Jake Powell

Alvin Jacob Powell (July 15 1908 - November 4 1948) born in Silver Spring, Maryland was an outfielder for the Washington Senators (1930, 1934-36 and 1943-45), New York Yankees (1936-40) and Philadelphia Phillies (1945).

He helped the Yankees win the World Series every year from 1936-39. In 11 seasons he played in 688 games and had 2,540 at Bats, 353 runs, 689 hits, 116 doubles, 26 triples, 22 home runs, 327 RBI, 65 stolen bases, 173 walks, a .271 batting average, .320 on-base percentage, .363 slugging percentage, 923 total bases and 43 sacrifice hits.

On July 29, 1938, in a pregame radio interview, Chicago White Sox broadcaster Bob Elson asked Powell what he did in the offseason. He replied (falsely) that he was a police officer in Dayton, Ohio. When Elson asked what Powell did to stay in shape, Powell responded, using a racial slur, that he "cracked [blacks] over the head with his nightstick." After a surge of public outrage, including calls that Powell be banned for life, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis suspended Powell for 10 games.

In November of 1948, Powell was arrested in Washington, D.C. for allegedly passing bad checks. Distraught and mentally unstable, Powell pulled out a gun while in police custody and committed suicide. He was 40 years old.

External links

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* [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/sports/baseball/27powell.html Chris Lamb, "A Public Slur in '38 Laid Bare The Game's Racism", The New York Times, July 27, 2008.]