Bill Swank: San Diego American Legion team broke color barrier, made history 85 years ago

American Legion Baseball was born 100 years ago in tiny Milbank, S.D., to “teach courage and respect, sportsmanship and citizenship.”

San Diego’s Legion teams made the centennial season one worth celebrating.

Two teams qualified for this year’s state tournament in Orange. Downtown San Diego Post 492 (Hoover Panthers) beat Santee Post 364 (West Hills Tomcats) to finish third in the state. The Panthers lost 6-2 to eventual state champion Petaluma Post 28.

The teams’ performances continued a proud tradition of Legion baseball in San Diego.

Eighty-five years ago Thursday, a San Diego Legion team with two Black players made history in Shelby, N.C. The integrated San Diego Post 6 team defeated a St. Louis team to advance to the finals. Johnny Ritchey and Nelson Manuel broke the American Legion’s color barrier south of the Mason-Dixon Line seven years before Jackie Robinson made his debut for Major League Baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers.

To understand the significance, consider San Diego’s Legion history in the South.

Post 6 won the 1938 national championship in Spartanburg, S.C., beating the favored hosts.

Larry Simerly, sports editor of the Spartanburg Herald, wrote: “It was a fitting climax to one of the finest, cleanest and most capable kids teams ever seen in action here. The Westerners let the jitters get the best of them in the first two games, blowing early leads in both. Thereafter, they outclassed Spartanburg completely to triumph 7 to 4, 10 to 2 and 4 to 1.”

The winner’s trophy was presented to San Diego team captain Stanley Sharp by the chairman of the Legion’s Americanism committee, Homer Chaillaux.

There was a cruel irony to Chaillaux’s position on the Americanism committee. Ritchey and Manuel were not allowed to compete that year because they were Black. Making it worse, organizers erroneously referred to Manuel as Byron Nelson, the name of a popular white golfer; they couldn’t even get his name right.

In 1940, Post 6 again qualified for the Legion semifinals in Shelby. San Diego coach Mike Morrow was given assurances that Richey and Manuel, who were still on the team, would be allowed to participate. On Aug. 28 of that year, San Diego came back from four down in the opener to beat St. Louis Aubuchon Post 186, 5-4. Ritchey doubled Lou Ortiz home with the winning run. The following day, Ritchey and Manuel each went 3-for-5 as Post 6 eliminated St. Louis 13-4 for the right to meet Albemarle Post 76 … in Albemarle, N.C.

The best-of-five championship series was set to begin when Chaillaux sent a telegram: “Negroes Nelson Manuel and John Ritchey will not play in the opener today.” Or for the rest of the series.

It was devastating news for Morrow and San Diego’s entire team.

San Diego won the first game, lost the next two, then came back to tie the series. Albemarle won the winner-take-all game 9-8 to “claim” the national championship.

Morrow was not happy, given that he had received assurances that Ritchey and Manuel could both play. Ritchey was the team’s leading hitter with a .398 batting average.

“They played for me all the way across the country,” Morrow said. “They are good boys and good ballplayers. They are two of my best players.”

World War II was on the horizon. Ritchey joined the Army. He earned staff sergeant stripes and four battle stars as a member of the combat engineer corps and Red Ball Express. In 1946, he returned to his studies at San Diego State and led the Aztecs with a .356 batting average. He moved on to the Negro American League’s Chicago American Giants, where he won the batting title in 1947 with a .381 average.

Ritchey then signed with his hometown San Diego Padres and, in 1948, broke the Pacific Coast League’s color barrier.

Richey never forgot the humiliation at Albemarle. Although Post 6 lost the 1940 championship, the team’s performance in the semifinals was triumphant. “Shelby 1940” is a long-forgotten but significant moment in American Legion baseball history. The Legion briefly did the right thing, only to reverse course.

Little did Ritchey realize that he would become the Jackie Robinson of the PCL.