(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo © by National Baseball Hall of Fame)
 Baseball-great & Hall of Famer Monte Irvin passed away
Nederlands
IN MEMORIAM 
...Monte Irvin...
(1919 - 2016)
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 HOUSTON, Texas (USA) -
Hall of Famer Monte Irvin has passed away on Monday (January 11) at the age of 96.
The baseball-great would have turned 97 next month.
Irvin was the second oldest living Hall of Famer, the oldest being Bobby Doerr, who turns 98 in April.
He was the oldest living former Negro Leagues-player.
Montford Merrill Irvin was born on February 25, 1919 in Haleburg (Alabama)
In high school, Irvin was a star in four sports, including baseball and American football.
He set a school-record in javelin.
Irvin also played for a local baseball-team, Orange Triangles, then went on attending Lincoln University, where he was a star in football.
After finishing school, he started playing baseball in the Negro League in 1938 and also played in Mexico.
His career was interrupted by military service from 1943 to 1945, serving in World War II.
Thereafter, Irvin returned to te Negro League, but then was signed by the New York Giants in 1949.
Irvin started 1949 with Jersey City (AAA).
The same year, he made his debut in the Major League, becoming one of the first two first African-Americans to play for the Giants and the seventh overall to play in the Major League.
He made his debut as a pinch-hitter on July 8, 1949 and went on to play in 36 games for the Giants, collecting 17 basehits.
In the same game, another African-American player made his debut with the Giants, Hank Thompson, who had made his Major League-debut two years earlier.
Irvin went on to play for the Giants through 1955, then played for the Chicago Cubs in 1956.
Because of a back-injury, his career ended in 1957.
In that year, he played in only four minor league-games.
In his eight Major League-seasons, Irvin played in 764 games.
The outfielder/first baseman hit 731 basehits, including 99 homeruns, scored 366 runs and batted in 443.
In three seasons, he finished with a batting average above .300.
In 1951, he became the first African-American player to lead the National League in Runs Batted In.
He batted in 121 runs, only five behind Ted Williams, who led the American League and the Major Leagues with 126.
In 1951, Irvin became the mentor of rookie-outfielder Willie Mays, who then made his debut with the Giants.
Irvin played in an All Star Game in 1952.
The Giants moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season after having played in New York since 1883.
In 1951, Irvin and the Giants won the National League-championship, then lost the World Series to the New York Yankees.
In 1954, he won the World Series with Giants, defeating the Cleveland Indians.
Before making his debut in the Major League at age 30, Monte Irvin already had a career in the Negro Leagues.
Playing in those leagues were very talented African-American players, who were not allowed to play in the Major League.
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color-barrier playing for the Brooklyn Giants to become the first colored player in a major American sport.
The same year, Larry Doby (July 5, Cleveland Indians) and Hank Thompson (July 17, St. Louis Browns) followed.
Many would join the Major League in following years, including Monte Irvin in 1949.
A lot of these players went on to become legendary players, including Willie Mays, Minnie Miñoso, Satchel Paige, Elston Howard, Roy Campanella, Larry Doby and of course Jackie Robinson.
Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks also have played in the Negro Leagues, but that was during the decline of these leagues and after integration of Afro-American players in the Major Leagues.
37 players with a Negro League-background were elected in the Hall of Fame.
Monte Irvin was a star in the Negro Leagues for eight years, playing for the Newark Eagles (1938-1942, 1946-1948) and was elected to play in five Nego League All Star Games.
Irvin also was a Most Valuable Player in the Puerto Rican Winter League in 1945-1946 and played in Cuba in 1948-1949.
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Monte Irvin later became a scout for the New York Mets.
In August 1968, then-MLB Commissioner William Eckert named Irvin Assistant Director of Public Relations.
With that, Irvin became the first African-American to work in an executive position in baseball.
Later, he also served as a Special Assistant of MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn.
In 1973, Monte Irvin was elected into the Hall of Fame by the Negro League Committee.
On August 6 of that year, he officially entered the Hall of Fame together with outfielder Roberto Clemente and pitcher Warren Spahn.
Clemente had died on December 31, 1972 when his plane crashed.
It had just taken off from San Juan (Puerto Rico) en route to Nicaraguan capital Managua, carrying supplies for victims of a major earthquake that struck the country a week earlier.
Clemente had chosen to personally accompany the fourth relief flight.
On March 30, 1973, a special election was held for the Hall of Fame, waiving the required five-year waiting period to posthumously elect Clemente.
In 1972, Irvin was elected into the Mexican Hall of Fame and in 1997 in the Cuban Hall of Fame.
In 2010, Monte Irvin's uniform number 20 was retired by the San Francisco Giants.
(January 13)
Recent Related Articles:
 Ken Griffey, Jr. & Mike Piazza elected into Hall of Fame. (January 6, 2016)
Presidential Medal of Freedom for Yogi Berra & Willie Mays. (November 25, 2015)
Legendary Hall of Famer Yogi Berra passed away. (September 23, 2015)
Baseball-icon Minnie Miñoso passed away. (March 1, 2015)
Baseball legend Ernie Banks passed away. (January 24, 2015)
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