In September 1953, Bob Trice, an African American baseball player took the mound for the Philadelphia Athletics and thus the A’s became the eighth team in major league baseball to become integrated, referred to as “breaking the color barrier”. At the same time as Trice’s debut, Carl Scheib was on the roster, not knowing that this was his last, full major league season.
Scheib was born in Gratz, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, in 1927. Ironically, at the time, Gratz was the center of activities of the Ku Klux Klan. While it was not known how many Gratz residents were Klan members, the largest known Klan meeting in the Lykens Valley was held at the Gratz Fairgrounds a few years before his birth. 5000 people were said to have attended. See:
Carl Scheib is famously known as the youngest player ever to play for an American League baseball team. He was recruited and first played in 1943. It is not known what his views on race were at the time. With the exception of a stint in the army, he was on A’s teams from 1943-1954.
See: Carl Scheib – Baseball Reference.
Bob Trice was born in 1926 in Newton, Georgia, which made him several months older than Scheib. He was given a chance with the A’s because he had earned “rookie of the year” in the Triple-A International Year in 1953. But, in his September 1953 call-up, he didn’t do well and took the loss. According to an interview with his son years later, Bob Trice was largely ignored by the other players on the team with the notable exception of Bobby Shantz. After more than a full year (1954) and a record of 9-9, Trice asked to be demoted to the minor leagues – because he became disgruntled with management.
Bob Trice began his rookie year in April 1954. After only one month with the A’s in 1954, Carl Schieb was sent to the St. Louis Cardinals (National League). Less than a month later on June 1, 1954, Scheib was returned to the A’s who promptly released him. Trice remained on the club for the 1954 season and compiled a record of 7-8. Then the A’s picked up and moved to Kansas City, leaving Philadelphia with only one team – the Phillies – which had not yet been integrated. Trice only pitched in four games for Kansas City in 1955, and as stated above, he asked to be demoted to the minor leagues.
See: Bob Trice – Baseball Reference.
Not much is known about Carl Scheib‘s attitude toward the African American major league baseball players. What is known is that for nearly the entire time Scheib was on the A’s, it was an all white team. Only in the last month of the 1953 season, did Scheib have to sit on the bench with an African American player – and after the first month of 1954, Scheib was sent to the St. Louis Cardinals. After he was released on June 1, 1954, he signed a minor league contract and after playing with several teams, he retired from baseball in 1958.
At this time, not much is known about Bob Trice‘s later career, but his claim to fame will always be that he was the first African American to play on a Philadelphia major league baseball team.
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See: Race and Baseball in Philadelphia.
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