Baseball cards in some form have been around for over a century.
They’ve been in my house for over 40 years. As a child, I remember sitting in the front yard under a tree sorting them by teams. My grandfather and I built a big wooden box to store them under my bed. It seemed to be a project for my mother as much as it was for me.
As I grew older one of my quests was to acquire as many cards from the list of players who joined Jackie Robinson in becoming the first African-Americans in Major League Baseball in the 1940s and 1950s.
Since I already had a Larry Doby card, who was the first African-American in the American League in 1947, Monte Irvin and Hank Thompson were at the top of my wish list.
Irvin, who passed away at 96-years old on Jan. 11, became a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973. His 1953 Topps card is one of my favorites.
A star in the Negro Leagues during the 1940s for the Newark Eagles, Irvin along with Thompson became the first African-Americans to play for the New York Giants against the Brooklyn Dodgers on July 8, 1949.
Thompson was the lead-off batter that day, while the 30-year old Irvin was used a as pinch-hitter and walked. He would have to wait a few games to get his first hit, which was a double off Al Brazle of St. Louis on July 18.
Irvin played eight seasons in the majors with the Giants from 1949 to 1955 before ending his career with the Chicago Cubs in 1956. He had 99 homers and 443 RBI and was a member of the 1951 National League champions and the 1954 World Series winners.
In 1951, Irvin had his best season with 24 homers and a NL best 121 RBI. He also batted .312 that season and finished third in the voting for the Most Valuable Player award behind winner Roy Campanella and Stan Musial.
Although he was injured for most of 1952, Irvin he was named to the NL All-Star team that season. A year later, he batted a career-high .329 as he hit 21 home runs and knocked in 97.
Negro League Career
Statistically there is not a lot of information available about Irvin’s career, but the Newark Eagles beat the Kansas City Monarchs in seven games to win the 1946 Negro League World Series.
That season, Irvin was a teammate of fellow Hall of Fame inductees Doby (1998), Leon Day (1995) and Biz Mackey (2006).
The Monarchs featured future Hall of Fame members Satchel Paige (1971), Willard Brown (2006) and Hilton Smith (2001).
Thompson’s Big League Debut
Like Robinson and Doby, Thompson made his major league debut in 1947 for the St. Louis Browns against the Philadelphia A’s on July 17.
The next day, the 21-year old Thompson picked up a single for his first hit off Dave Ferriss of the Boston Red Sox in a 9-8 Browns victory.
Thompson went back to the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues before joining the Giants in 1949. As a result, Thompson is the only player in major league history to integrate two organizations.
Playing with the Giants until 1956, Thompson ironically had more big league homers (129) and RBI (482) than Irvin.
Thompson’s best season was in 1954 when he had 26 homers and 86 RBI as the Giants swept the World Series from the Cleveland Indians.
In 1957, Thompson appeared on his last Topps card and it featured his final career stats.
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