Boston Red Sox's First African American Player: Elijah "Pumpsie" Green. A Juneteenth Throwback Thursday Special
📌 Red Sox Finally Break Color Barrier
Happy Juneteenth! In celebration of the holiday and my ‘Throwback Thursday’ series I am choosing to go all the way back to 1959 when Elijah "Pumpsie” Green became the first African American player to ever put on a Boston Red Sox uniform.
The year was 1959; the space race was starting, jazz and art were booming, Alaska and Hawaii officially became states, and the first Barbie dolls were sweeping the country. It has been 12 years since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 and every team in the MLB has smartened up and followed the Brooklyn Dodgers lead and signed black players. All but one team that is, the Boston Red Sox 🤦♂️. The Red Sox were the last team to integrate but finally came to their senses in 1959 and signed Elijah “Pumpsie” Green to a contract.
“Pumpsie”
Elijah Green was born in Oklahoma, growing up in an extremely athletic house. His brother Cornell was a long-time safety for the Dallas Cowboys and another brother Credell was drafted by the Green Bay Packers. Named Elijah after his father, his mother always called him Pumpsie which he does not even remember why, but it stuck.
Pumpsie played shortstop at Contra Costa College in California and signed with the Oakland Oaks minor league team after his college days. After a few years bouncing around a few teams in the minors The Red Sox signed him and called him up to the majors in July of 1959.
📅 The Debut
The date was July 21, 1959, and the Red Sox were on a road trip against the White Sox at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Red Sox were in the middle of a bad season coming into the game with a 40-51 record. While the White Sox were in the midst of a season that would result in a trip to the World Series which they lost to the Dodgers. The Red Sox were still being led by Ted Williams before he retired after the next season. While the White Sox were being led by a legend of their own in Luis Aparicio.
The Red Sox were down 2-1 in the top of the 8th inning and decided to make a call to the dugout for a pitch runner. Boston’s manager Billy Jurges looked down the bench to number 12 and put Pumpsie in to pitch run for Vic Wertz. Pumpsie came back out to play shortstop for the duration of the game officially making him the first African American to take the field for the Red Sox. He then started the next game for the Boston making him the first black man to not only take the field but start for the team. He got his first start at Fenway two weeks later where he tripled off the green monster in his very first at bat in the legendary batter’s box at Fenway Park.
⚾ Career After Debut
After Pumpsie’s first game in 1959 he stayed in and out of the lineup the rest of that season appearing in 50 games for the ball club. The next year in 1960 Green would take a much bigger role with the team playing in a 133 games splitting time between second base and shortstop.
1961 was the best year of Pumpsie’s career posting career highs in mostly all of his hitting stats. Unfortunately, his career year was cut short when he suffered from appendicitis which made him miss a big chunk of the season and hindered him from being able to play at 100% when he returned to play.
In 1963 Pumpsie was traded to the New York Mets. In what would be his final career in professional baseball he bounced around from the minors and majors. Elijah Green retired after the 1963 season finishing his career with as a .246 hitter with 13 home runs and 74 RBI in 344 games.
👮🏾♂️Life After Baseball
Following his retirement from baseball Green returned to where he played his college days in California and became a truant officer at Berkeley High School for over 20 years. He also coached baseball during his time with the school. Green was married to his wife Marie for over 50 years. Pumpsie often returned to Fenway Park for events, including throwing out the first pitch on his 50th anniversary of breaking the color barrier in the city and also on Jackie Robinson day at Fenway Park. Pumpsie died July 17, 2019, almost exactly 60 years to the date of his groundbreaking debut.
🙏Juneteenth at Fenway
Juneteenth is a big day at Fenway Park, and all across the MLB as it should it be. Fans in attendance will see a lot of different celebrations from the singing of songs to getting their very own Juneteenth special edition Red Sox uniforms. June 19th, 1865, was the day of the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the Civil War. Historian Mitch Kachun considers that celebrations of the end of slavery have three goals: "to celebrate, to educate, and to agitate.”
Every year we should all continue to enforce those three goals. So let’s take today and reflect on Juneteenth and all the players that broke the color barriers in the 40’s and 50’s for what they did for big leaguers today.