On Monte Irvin: A New Jersey Titan and New York Giant

From the desk of: 100th Anniversary of Negro Leagues Baseball

1919   MONTE IRVIN   2016

INSCRIPTION

"I always felt like I had a mission in life,

I thought I was born to play sports."

A New Jersey Titan and New York City Giant 

NEWARK EAGLES

1938  ~  1948

Monte Irvin is born on February 10, 1919, at Haleburg, Alabama.  His family moves north to New Jersey, where Monte attends and plays ball for East Orange High School, where he concurrently plays semi-pro ball with a negro team named the Smart Set at Hinchliffe Stadium in Patterson, N.J.  There, he is scouted by Abe Manley-1, who signs the young Monte Irvin to a contract with the Negro National League Newark Eagles.

At 19-years of age, Irvin's 1938 professional debut is fleeting.  Still effectively a rookie in 1939, he bats .257, with three home runs and 19 runs batted in, through 31 games and 109 at-bats.  By 1940 Monte begins revealing his true talents.  The shortstop slashes .371/.430/.573, with four home runs and 39 runs batted in, through 38 games and 143 at-bats.  What follows are perhaps the best two seasons of his ten year Negro League career.  In 1941 Monte Irvin led the Eagles in all major offensive categories, slashing .395/.441/.643 in 42 games and 157 at-bats with sixty hits, twelve doubles, eight home runs, and 48 runs batted in.  Monte Irvins then spends most of the 1942 season playing in Mexico (in what is speculated to be a pay dispute between him and the Eagles) and a small portion with Newark.  Irvin nevertheless slashes a prolific .412/.508/.792, with 21 home runs and 90 runs batted in, through 67 total games and 255 at-bats.

Monte spends the next three years (1943-1945) serving with the United States Army overseas in Europe.  Two years before Jackie Robinson integrates major league baseball, Branch Ricky, in 1945, attempts to sign Irvin.2  Monte declines, citing his recent discharge from military service and what he deems a lack of game preparedness.  As one of the greatest "what ifs" in all of baseball and American history, Monte Irvin himself says, "I don't have any regrets."-2

"Monte was the choice of all Negro National and American League club owners to serve as the #1 player to join a white major league team." - Effa Manley 2

Now 27-years old, Irvin returns to Newark in time for the Eagles historic 1946 season.  Allied with second baseman (and fellow Hall of Fame member) Larry Doby, the two are considered among the most extraordinary double-play combinations throughout baseball.  Irvin hits five home runs at the plate and leads the Eagles with a .363 batting average and 53 RBI.  Larry Doby hits a team-leading seven home runs while batting .339, with 47 runs batted in.  On the mound, the Eagles boast an exceptional pair of double-digit winners.  On Opening Day, May 5, 1946, Leon Day throws a no-hitter against the Philadelphia Stars.   He posts an 11-2 record (13-4 overall) with a 2.41 ERA and 97 strikeouts in 123 innings pitched.  Day leads the Negro National League in wins, complete games, innings pitched, and strikeouts.  Max Manning posts a 10-2 record and 2.80 ERA with 63 strikeouts over 109.1 innings pitched.  Complimenting Newark's one-two punch is pitching mate Rufus Lewis, who goes 7-2 with a 2.73 ERA and 49 strikeouts in thirteen appearances and 82.1 innings pitched.  Lewis goes on to play an essential role in the Eagles' post-season to come.

"If we had one game to win, we 
wanted Leon to pitch." - Monte Irvin 3

Newark dominates the Negro National League regular season, soaring to a 50-20 (.714) record en route to a perch atop the standings (and a 54-24 record against all comers).  The Eagles dethrone Homestead as Negro National League champions, snapping the Gray's historic string of nine consecutive pennants.  Newark next braces for the Kansas City Monarchs, as the Negro National League champion is pitted against the Negro American League champion in the fifth ever Negro League World Series.  Newark wins four games against three.  Meanwhile, the veteran Monte Irvin makes the 1946 series a personal showcase, leading all hitters with a .462 batting average, a .533 OBP, three home runs, and a .885 slugging average.  Monte's eight RBI for the series ranks second, two behind Kansas City center fielder Willard Brown.

Two more seasons pass.  After spending his twenties with Newark, Monte's playing days with the Eagles end after the 1948 season.  Newark owners Abe and Effa Manley sell the fabled Eagles.  New ownership relocates the team to Houston, where they become affiliated with the Negro American League.  But far more importantly, Monte Irvin is purchased by the New York Giants National League baseball club.

Monte Irvin's Ten Seasons With Newark, according to Negro Leagues Data Base @ SEAMHEADS

NOTE: In any given year Negro League seasons could have consisted anywhere between 30 to 80 games sans barnstorming.

In 353 career games with Newark Monte posts a career slash .347/.425/.572, with 61 home runs, and 338 runs batted in.  SEAMHEADS translates this into an average 162 game season and this is what they come up with:

• AB: 593
• Runs: 133
• Hits: 206
• Doubles: 32
• HR: 28
• RBI: 155
• Slash: .347/425/.572

Perhaps this is why he is nicknamed Dr. Murder.

Monte Irvin, now 30-years old, debuts for the Giants in 1949, two full seasons ahead of Willie Mays' arrival in Manhattan.  Irvin spends that first season split between the Polo Grounds and the Giants International League affiliate at Jersey City.  By 1950, Monte is giving the National League a good taste of what they've been missing all these years, batting .299 with fifteen home runs and 66 runs batted in through 110 games and 374 at-bats.  In 1951, Monte Irvin, following previous all-time Giants slugging greats, lays siege to National League pitchers.  The 32-year old leads the team with a .312 batting average and .514 slugging average with 24 home runs, 121 runs batted in, and a team-high twelve stolen bases - all of which help elevate the Giants to their first National League pennant in fourteen years.  Monte goes on to bat .458 in the 1951 World Series against the Yankees and successfully steals home.  A broken ankle in 1952 limits Monte to just 46 games, but he returns in 1953 to post a .329 average, 21 home runs, and 97 runs batted in.  The following season, Monte, Willie Mays, and Leo Durocher's New York Giants reach baseball's mountain top when in the 1954 Fall Classic, they sweep four games from the favored Cleveland Indians.  Sadly, the following season abruptly turns into Monte's last with the Giants.  At 37-years of age, he is selected by the Chicago Cubs in the November Rule V draft, and just like that, upper Manhattan's beloved outfielder is gone.  Monte Irvin retires after the 1956 season.  Seventeen years pass until in 1973, he is finally inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame, voted in by the Negro Leagues Committee.

PLAQUE AT RENAMED MONTE IRVIN ORANGE PARK

"Monte Irvin was the best all-around 

athlete I ever saw." - Roy Campanella

NEW YORK GIANTS

1949 ~ 1955

1 - The Most Famous Woman in Baseball, Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues by Bob Luke
2 - Monte Irvin Created a Legacy MLB
3 - Leon Day SABR
Monte Irvin SABR
Negro League Stats SEAMHEADS
MLB STATS Baseball-Reference Monte Irvin
Kansas City PBS