Community
Man Who Broke Cardinal's Color Barrier in the '50s Shares Experience
Now resides at city's Human Senice Alliance
KSsp . - 111113
By DAVID L. DILLARD
Chronicle Suff Writer
In 1954, while black Americans
celebrated the landmark Brown v.
Board of Education decision, area
blacks had an additional history
maker to celebrate.
Seven years after Jackie Robin
son broke the color barrier in major
league baseball, a 6- foot -5, modest
first baseman from Greensboro
became the first black to play for the
St Louis Cardinals.
Thomas Edison Alston, or "Tall
Tom,H is the third of four brothers
who all played semi-pro baseball
with the Goshen Redwings, later the
Greensboro Red Birds.
Tve been playing all my life,"
Alston said. "We started barefooted
just playing ball."
Alston now lives at the Human
Service Alliance on Old Greensboro
Road in Winston-Salem. The
alliance is an all-volunteer organiza
- tion that cares for the terminally ill,
offers respite care for families with
a disabled child at home and
enhances health and wellness.
As a boy, he volunteered to be
the batboy for the Redwings, while
his older brother Leon "Shack"
Alston was catcher. Next, his
brother Norman was pitcher, then
Tom came. Later his younger
brother James played outfield, first
base, and pitched.
Alston began his career as a
stand-out college athlete at North
Carolina A&T State University in
the 1940s, where he maintained a
.400 batting average for three years.
After graduating with a bachelor's
degree in physical education, Alston
joined the Greensboro Red Birds, a
black, semi-pro team.
After a short stint with the Red
Birds, he played in Canada and then
signed with the Class C team in
Portsville,. Calif. T"
"I did so well in Class C, that
after eight weeks, I was leading the
(Southwest International) league in
home runs," he said. "They soon
promoted me to Triple A."
Alston remembers a game in
Las Vegas where the blacks had to
live in segregated hotels, while
white ballplayers lived in fancy
hotels with red-carpet treatment
"They were staying in fine
hotels, and I wondered why we
couldn't stay in their, too," he said.
"It was Jim Crow back then. I didn't
like it, but I didn't say anything
about it"
Alston considered the trip to
Las Vegas as the beginning of the
end of his career. While in Las
Vegas, he and a friend went sight
seeing. Never a gambling man him
self, Alston wanted to go back to the
hotel and rest
Alston said he had hit a home
run in the all-star game the night
SciCamp
Moves to -
Hanes Mall
1
SciWorks, the Science and
Environmental Park of Forsyth
County, will hold its popular sci
ence camp at Hanes Mall in August
as part of its continuing effort to
reach out to the community with
science education programs. Sci
Camp programs at Hanes Mall,
geared toward parents and
preschoolers, include "Astronomy
to Zoology" and "DinoMania."
Also, there are free Saturday and
Sunday programs planned every
hour on the half hour that include
fun science demonstrations about
dinosaurs, rain forests and kitchen
chemistry. Special one-day pro
grams called "Friday Science" for
children entering first through
eighth grades will be offered at
Hanes Mall.
These two-hour workshops
explore rocks and minerals, science
"magic" and amazing animals with
fun, hands-on activities.
before, but now he couldn't even
throw.
"I was weak," he said. All my
strength was gone in Las Vegas.
Something just happened to me."
He went to see a doctor, but
theyretfuTcJt^t find anything wrong.
Nevertheless, Alston continued to
play at less than 100 percent. After
leading the league in home runs and
runs batted in (RBIs), his batting
average dropped from .400 to .353,
but it was still good enough to
impress the San Diego Padtai^lan
independent Triple A team in the
Pacific Coast League).
Alston s average continued to
drop, reaching an all-time low .244.
Disappointed with his performance,
he wanted to quit baseball.
"I wanted to quit because I
thought I could do much better than"
that," he said.
After a pep talk and a chance to
rest in the off season, Alston came
back the next season and hit 23
home runs and batted .297. But it
base that impressed the Cardinals.
The next season. August A. Busch,
of Busch beer fame who also owned
the Cardinals, personally bought
Alston from the Padres for a
reported $ 1 00,000.
"People were calling me
Busch's boy, but it didn't make me
feel bigger or better," he said, refer
ring to the attitude of some of the
(
other players. "I wasn't on cloud
nine. I just took it all in stride."
Alston denies being called
names and having racial slurs
directed at him but admits racism
was heavy in St. Louis.
"Back then St. Louis was the
most Jim Crow team in the league,"
he said. "The word "nigger" was
used by the Cardinals, but 1 didn't
have any cat-calling. Everything has
changed now."
Alston said he lost his job at
first base after the first season but
continued to play with the Cardinals
for three more years. Shortly after
leaving baseball. Alston had a ner
vous breakdown. He was inducted
into A&Ts Hall of Fame in 1972.
Old age and the on-set of
prostate cancer has confined the
Greensboro star, who grew up
drinking penny drinks (Kool-aid)
and reading the Sporting News, to
watching his favorite past-time on
television in his room at the Human
Service Alliance.
"I didn't get the chance to be
"I just played baseball until I didn't
have anymore to give."
Alston said he enjoys watching
baseball and other sports. He likes
Atlanta because its a team close to
the area but says he has an affinity
for the Cardinals.
"I still like the Cardinals as
long as they win," said the former
slugger, "but they don't hit enough
home runs!"
1
Alston field balls at the Cardinals' 1954 spring training.
Jim Karr, a fan and native of SL Louis, gets a baseball autographed by Alston.
We think allowing you to return to
your normal activities just hours
after "No-Stitch" cataract surgery
is a great idea. That's why we started
doing it 2-1/2 years ago.
Dr. Richard Epes has performed
over 45,000 cataract with lens
implant surgeries, including over
10,000 of the revolutionary
"I was told that Southeastern Eye
Center was the best place to go for
cataract surgery. It was so easy and
now I see better than I ever have."
Milton Hall
Greensboro, NC
"No-Stitch" procedures in the past
2-1/2 years.
. "No-Stitch" cataract with lens
implant surgery usually -lakes legs
than seven minutes to perform and
allows you to return to your normal
activities, without a patch, just hours
after surgery.
Remember: If you're not sure who
?tcurust, always trust your eyes to
experience. Call Southeastern Eye
Center today.
Trust Your Eyes To Experience.
O Southeastern Eye Genter,
Central Carolina Surgical Eye Associates, P A. / 3312 Battleground Ave., Greensboro, NC 27410
Medicare Assignments Accepted / 40 Regional Offices / For the office nearest you call 1 800-^32-0428
C. Richard Epes, MD ? John D. Matthews, MD ? Donald J. Bergin, MD ? Marc A. Ralston, MD ? Karl Q.
Stonecipher, MD
For jour convenience you may be seen by the doctors from Southeastern Bye Center
at our office on Healy Dr. or Dr. Barry Ramsey in the Old Town Shopping Center
in Winston-Salem, Dr. Steve fiaymon in the Bermuda Quay Shopping Center,
Dr. Jeff Garber in Keraersville or at our Lexington or Tadkinville offices.
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