Baseball Great Gene Baker: Iowa Time Machine June 15, 1925

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On June 15, 1925, baseball legend Eugene Baker was born in Davenport. Baker went on to become the first African-American to play for the Chicago Cubs.

Baker had become a phenomenal athlete by the time he attended Davenport High School. He starred in basketball and track, and was named to the All-State team in 1943. Because local policy kept African-Americans off the high school baseball team, he honed his skills on sandlots and in backyard games instead. He graduated at 17 in 1943, joined the U.S. Navy during World War II, and became a Fireman First Class. In the Navy, Baker got his first serious exposure to organized baseball, playing for the Ottumwa Naval Air Station and the Iowa Pre-Flight School Seahawks in Iowa City. That experience gave him a level of competition and structure that he could not get in Davenport, and it helped prepare him for the next step after the war.

After separating from the Navy, he played semi-pro and minor league baseball, including with the River Bandits in the Quad Cities, before signing with the legendary Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League. In 1950, he became the first Black player for the Chicago Cubs, playing for their farm team, the Des Moines Bruins, and later played for the Cubs in 1953 and 1954. Statistics confirm that Baker was selected for the National League All-Star team in 1955, the same year he played alongside Ernie Banks, forming the first African-American double-play duo in major league history.

In 1961, he became the first African-American manager in organized baseball when the Pittsburgh Pirates named him skipper of their Batavia farm club. In 1963, he took over for ejected Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh for two games, becoming the first African-American to manage in a major league game, and later returned to the Pirates as a scout. #Iowa #OTD #History #Baseball #BlackHistory