Pumpsie Green Died Today, At Age 85

Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green, the first black player to wear a Red Sox uniform, died today at age 85. The team had a moment of silence before Wednesday night's game against the Blue Jays.

Before Green made his debut as a pinch-runner against the White Sox on July 21, 1959, the Red Sox were the last major league team holding out against integration. It had been almost three years since Jackie Robinson had played his last game.

Green tripled off the left field wall in his first at-bat at Fenway Park, kicking off an August 4 doubleheader against the Kansas City Athletics. "I was almost on a cloud or in a trance or something," he said years later. "I couldn't breathe. I was so hyped up." (Back in June, I reviewed a book about Green for young readers.)

Green played four seasons for the Red Sox as a second baseman and shortstop before ending his brief career with the Mets in 1963, as a third baseman.

From Green's bio at SABR's Bio Project (written by Bill Nowlin, who also edited Pumpsie & Progress: The Red Sox, Race, and Redemption, a 2010 collection of essays):

Pumpsie Green signed his 1959 contract in Scottsdale on February 25, suited up in a Red Sox uniform, and immediately took part in his first workout. Roger Birtwell's Boston Globe story began, "The Boston Red Sox – in spring training, at least – today broke the color line." After the workout, however, Green had to travel alone to the Frontier Motel, in Phoenix, some 17 miles out of town. He'd been turned away at the team hotel, the Safari. "Negroes are not permitted to live in Scottsdale," Birtwell explained.

The Red Sox began to dissemble. Publicity director Jack Malaney denied that the reason was racism, trying to convince disbelieving writers that the Safari had simply run out of rooms what with all the tourists in town.

Green lived an isolated existence, separated from his teammates. It was a pathetic situation. Boston Globe writer Milton Gross depicted the imposed isolation: "From night to morning, the first Negro player to be brought to spring training by the Boston Red Sox ceases to be a member of the team he hopes to make as a shortstop." Segregation, wrote Gross, "comes in a man's heart, residing there like a burrowing worm. It comes when a man wakes alone, eats alone, goes to the movies every night alone because there's nothing more for him to do and then, in Pumpsie Green's own words, 'I get a sandwich and a glass of milk and a book and I read myself to sleep.'"

The Giants, integrated since 1949, had their entire team housed in the Adams Hotel in Phoenix, and Pumpsie eventually took a room at the Giants' hotel. ...

Green was finally recalled by the Red Sox and debuted in Chicago on July 21. He came in as a pinch-runner and stayed in the game at shortstop. ... It was an uneventful debut but press coverage was extremely positive. Several Boston newspapers ran an AP photograph showing Ted Williams giving Pumpsie some pointers on hitting. The Herald ran it on the front page, under a banner eight-column headline: "Green Joins Red Sox in Chicago." The Globe ran four stories on Green, and one on the game. The paper radiated excitement. One story was headlined "Everyone Pleased Pumpsie Returning." ...

After the game, Green was able to stay in the same Chicago hotel as the rest of the team. ... [The Red Sox] made arrangements to fly [his wife] Marie Green to Boston to join her husband when the team returned home 10 days later. ...

Pumpsie's first hit came off Jim Perry in the second game of a July 28 doubleheader in Cleveland. ... The day's first game had seen the debut of Boston's second black ballplayer, pitcher Earl Wilson, who threw one inning in relief ...

After the 13-game road trip, it was time for the Red Sox to return home. "Pumpsie Here Tuesday" blared the full-page headline in the Boston Record. ...

Boston Celtics basketball star Bill Russell was there to greet Pumpsie when he arrived. They'd known each other since high school. Green also took a call in the Red Sox clubhouse from Jackie Robinson. ...

Leading off in the bottom of the first, he was "given a nice hand when he first came to bat." He later told Scott Ostler, "On my way up to home plate, the whole stands, blacks and whites, they stand up and gave me a standing ovation. A standing ovation, my first time up! And the umpire said, 'Good luck, Pumpsie,' something like that." Pumpsie promptly tripled off the left-field wall, pouring on speed rather than pulling up at second base. ... The Sox lost the second game, 8-6, but Green reached base four times – a single, two walks, and on an error. ...

Pumpsie said he felt welcomed by the Sox players. ... "Ted Williams – he would talk to you and give you advice on any matter, even things not about baseball. The whole team was ... supportive of me whenever we played a game." In the background, though, pitcher Frank Sullivan said, "There were a lot of teammates that had to give up calling Larry Doby rotten names. That also included some coaches." ...

[Williams] set the tone from the beginning, not speaking out but clearly signaling his acceptance of Pumpsie, who became his throwing partner before games. "He asked me to warm up with him the first day I came here, and I've been warming up with him ever since." He told Herb Crehan, "He didn't say anything beyond the invitation to play catch, and it surprised me a little bit. But I understood and appreciated the gesture." ...

Looking back, Pumpsie was frank about Boston and his time in the major leagues. ... "Sometimes it would get on my nerves. Sometimes I wonder if I would have even made it to the major leagues if it had not been for this Boston thing. Sometimes I wonder if I would have been better off it was not for the Boston thing. Things like that you can never answer."

Green told Danny Peary, "When I was playing, being the first black on the Red Sox wasn't nearly as big a source of pride as it would be once I was out of the game. At the time I never put much stock in it, or thought about it. Later I understood my place in history. I don't know if I would have been better in another organization with more black players. But as it turned out, I became increasingly proud to have been with the Red Sox as their first black."

(Green throws out the first pitch at a Red Sox game in 2009.)