No. 5

Dan Bankhead had a fine old Southern name, a good fast ball and a fair curve. For the Memphis Red Sox in the Negro American League, he had won ten games against five losses. Branch Rickey personally scouted him and decided he could help the Dodgers.

Last week, in his Brooklyn debut, big (6 ft. 3 in.) Dan Bankhead, fifth Negro player to reach the majors, winged Pirate Outfielder Wally Westlake with a fast ball. A few breaths were tight-held--this might be the "incident" that many baseball men had feared. But Westlake trotted casually down to first. It was clear that, within the space of a single season, fans and players alike were beginning to take Negro players for granted.

Brooklyn's Jackie Robinson had done his part in the club's pennant drive, hitting .300 or a few points over or under and leading the league in stolen bases (25). Of the other four Negroes in the majors, the St. Louis Browns' Henry Thompson and Willard Brown had been released after a month's trial; Cleveland's Larry Doby was still hanging on, as a pretty impotent pinch hitter.

Whether or not Bankhead would bolster the Dodgers' sagging pitching staff might take some time to tell. In his 3 1/3inning relief stint against the Pirates--on a day when Kiner & Co. really had their hitting shoes on--he gave up 10 hits and 8 runs. He couldn't ever do much worse than that, and he looked as though he could do quite a lot better. His batting, on the other hand, could not be improved on: his first time at bat, Bankhead fouled off several pitches, then banged a home run into the left field stands.

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