Sam Jethroe, or Sammy Jethroe, as he was referred to in the Cleveland
Call and Post, Cleveland's Black newspaper, played for the Cleveland
Buckeyes from 1942-1948.  A perennial Negro League All-Star, Sammy played
center field for the Buckeyes.
         Sammy was one of three Black baseball players to attend a tryout with
the Boston Red Sox in 1945 when a local politician was putting pressure on
the Red Sox to hire some Black players.  The other two were Jackie Robinson
and Marvin Williams.  Of course, the Red Sox did not hire any Black players
for a long time and were the last major league team to intergrate.
         Sammy actually started playing professionally at the age of 16 for the
Indianapolis Clowns as a catcher.   He was born in E. St. Louis in 1918 but
he told baseball people that he was born in 1922.  The Brooklyn Dodgers
signed him in 1948 and assigned him to their Montreal farm team.
         Concerned that they had too many Black players, the Dodgers traded
him to the Boston Braves and he became their first Black player. He played in 
1950 for them and was named the National League Rookie of the year.
         He is pictured here in his Cleveland Buckeyes uniform.  Sammy died in
2001 in Erie, Pennsylvania where he made his home after baseball.
         During his lifetime he sued Major League Baseball for pension he 
believed he would have been entitled to except for their segregationist policy.
The suit was thrown out due to Statute of Limitation issues but soon after-
ward he and other former Black ballplayers received a pension from the
Major Leagues.  
         His statistics are listed below although his Negro League numbers are 
incomplete due to a lack of official Negro League statistics. I am using
Baseball Reference numbers which were actually different than some of the
numbers I had from Negro League sources.