Bill White made a difference
As we celebrate Black History Month, a former first baseman, broadcaster and baseball executive deserves to be acknowledged.
William (Bill) DeKova White endured and made a difference. Now 90, Bill is one of 15 nonagenarians among the Phillies Alumni.
Born in Lakewood, Fla., his first home was a shack with no electricity or indoor plumbing (via SABR bio project). At age 3, his mother and grandmother moved north to Warren, Ohio. With his mother working, Bill was raised by his grandmother. Following graduation from Warren G. Harding High School he enrolled at Hiram (Ohio) College, a pre-med student on an academic scholarship.
Elected class president his senior year in high school, the principal ended the tradition of a dance with the prom queen because she was white.
As a high school athlete, White lettered in baseball, basketball and football. A left-handed-hitting first baseman at Hiram, Bill began to draw attention from baseball scouts. The New York Giants initially offered $1,000. He balked, and the offer was increased to $2,500.
The Giants sent the 19-year-old to Danville, Va., out of Spring Training in 1953. In 134 games, he hit .298 with 25 doubles, 20 homers and 84 RBIs. He was the only Black player in the entire league. He encountered racial abuse by fans. “Probably the worst time of my life,” he said in the SABR story. Black people had to endure legal segregation in the 1959s and 1960s, not allowed to stay in the same hotels and dine in certain restaurants. Racist insults and threats were prominent in ballparks.
Three years later, Bill made his Major League debut with the New York Giants in St. Louis. Batting sixth, he had three hits, including a home run in his first at-bat. He hit 21 more home runs his rookie season. 1957 was spent in the Army. Assigned to Fort Knox (Ky.) he played on the baseball team. He quit the team at the end of the season when he was refused entrance into restaurants while his teammates didn’t seem to care.
Bill rejoined the Giants in late July in 1958, their first season in San Francisco. They had three first basemen: White, Orlando Cepeda and 20-year-old Willie McCovey in the Minors. In Spring Training the following year, Bill was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals.
In seven seasons with the Cardinals, he was an All-Star seven times and a Gold Glove winner six times.
Racism came to the front in 1961 during the Cardinals' Spring Training in St. Petersburg, Fla. Black players were not allowed in the team hotel. Instead, they stayed with families. Then the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce invited only white players to its annual “Salute to Baseball” banquet. “When will we be made to feel like humans?” White asked a reporter. He went public in an interview with The Associated Press. Because of his actions, hotel accommodations changed the following Spring Training.
According to a 2020 WPVI TV article, White and another player, Bill Bruton, worked to get the Major League Baseball Players Association to vote not to play in cities that required segregated living facilities.
In 1964, the Phillies’ 10-game losing streak near the end of the season paved the way for the Cardinals to win the pennant and World Series -- his lone World Series ring. Bill finished third in the National League MVP voting.
He was sent to the Phillies in a six-player trade on April 3, 1966. In 159 games, he racked up 23 doubles, 22 home runs, 103 RBIs and a .276 average. He moved to Philadelphia and made the area his permanent home. Playing paddleball that winter, he tore his right Achillies tendon. The injury forced him to miss most of April in 1967. His production was down that season and the next. Early in the 1969 season, he was traded back to St. Louis. He played his last game (No. 1,673) on Sept. 24.
In his first Phillies season, he met Lew Klein, an executive producer at Channel 6, then WFIL TV. Bill’s on-the-air career began with a pre-recorded pregame show. In the offseason, he did sports reporting, calling college basketball and ice hockey, the first black broadcaster on an NHL game. Following his on-the-field career, he was named the station’s first sports director. He teamed with news anchor Larry Kane and weathercaster Frank Davis on the new “Action News” format in April of 1970.
On Feb. 10, 1971, Bill was hired by the Yankees, becoming the first Black broadcaster in the Major Leagues. For 18 seasons, he worked with Phil Rizzuto. White also was hired by CBS Radio and ABC Sports to do national work, where he was a part of the Winter Olympics coverage in 1980 and 1984. White called five World Series on CBS Radio (1976-78, 1987-88).
After leaving the booth, he was offered the position as National League president. He initially declined, but was chosen unanimously on Feb. 3, 1989, the first African-American ever to head a major sports league. Expansion that included Denver and Miami came on his watch. He battled owners over hiring minorities in front offices and the dugout.
When Bud Selig became Commissioner, baseball’s structure was headed for a change in which the league presidents would eventually be eliminated. Knowing this, Bill retired in 1994.
White was one of eight candidates on the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot (non-players) for the Hall’s Class of 2024. The ballot featured managers, executives and umpires whose primary impact was from 1980 and beyond. Manager Jim Leyland is the lone inductee. As a player, he was on the writers’ HOF ballot as well as the Veterans Committee ballot, three years each.
He served on the Baseball Hall of Fame’s board of directors as well as a voting member of several Veterans Committees.
Through his actions and accomplishments, Bill White certainly made a difference.