American Valor Quarterly Issue 11 - Fall 2014 | Page 25

A

Part of History

The World War II and Major League Baseball Story of

Monte Irvin

From Monte Irvin
In addition to being a Baseball Hall of
Fame left fielder, Monte Irvin was among the
first African Americans to break the color
barrier in Major League Baseball. He joined
with Willie Mays and Hank Thompson to
make up the first all-black outfield in the
Majore Leagues. His days as a left fielder and
batter for the New York Giants had many
memorable moments, including winning the
World Series in 1954.

I

grew up in Orange, N.J., in
Essex County. In 1927 my family
moved from Alabama, my
birthplace, to New Jersey, when I
was eight years old. I started playing
baseball in grade school. My first game
was soccer, and then when the baseball

to New Jersey we experienced more
freedom than we had ever known.

team came along, I went out for the
team. I was a pitcher because I could
throw harder than everybody else. I
was playing, exercising, running, and
jumping—I grew strong, big and fast.
That’s how I developed my arm. I have
positive and fond memories of growing
up. When we migrated from Alabama

highest honors in all four sports. While
I attended college, I played under an
assumed name in the Negro Leagues:
Jimmy Nelson. I didn’t want to lose
my athletic scholarship so I wouldn’t
play at home, but when we went on
the road I used the Jim Nelson name.

In Orange High School, I was a
four-sport star. I received a scholarship
to Lincoln University in Oxford,
Pennsylvania. There I played basketball,
football, baseball, and track. I made the

Irvin was born Feb. 25, 1919, in Haleburg,
Alabama, moving to New Jersey when he was
eight. World War II interrupted his blossoming
baseball career, after he had joined the Negro
Leagues’ Newark Eagles in 1939. After
being drafted into the Army, Irvin worked as
an engineer in the Army, serving in Europe.
The segregated Army of the time kept him out
of combat, and he and the other black soldiers
were only given weapons and ammunition
during the crucial time of the Battle of the
Bulge, when they were allowed to guard key
installations.
Following World War II, segregation in the
Army - and baseball - would come to an end,
in no small part due to the honorable service
of so many African Americans during the
war. Monte Irvin would go on to an incredibly
successful career in baseball, and was inducted
into the Hall of Fame in 1973. He joined the
American Veterans Center’s Annual Veterans
Conference in 2008, where he and fellow
MLB veterans of World War II shared their
experiences. Following that event, the AVC
and Irvin came together to share his story.

FALL 2014

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