A career that barely lasted but changed Cardinals history forever

Welcome back to a continuing set of articles during Black History Month honoring African American contributions to the St. Louis Cardinals. Last time, I called for the Cardinals to retire the jersey of the legendary Bill White - you can read that here. This time, I’m going to be looking back on the career of the first black player in the history of the franchise: Tom Alston.

Why Tom Alston was brought to the Cardinals

Tom Alston was born in 1926 and played first base for the Cardinals from 1954-1956. I’d wager that not many readers of Redbird Rants actively recall those teams, so it’s important to pay homage to our shared history as Cardinals fans as we move forward. His origin story doesn’t start in St. Louis, but rather begins in San Diego as Cardinals owner Gussie Busch asked manager Eddie Stanky (they don’t really make names like that anymore, do they?) to “find a black player.”

This resulted in a trade that brought Alston over from the Padres. Busch deserves some credit here as he felt that excluding black players from the MLB was morally wrong. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier a full seven years before this trade was executed and so the Cardinals were lagging behind. The motives were not entirely pure, as Busch was seeking to curry favor with the African American community in the region. Busch’s company made good revenue from this community. America: home of moral rights and capitalism, always.

The trade was not without its hangups though. As Alston reported to the Cardinals, the team discovered he was two years older than the Padres had advertised. In turn, the Cardinals demanded compensation for this in a move that would break social media if it happened today.

On the field

Once the dust settled, Alston started on April 13, 1954 smashing through a barrier in St. Louis that paved the way for Cardinals legends to come. In that season, he played 66 games, batting .249 with 6 homeruns and 34 RBIs. During the next two seasons, Alston appeared in a combined 25 games for the team and then never wore the birds on the bat on the field in St. Louis ever again. 

You don’t need to do a FanGraphs deep dive to see that in purely baseball terms, this was not a very successful career. However, we cannot shrink Tom Alston’s impact down to a stat line. While sports is first and foremost about entertainment, it should not be surprising to us that, on occasion, it transcends its own sphere and interact with issues of the day. The earthquake during the World Series and George W. Bush throwing out the first pitch in Yankee Stadium during the World Series after 9/11 immediately spring to mind. Sports have a way of bridging gaps and bringing humanity together despite its differences. Without Tom Alston, this process could’ve never really started in St. Louis.

The Takeaway

So what do we make of a man with an insignificant baseball career and an outsized social impact on one of the most storied franchises in the longest-running professional sports league in the United States? We look beyond WAR and find significance in the barrier that was broken. We see a life that brought needed change to a beloved organization. And we see a man who surely pushed through social pressures to have the career he had.

In short, we appreciate the greatness of Tom Alston in spite of the brevity of his playing career. It’s worth remembering a man who paved the path for some of our favorite Cardinals ever.