Ruiz and his wife. He remembers pitcher Marshall Bridges. He went to school with Ruben Amaro’s two boys. Once the Cardinals and Mets moved into integrated facilities, the Harpers continued to provide housing for Cardinal minor league players playing the summers with the local A ball club.
Former mayor and baseball ambassador Al Lang brought the Holiday Bowl college football game to St. Pete in 1957. At the time, this bowl was the NAIA National Championship game. It only lasted four season thanks to the segregated housing situation. Most years an integrated team from different parts of the country played in the game. The final straw came in 1960 with Humboldt State from California came to town. The Harper’s hosted Humboldt’s five Negro players. Paul remembers that they had to dress at the house. He said a couple were so big in their uniform that they had to go down the hallway of the house almost sideways. The Humboldt president got involved and the NAIA pulled their championship from St. Pete.
While the players fumed at their situation compared to their white teammates, they were very generous in the Negro communities where they stayed. The ’51 Giants all appeared at the St. Petersburg premiere of The Jackie Robinson Story a year before Robinson was allowed to play in town with the Dodgers. Many made public appearances for little leaguers and fund raisers in the negro community. For what they endured, they left some great memories.