This Date In Baseball History- November 30, 1952. The great Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers on a local television program in New York called out New York Yankee management as being racist. Robinson had broken into the majors in 1947- a full five years had passed and the Yankees still hadn’t had a black player. General Manager George Weiss of the Yankees of course denied the allegations but come on- it was true. It wouldn’t be until 1955 that Elston Howard would become the first black player on the Yankees- eight years after Jackie Robinson broke in. This slowness to integrate would eventually catch up with the Yankees- a big reason why their dynasty came to an end in the mid-60’s.

According to the book Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee, Weiss at a cocktail party stated loudly that “he would never allow a black man to wear a Yankee uniform.” The Yankees farm system had in place a policy preventing black players from reaching the major league club, according to the book. Howard, the first African- American Yankee, was switched from an outfielder to a catcher, the position at which it would be least likely to break into the major league club, given Berra’s presence.