Dan Bankhead was the first African-American pitcher in the majors. His baseball career covered a 26-year period.
Daniel Robert Bankhead (May 3, 1920 – May 2, 1976), was the first black pitcher in Major League Baseball. After a strong career in Negro league baseball playing for the Memphis Red Sox, he was signed at age 24 by Branch Rickey to play in the Brooklyn Dodgers' farm system. Bankhead, an excellent hitter who was leading the Negro League with a .385 batting average when purchased by the Dodgers, hit a home run in his first major league at bat on August 26, 1947, in Ebbets Field off Fritz Ostermueller of the Pittsburgh Pirates; however, this was to be the only major league home run Bankhead would hit, and he gave up ten hits in 3-1/3 innings pitching in relief that day. He was shipped to the minor leagues for the 1948 and 1949 seasons. Pitching for clubs in Nashua, New Hampshire and St. Paul, Minnesota in 1948, he recorded 24 wins and six losses.
He returned to the Dodgers for the 1950 season, appearing in 41 games, with twelve starts, and finished with nine wins, four losses and a 5.50 earned run average. In 1951, his final year in the majors, he appeared in seven games, losing his only decision, with an ERA of 15.43. He died of cancer at a Veterans Administration hospital in Houston, Texas. During World War II, he served in the Marine Corps from 1942 to 1945.
Sources: Wikipedia, Sheehan, Joseph (August 27, 1947), "Long Blows Help Beat Brooks, 16-3", The New York Times, retrieved 2007-08-05
Feuer, Alan (1950), "Bankhead in Dodger Fold", The New York Times (February 20, 1950), retrieved 2007-08-05
Feuer, Alan (1976), "Dan Bankhead, 54, Ex-Dodger, Is Dead", The New York Times (May 7, 1976), retrieved 2007-08-05
