Luke Easter

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Luscious Luke Easter

Bats Left, Throws Right
Height 6' 4½", Weight 240 lb.

Debut August 11, 1949
Final Game May 4, 1954
Born August 4, 1915 in Jonestown, MS USA
Died March 29, 1979 in Euclid, OH USA

BR page

1 Biographical Information
2 Notable Achievements
3 Further Reading
4 Related Sites

[edit] Biographical Information

After playing in the Negro Leagues, first baseman Luke Easter played for several seasons with the Cleveland Indians. At age 41, after his major league career had ended, he joined the Buffalo Bisons of the International League. He was the Bisons' first black player in the 20th Century. In his first two seasons with the Bisons, Easter led the International League in home runs and runs batted in. His massive home runs and personality immediately endeared him to Buffalo fans.

Easter played in the minors for a full decade after he left the majors.

Easter coached the Rochester Red Wings from 1963 to 1965 and was a member of the Cleveland Indians coaching staff in 1969. He was shot and killed in a robbery in Euclid, Ohio in 1979.

Although Easter hit only .263 in 1952, he was second in the American League in home runs and thus was fifth in the league in Adjusted OPS. He was among the league leaders in both home runs and RBI in each of 1950, 1951, and 1952, the only years in which he played at least 120 games in the majors. He played in only 6 games at age 38 on the great 1954 Indians team that won 111 games. A first baseman, he lost his job to Bill Glynn.

Easter originally came up with the Indians two years after teammate and Hall of Famer Larry Doby broke the color barrier in the American League, although Doby was 8 years younger. In 2008, he was elected to the International League Hall of Fame.

He makes the "all holiday team" along with Steve Christmas.