The evening of July 17, 1956, in St. Louis was stereotypically muggy and humid, with temperatures still in the upper 80s. At Busch Stadium on the northwest corner of Grand and Dodier, which for most of its time was known as Sportsman’s Park, Charlie Peete stepped up to the plate.
Peete, a 27-year-old Black ballplayer from Portsmouth, Virginia, had finally gotten his call-up to the St. Louis Cardinals. Entering the game as a pinch hitter, Peete walked in his first plate appearance and would hit a hard groundout in his second.
Peete would play just 23 games with the Cardinals in 1956, but the highly touted prospect was expected to compete heavily for the starting center field role the next season. Had Peete achieved that, he likely would have become the first Black position player in franchise history to earn a permanent starting job. But Peete never got that chance. Just a few months later, he, his wife and three young children were among 25 people killed in a plane crash just outside Caracas, Venezuela.
Journalist and St. Louis native Danny Spewak details Peete’s life in the new book, “Cardinal Dreams: The Legacy of Charlie Peete and a Life Cut Short.”
Spewak writes about Peete’s childhood under Jim Crow laws and his path through professional baseball that started with the Negro American League’s Indianapolis Clowns.
To hear more about Charlie Peete’s life, including how baseball history might have changed had Peete lived, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
