With today being the beginning of Black History Month, I thought it would be the perfect time to reflect on what this month means to me as a Yankee fan. It didn't take me long to come up with a very special person in Yankee history: Elston Howard.
As most Yankee fans know (or, should know),
Elston Howard was the first African-American player to don the Yankee pinstripes. He made his debut with the team on April 14, 1955 and, in 1963 he won the AL MVP. He is a part of the long line of great Yankee catchers, starting with Bill Dickey and continuing with Yogi Berra, Thurman Munson and Jorge Posada.
Though I recently celebrated my 50th birthday, I am not old enough to have seen (or, to have remembered seeing) Howard play. After reading about him, I wish I had. I was going to post a YouTube video about him but, unfortunately the site has no such video about this important person in pinstripe history. Anyway, if you are lacking in knowledge about Elston Howard, these links will help get you up to speed:
Elston Howard Wikipedia Page
An Unofficial Yankee Website's Elston Howard Page
Elston Howard's Baseball Reference Page
Happy reading and, again, happy Black History Month!
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