Monford Merrill "Monte"
Irvin (born February 25,
1919 in Haleburg, Alabama
) is a former left
fielder and right-handed batter in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball who played with
the Newark Eagles (1938-42, 46-48),
New York Giants (1949-55) and
Chicago Cubs (1956).
Although
born in Haleburg,
Alabama, Irvin grew up in Orange, New Jersey
, one of five players who grew up in the Garden
State to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
. In high school, he starred in four sports
and set a state record in the
javelin
throw.
Monte Irvin attended Lincoln
University
and was a star football player.
Irvin was one of the first black players to be signed after
baseball's
color line was broken
by
Jackie Robinson in 1947. He
fashioned a career of dual excellence both with the Eagles in the
Negro leagues, and with the Giants in the
National League. After hitting in the Negro
leagues for high
marks of .422 and
.396 (1940-41), Irvin won the
Triple Crown in the
Mexican League with a .398 batting average
and 30
home runs in 68 games, being
rewarded with the
Most Valuable
Player award. After serving in the military in
World War II (1943-45), he returned to the
Eagles to lead his team to a league pennant. Irvin won his second
batting championship hitting .401, and was instrumental in beating
the
Kansas City Monarchs in a
seven-game
Negro League World
Series, batting .462 with three home runs. He was a five-time
Negro League
All-Star (1941, 1946-48, including two games in 1946).
He was approached in 1945 by
Brooklyn Dodgers executive
Branch Rickey about being signed for the major
leagues, but Irvin felt he was not ready to play at that level so
soon after leaving the service. Irvin earned MVP honors in the
1945-46 Puerto Rican Winter League, and after he spent the 1948-49
winter in Cuba, the Giants paid $5,000 for his contract. Assigned
to Jersey City (
International
League), Irvin batted .373. He debuted with the Giants on
July 8, as a pinch-hitter. Back with Jersey
City in 1950, he was called up after hitting .510 with 10 HR in 18
games. Irvin batted .299 for the Giants that season, playing
first base and the outfield.
In , Irvin sparked the Giants' miraculous comeback to overtake the
Dodgers in the pennant race, batting .312 with 24 homers and a
league-best 121
runs batted in, en
route to the
World Series (he went
11-24 for .458). That year Irvin teamed with
Hank Thompson and
Willie Mays to form the first all-black outfield
in the majors. Later, he finished third in the NL's MVP voting. In
1952 he was named to the NL
All-Star team.
In his major league career, Irvin batted .293, with 99 home runs,
443 RBI, 366
runs scored, 731
hits, 97
doubles, 31
triples, and 28
stolen bases, with 351
walks for a .383
on base percentage, and 1187 total bases
for a .475
slugging average in 764
games played.
After retiring, Irvin worked as a scout for the
New York Mets from 1967-68 and later spent 17
years (1968-1984) as a public relations specialist for the
commissioner's office under the
Bowie Kuhn administration. In this
capacity he became the target of scorn—not racial, but because of
what the public saw as a double standard. When Commissioner Kuhn,
who had ordered the Braves not to bench
Hank
Aaron in the opening series in Cincinnati at the start of the
season, sent Irvin to Atlanta, the fans booed Irvin because the
Commissioner was holding Aaron to a stricter standard than he cared
to follow himself (he attended a "boosters" event for the
Cleveland Indians).
Monte
Irvin was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, primarily on the basis of his play in the
Negro leagues. Today, he serves on the
Veterans Committee of the Hall of Fame
and actively campaigns for recognition of deserving Negro league
veterans.
See also
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