RetroSimba

Much like being forced to ride in the back of a bus, African-American customers attending a National League Cardinals game or an American League Browns game at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis were restricted to seats behind the outfield walls.

On May 4, 1944, the Cardinals and Browns became the last big-league teams to end segregated seating.

Until then, African-Americans, or anyone defined as Negroes, could purchase tickets only in the outfield bleachers or in the outfield pavilion at Sportsman’s Park. The pavilion was a roofed section behind the right-field wall. A 25-foot screen, extending from right to right-center, was built atop the wall.

Blacks weren’t allowed to sit in Sportsman’s Park’s double-decked grandstand, meaning any seats behind home plate and along the lines, or, in other words, the seats with the best views.

African-American baseball fans in St. Louis were unable to buy tickets to seats of their choice to watch Cardinals clubs featuring Rogers Hornsby in the late 1920s, or the Gashouse Gang of the 1930s, or the Stan Musial teams of the early 1940s.

Three years after the racist restriction was lifted, Jackie Robinson of the Dodgers integrated the big leagues in 1947. Dodgers executive Branch Rickey, credited with bringing Robinson to the majors, was head of Cardinals baseball operations during the time Sportsman’s Park had segregated seating.

Bowing to racism

Located at the corner of North Grand and Dodier, Sportsman’s Park was home to both St. Louis teams from 1920-53. The Browns moved to Baltimore after the 1953 season and Sportsman’s Park was renamed Busch Stadium. The Cardinals played there until they moved into a downtown stadium in 1966.

Sportsman’s Park was owned by the Browns, but both they and the Cardinals agreed to segregated seating.

In his book, “Branch Rickey: A Biography,” author Murray Polner said Rickey approached Cardinals owner Sam Breadon in the 1930s about the possibility of ending the discriminatory seating policy.

Rickey said his proposal received “effective opposition on the part of ownership and on the part of the public, press, everybody.”

According to the book, Breadon told Rickey he personally didn’t care about segregated seating but believed removing the restrictions would be bad for business.

Rickey said the city of St. Louis had no ordinance segregating blacks from whites at Sportsman’s Park and the decision was made by the clubs. Rickey suggested Breadon end the Cardinals’ policy without making a formal announcement, but there was no interest.

Unable to generate support, Rickey “backed away, unwilling to offend Breadon or white customers.”

Right stuff

Satchel Paige had the courage to do what the Cardinals and Browns would not.

On July 4, 1941, the Kansas City Monarchs and Chicago American Giants were scheduled to play a special holiday Negro League game at Sportsman’s Park. The St. Louis Stars, a Negro National League team, had played their home games at Stars Park at the corner of Laclede and Compton before disbanding after the 1931 season.

Paige, the ace pitcher and showman, was the gate attraction for the game at Sportsman’s Park and he refused to play unless seating that day was unrestricted for all customers, according to Timothy M. Gay, author of the book “Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson.”

Unwilling to risk playing without Paige, officials gave in to his demand.

In a March 2010 guest column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Gay wrote, “Thanks to Satchel Paige’s gutsy stand, blacks could sit wherever their pocketbooks would allow.”

An interracial crowd of 19,178 came to see Paige and the Monarchs win, 11-2. “It was almost unheard of in the St. Louis of that era for the races to commingle at a public venue,” Gay wrote, “but they did that day.”

In its game report, the Post-Dispatch declared the crowd was “the largest ever to witness a Negro baseball game in St. Louis.”

Paige pitched four entertaining innings. In the third, he “waved in his outfielders and gave the next batter his old trouble ball,” the Post-Dispatch reported. “His trouble ball is a hard fast one, usually thrown at the handle of the bat, because Satchel says no living human can hit such a ball with the handle.”

Paige struck out the batter.

“The record crowd enjoyed every minute that the master showman worked,” the St. Louis Star-Times reported.

Keep it quiet

Following Rickey’s advice from years earlier, the 1944 decision to end the segregated seating practice of the Cardinals and Browns was done without fanfare and received brief mention in publications. There were no press conferences nor any statements made to media.

“Restrictions confining Negroes to the right field pavilion have been lifted by both the Cardinals and the Browns, with the colored fans now being allowed to purchase grandstand seats,” The Sporting News reported. “St. Louis had been the only major-league city with this discriminatory rule.”

The Associated Press reported the St. Louis teams “have discontinued their old policy of restricting Negroes to the bleachers and pavilion at Sportsman’s Park.”

Breadon couldn’t be reached for comment, the Star-Times noted, and Browns general manager Bill DeWitt Sr. declined to comment.

Pioneer players

On May 21, 1947, Robinson became the first African-American to play at Sportsman’s Park in a big-league game. The largest weekday crowd of the season, 16,249, came to see Robinson and the Dodgers play the Cardinals. “About 6,000 were Negroes,” according to the Post-Dispatch.

“Robinson was cheered each time he went to bat and the Dodgers as a team received more vocal encouragement than they usually get at Sportsman’s Park,” the Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore

Two months later, the Browns followed the Dodgers and Indians, becoming the third big-league club with African-American players.

On July 17, 1947, second baseman Hank Thompson made his major-league debut for the Browns versus the Athletics before 3,648 at Sportsman’s Park. Boxscore Another black player, outfielder Willard Brown, debuted with the Browns two days later against the Red Sox before 2,434 at Sportsman’s Park.

Paige would play three seasons (1951-53) for the Browns.

The Cardinals waited until 1954 before first baseman Tom Alston integrated the team.

As late as 1961, the Cardinals had segregated housing for their players at spring training in Florida until first baseman Bill White, with the help of civil rights activist Dr. Ralph Wimbish, led an effort to have integrated accommodations.