When did the colour barrier fall? In 1947? No ... not strictly speaking. It was breached in 1947 by Jackie Robinson. The Boston Red Sox finally "integrated" (read: embraced tokenism) in 1959. So I would have to say the the colour barrier "fell" (at least as far as players were concerned) sometime in the sixties or even later.

My point?

Well when you evaluate the career of Minnie Minoso you have to take into consideration that had he been white he probably wouldn't have had to wait until he was 28 before he landed a full time job at the major league level. To
No relation to Mickey Mousoso
put that in some sort of context, Hammerin' Hank Aaron had just under 300 HR by the time he was 28, even with military service, Willie Mays sat at 250 dingers when he was 28. Frank Robinson had 262, Ken Griffey Jr. garnered 294, Frank Thomas collected 222.

See my point? You miss a lot when you start late.

Even with the late start, Minoso had a whale of a career. Some claims to fame; seven All-Star selections, a pair of Gold Gloves (one for each hand), three times he paced the AL in triples and stolen bases.

Sound like a "burner" a "speed merchant?"

During the eleven years he spent as a fulltime player (1951-61), he batted .304, ripped 319 doubles, blasted 179 circuit clouts and smacked 81 triples.

Bear in mind he accomplished a lot of this in difficult pitcher's parks like Municipal Stadium in Cleveland and Old Comiskey Park. Another weapon in his arsenal those year was a keen batting eye. He drew 766 freebies those years for a sparkling OBP of .429 (he finished his career at .389).

And we're not even done yet ... he had four 100 RBI seasons after his 30th birthday, his last coming at age 37. During that 11 year span he slugged .471 and was a major run producer on the otherwise punchless Pale Hose scoring 1078 runs and driving in 977. He turned the 100 run and 100 RBI trick in consecutive years (1953 and 1954), and topped 100+ runs five times. When his career finally came to an end he had scored 1136 runs and had driven in 1023. He finished his career 37 hits shy of 2000.

Not too shabby. He had a superb career even without taking into account it's late start. Specualtion, projections and conjecture doesn't really mean much, but if you were to give him a career that reflected his talents rather than his race I think you'd see his plaque in the Heroes Gallery at Cooperstown.

Minnie Minoso - BATTING TOTALS
YR
1949
1951
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1976
1980		TM
Cle
Cle
Chi
Chi
Chi
Chi
Chi
Chi
Chi
Cle
Cle
Chi
Chi
StL
Was
Chi
Chi
Chi		LG
AL
AL
AL
AL
AL
AL
AL
AL
AL
AL
AL
AL
AL
NL
AL
AL
AL
AL		POS
OF
1B
OF
OF
OF
OF
OF
OF
OF
OF
OF
OF
OF
OF
OF
OF
DH
 		G
9
8
138
147
151
153
139
151
153
149
148
154
152
39
109
30
3
2		AB
16
14
516
569
556
568
517
545
568
556
570
591
540
97
315
31
8
2		AVG
.188
.429
.324
.281
.313
.320
.288
.316
.310
.302
.302
.311
.280
.196
.229
.226
.125
.000		R
2
3
109
96
104
119
79
106
96
94
92
89
91
14
38
4
0
0		H
3
6
167
160
174
182
149
172
176
168
172
184
151
19
72
7
1
0		2B
0
2
32
24
24
29
26
29
36
25
32
32
28
5
12
0
0
0		3B
0
0
14
9
8
18
7
11
5
2
0
4
3
0
2
0
0
0		HR
1
0
10
13
15
19
10
21
12
24
21
20
14
1
4
1
0
0		RBI
1
2
74
61
104
116
70
88
103
80
92
105
82
10
30
5
0
0		OBP
.350
.529
.419
.375
.410
.411
.387
.425
.408
.383
.377
.374
.369
.271
.315
.351
.125
.000		SLG
.375
.571
.498
.424
.466
.535
.424
.525
.454
.484
.468
.481
.420
.278
.317
.323
.125
.000
TotalsG
1835		AB
6579		BAVG
.298		R
1136		H
1963		2B
336		3B
83		HR
186		RBI
1023		OBP
.389		SLG
.459

Photos courtesy of chisox.com

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