| Horace Garner | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Outfielder | |||
| Born:July 17, 1923 | |||
| Died: July 6, 1995 (aged 71) | |||
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Horace T. Garner (July 17, 1923 – July 6, 1995) was an American baseball outfielder. He played for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League in 1949 and played in minor league baseball for ten seasons, from 1951 to 1959 and in 1961.
The Indianapolis Clowns were a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. Tracing their origins back to the 1930s, the Clowns were the last of the Negro League teams to disband, continuing to play exhibition games into the 1980s. They began play as the independent Ethiopian Clowns, joined the Negro American League as the Cincinnati Clowns and, after a couple of years, relocated to Indianapolis. Hank Aaron was a Clown for a short period, and the Clowns were also one of the first professional baseball teams to hire a female player.
The Negro American League was one of the several Negro leagues created during the time organized American baseball was segregated. The league was established in 1937, and disbanded after its 1962 season.
In the minor leagues, Garner played in the Boston Braves (later the Milwaukee Braves) farm system. In 1953, the Braves sent Garner, along with fellow black teammates Hank Aaron and Félix Mantilla, to the Jacksonville Braves in the South Atlantic League. The team thus became one of the first two racially integrated teams in the South Atlantic League, and one of the first ever in Florida. [1] [2] [3]
Henry Louis Aaron, nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", is a retired American Major League Baseball (MLB) right fielder who serves as the senior vice president of the Atlanta Braves. He played 21 seasons for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves in the National League (NL) and two seasons for the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League (AL), from 1954 through 1976. Aaron held the MLB record for career home runs for 33 years, and he still holds several MLB offensive records. He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973, and is one of only two players to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times. In 1999, The Sporting News ranked Aaron fifth on its "100 Greatest Baseball Players" list.
Félix Mantilla Lamela is a former Major League Baseball player. In his 11-year career, Mantilla played for the Milwaukee Braves (1956–61), New York Mets (1962), Boston Red Sox (1963–65) and Houston Astros (1966). An infielder and outfielder, he played second base the majority of his career. He also played shortstop, third base (143), the outfield (156) and, in the latter part of his career, first base (16). He batted and threw right-handed.
The Jacksonville Braves were a minor league baseball team based in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. The Class A affiliate of the Milwaukee Braves Major League Baseball team, they played in the South Atlantic League from 1953 to 1961. They played their home games at Durkee Field and then Wolfson Park.
Garner spent ten seasons in the minor leagues, from 1951 to 1959 and in 1961. He hit .321 with 1,115 hits, 190 doubles, 37 triples and 157 home runs in 997 games. [4]
