04.14_Malik Yoba_Elston Howard

#OTD Elston Howard, the first African American player to make the NY Yankees roster, made his major league debut.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
I am Actor Malik Ioba. This day in Quistory, April fourteenth,
nineteen fifty five, Elston Howard became the first African American
to play for the New York Yankees. One day shy
of eight years since Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier,
Howard made his major league debut and the Yankees became
the thirteenth of sixteen MLB organizations to integrate. During his

(00:27):
first outing, Howard went one for one with an RBI.
In a major league career that spanned fourteen years, Howard
was a nine time All Star and a four time
World Series Champion. He won two Gold Glove Awards, the
first in nineteen sixty three, where he also became the
first African American to earn MVP honors in the American League.
Off the field, Howard was credited with inventing the batting doughnut,

(00:50):
a weighted ring that fits over the end of the
bat used by players standing in the on deck circle,
an apparatus used by every MLB team to this day.
When Howard's playing days ended, he returned to the Yankees
as a first base coach, another first in the American League,
where he won two additional World Series titles,