Today marks the 68th anniversary of the integration of the Cincinnati Reds roster. Fittingly, the color line was broken in Milwaukee, where the 2018 Reds will be playing tonight. It’s a story told in our new book – The Big 50: Cincinnati Reds: The Men and Moments that Made the Cincinnati Reds.
There’s an entire chapter on the integration, but we also found (and wrote!) a whole lot more about the two trailblazers, Puerto Rican native Saturnino “Nino” Escalera, the Reds first black player, and Charles Byron “Chuck” Harmon, the team’s first African-American player.