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First Black San Francisco Giant to Have Number Retired

By Quibian Salazar-Moreno on Jun 18th 2010 9:54AM
Filed under: Baseball

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First Black San Francisco Giant to Have Number Retired

It was way back in 1949 when Monte Irvin joined the San Francisco Giants. He was thirty years old, was already a star in the Negro Leagues and was the first Black player on the Giants' roster.

He played with the team for seven seasons,will contributing to their National League championship in 1951 and 1954 and their World Series title in 1954 which was the last time the Giants won the World Series. Now 55 years later, the Giants have announced they will retire Irvin's No. 20 on June 26.


"The decision by the Giants to retire my number was totally unexpected on my part," Irvin told MLB.com. "I just thought the Giants had forgotten about me after all of these years. When I considered everything, I just couldn't turn down the trip because I will have a chance to see people like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda and Gaylord Perry [former Giants who previously had their numbers retired]."



Irvin is now 91 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame back in 1973. He is also a World War II veteran who currently lives in a retirement home in Houston, Texas. He doesn't travel outside of Texas that often but will make an exception for the retirement of his number.
"Mr. Irvin was the first African-American player to play for the Giants," said Senior VP of Communications Staci Slaughter. "He, with Willie Mays and Hank Thompson, constituted the first all-African-American outfield. Plus he had a storied career in the Negro Leagues. It's only appropriate we pay tribute to him."



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