LUSCIOUS LUKE
By Justin Murphy

BASEBALL, 1949-1954: THE BIG SHOW

"He was awesome…I was amazed by his strength and power." – Frank Robinson

"Had Luke come up to the big leagues as a young man, there’s no telling what numbers he would have had." – Al Rosen

By 1949, baseball was slowly becoming integrated, and Bill Veeck signed Easter to the defending champion Cleveland Indians on February 19. The Indians already featured Larry Doby, the first black player in the American League, as well as Satchel Paige. Easter, who had told Veeck that he was twenty-seven, was first assigned to Cleveland’s PCL affiliate in San Diego. He was only the second black player to appear in the PCL, but he assured San Diego president Bill Starr that “everybody likes me when I hit the ball”. That spring, however, he injured his right knee in an on-field collision, then had the same kneecap broken by a pitch. Despite the injury, he played on to packed crowds, with fans flocking to the park to see him hit. Swaine claims that the average attendance in his first ten games was over 34,000; Goodrich reports, perhaps more realistically, that the total attendance of his first seventeen games, home and away, was a record 101,492. Some clubs were even obliged to sell standing room only tickets in the outfield when San Diego came to town. In one three game stand in Los Angeles, Easter hit six home runs, and fights broke out at the gates as fans clamoured to watch him hit. Frank Finch, writing for the Sporting News, reported that the crowds to see him take batting practice were equaled only by those that turned out to see Stan Musial, Ted Williams and Ernie Lombardi. On the field, however, Easter did have to deal with racial discrimination. Some suggested that the pitch which had broken his knee in the spring had been intentional, and in a game against Portland, pitcher Ed Liska threw at him eight times in a single at-bat, including two that sailed behind the batter. Easter responded in his next at-bat with a 450-foot shot to dead center that narrowly missed Liska’s head on its way out of the park.

The Padres, also featuring future major leaguers Max West, Al Rosen and Minnie Minoso, ended up in the championship series for the year. By the end of June, however, the pain in Luke’s broken right knee had become insurmountable, and the Indians had him undergo surgery. Only six weeks later, still hobbled, he would join the Indians, making his major league debut on August 11. According to The Sporting News, PCL owners estimated a loss of over $200,000 in revenue for the league after his departure, and the Indians were forced to part with the popular Allie Clark in order to make room for him on the roster. Easter became the eighth black player in MLB history, following Jackie Robinson, Doby, Paige, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, Hank Thompson and Monte Irvin. Bob Feller was the winning pitcher that day as the Indians defeated the White Sox 6 to 5 in a game that lasted nearly four hours. Luke played in 21 games in 1949 and hit just .222 with no home runs. Bill Veeck, as he was wont to do, had created a great deal of publicity for Easter, and Cleveland fans did not take well to his early struggles. The Sporting News named him “the most booed player in the history of Cleveland Stadium.” Tris Speaker pointed to the racial tension of the era, saying, “the poor guy came up under the worst possible conditions…[he] had nothing to do with the condition that made him the target of the boo birds”. Easter replied that “I hear them and I don’t hear them…if I hit, they’ll like me. If I don’t hit, I don’t deserve to be in the lineup”.

Spring 1950 found Easter embroiled in a competition for the starting first base job with popular veteran Mickey Vernon. He performed well in spring training, leading the team with a .333 average and batting in fourteen runs. Perhaps his most memorable shot, however, was an out: in a game between the Indians and the Browns, St. Louis pitcher Ned Garver thrust his glove in the way of an Easter line drive and was knocked off his feet by its momentum. Despite the strong spring, however,Vernon started the year at first, with Easter in the outfield. Still slowed from his knee surgery, Easter’s struggles at the plate continued early on, as did the booing, until May 6, when he blasted his first home run, off of Allie Reynolds of the Yankees. He went on to post a .280 batting average that year, with 28 home runs and 108 RBIs. Among players over the age of 35, only Dimaggio had performed better at the plate. Particularly noteworthy was a 477-foot home run he hit into the second deck in right field at Municipal Stadium on June 23, 1950 off Joe Haynes of the Senators, said to be the longest ball ever hit there. He also was able to finish the season playing first base, as Mickey Vernon was traded to Washington to accommodate him. And, as was inevitable, by the end of the year Easter had won over the hostile Cleveland crowds with his powerful swing and his endearing demeanor. He was a regular unannounced spectator at local sandlot games, and signed endless autographs for the children who came to watch him play. On the field, though, Luke’s struggle for acceptance continued, as he led the league in HBP.

Again in 1951, Luke was injured early, this time tearing a tendon in his left knee, but despite missing thirty games managed to hit 27 home runs and 103 RBIs, both team highs. The year was also significant for Easter due to the replacement of manager Lou Boudreau with Al Lopez, who had little use for immobile infielders—or, it has been said, for black players in general. Luke, riddled with injuries and illness as well as deteriorating vision, started extremely poorly for the 1952 Indians, and was demoted to AAA Indianapolis after hitting just .208 through 63 appearances. In Indianapolis, however, Luke caught fire, hitting .340 with six home runs and 12 RBIs in only fifty at-bats. He was quickly brought back to Cleveland, and he stayed hot for the rest of the season, hitting 20 homers in the second half and leading the league with a 7.1 home run percentage, a number which previously had been reached only by Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, Lou Gehrig and Ted Williams. At the end of the year has was named the American League’s Most Outstanding Player by The Sporting News. Hank Greenberg marveled, “his comeback is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. Six weeks ago…the snap in his swing was gone completely. They thought he’d never come back”.

Easter signed a contract for $20,000 at the beginning of the 1953 season and had high hopes of replicating his 1952 success. Unfortunately, he was struck by a pitch in the fourth game of the season, breaking a bone in his left foot. The injury hobbled him for the remainder of the season, and he was only able to appear in 63 games. He was released on October 1st, but was invited back to spring training the following year, when he was again slowed, this time by an infection in his toe. He had six pinch-hit at-bats for Cleveland before being optioned to the minor leagues when the club had to make its final roster cuts in early May. His final big-league appearance came on May 4. Easter was initially bitter at being demoted, but ended up playing very well. He played 56 games with the Padres and 66 with Ottawa, batting .348 in his time in Canada. Between Ottawa and San Diego he managed to hit 28 home runs, but was released by the Indians after the season.

BASEBALL, 1955-64: MINOR LEAGUE LEGACY

"When kids quit on me, I’ll quit, too." –Luke Easter

Buffalo fans have always worshipped their sport heroes, but few have ever attained the near mythical status accorded to Bisons great Luke Easter. –plaque in the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame

Despite his success in the majors, Luke Easter inarguably received his greatest acclaim and adulation as a minor leaguer. Just as he had in St. Louis, Cincinnati, San Diego and Cleveland, Easter became a local legend with his home run hitting and his likeable personality. He started with the Charleston (WV) Athletics of the American Association, where he tied for third in the league in home runs with 30. The following year, Easter signed a $7,500 contract with the newly independent Buffalo Bisons of the International League. Buffalo had just declined to renew their contract with the Detroit Tigers and were struggling with community ownership. The signing of Easter, the first black player on the team since Frank Grant in 1988, was their first important acquisition, and he did not disappoint. Although the 1956 Bisons finished 42 games out of first, Easter hit .306 and led the league with 35 homers and 106 RBIs. More importantly, he helped capture the city’s interest for the game with countless public appearances, a crucial task for a community-owned team. He played even better in 1957, hitting 40 home runs for the Bisons, who by this time had signed a player development contract with the Kansas City Athletics. Among those 40 home runs was one which has become perhaps the most famous of all of Big Luke’s famous blasts. Buffalo baseball historian Joe Overfeld tells the story in 100 Seasons of Buffalo Baseball:

The explosion occurred on the evening of June 14, 1957. It was mild and windless, and there was a trace of haze in the air. In the fourth inning of the second game of the evening’s double-header, Columbus left-hander Bob Kuzava delivered what he later called “a perfect pitch”—a knee-high fastball on the outside of the plate. Easter swung, timed the pitch perfectly and sent it soaring high and deep to center field. As the ball disappeared into the haze, there was a mighty roar from the crowd as many fans realized at once what had happened: Luke Easter had just become the first batter ever to hit a ball over the centerfield scoreboard. As Easter completed his lumbering home run trot, dead-pan all the way, the cheering and applause reached decibel levels never previously attained in the old park.

The center field fence at Offerman Stadium was 400 feet from home plate, and the scoreboard towered 60 feet in the air. The ball had traveled in an arc of approximately 550 feet. It concluded by crashing triumphantly through the window of Irene Luedke, who lived across the street from the stadium, and who “thought for sure someone had dropped an atom bomb on the roof”.After the game, Easter boldly predicted, “If my legs hold out, I’ll do it again”, and incredibly enough, he did, just two months later. Offerman Stadium saw its last game in 1960, and Easter went down in the history as the only man ever to clear that scoreboard—having accomplished it twice.

Luke played his third year with Buffalo in 1958, hitting 38 homers and driving in 109. After the season, however, the Bisons signed an agreement with the Philadelphia Phillies, who had important plans for prospect Francisco Herrera. Herrera, a big, left-handed first baseman, made Easter expendable. Several weeks into the 1959 season, on May 14, Easter was sold to the Rochester Red Wings for $100. He responded by paying tribute to the fans of Buffalo, and made the ninety mile trip down the interstate to Rochester, where the last chapter of his baseball career was to play out.

In the remainder of the 1959 season, Luke managed to hit 22 home runs and drive in 76 runs. He followed with 14 home runs in 1960, 10 in 1961, 15 in 1962 and 6 in 1963, his last full season. By this point, Easter was practically immobile, although he would not suffer any further injuries after leaving the Indians in 1953. Even as his hitting faltered, however, he managed to become perhaps the most popular player in Red Wings history. Long-time Rochester writer George Beahon wrote, “foul weather or fair, he never denied an autograph. During those years, after I filed stories from the press box to the morning paper, I would see Luke still around the clubhouse or the parking lot, signing his name and making friends for the franchise”. Luke Easter Night in 1960 drew over 8,000 fans to the park, who saw Luke receive “a color television set, fishing equipment, a $300 wrist watch with diamond numerals, a movie camera, luggage, and even a frozen turkey and five pounds of sausage”. In fact, Easter had started his own Luke Easter Sausage Company several years prior, and would regularly make gifts to his teammates in appreciation of strong performances.

Easter appeared in ten games as a pinch-hitter in 1964 before finally deciding to hang up his cleats, twenty-six years after his debut with the St. Louis Titanium Giants and fifteen years after breaking into the majors as a 34-year-old rookie. He remained with Rochester for the remainder of the season as a coach; major leaguers Boog Powell, Curt Blefary and Pete Ward all credited Easter with helping in their development. After the 1964 season, Luke moved back to Cleveland with his wife, Virgil. Aside from a short coaching stint with the Indians in 1969, necessary to qualify for pension benefits, he would never work in baseball again.

Click here to read about Easter's life after baseball and his legacy.

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