Fred Valentine’s MLB career spanned 7 seasons
Fred Jeter | 1/5/2023, 6 p.m.
Fred Valentine, among the first HBCU alumni to play Major League Baseball, died Dec. 26 at age 87.
The switch-hitting outfielder from Clarks- dale, Miss., used Tennessee State University in Nashville as a springboard to a seven-season big league career.
Mr. Valentine was also among the first Black players to suit up for the Baltimore Orioles when he debuted in 1959. He later played for the expansion Washington Senators.
His best season was in 1966 when he hit .276 with 16 hom- ers, 59 runs batted in and had 22 stolen bases for the Senators under manager Gil Hodges.
For his career, spanning 533 games, Mr. Valentine had 360 hits with 56 doubles, 10 triples and 47 stolen bases.
He later played one season with Hanshin in the Japanese pro league.
The list of HBCU alumni in Major League Baseball lore isn’t a long one, but it is impressive. Here is a sampling:
Andre Dawson, Marquis Grissom and Vince Coleman (Florida A&M), Lou Brock and Rickie Weeks (Southern), Ralph Garr and Tommy Agee (Gram- bling), Earl Battey (Bethune- Cookman), Joe Black (Morgan State) and Al Bumbry, “The Bumblebee” (Virginia State).
Larry Doby, who followed Jackie Robinson in 1947 as the second African-American to break the color barrier, played one season of basketball at Virginia Union, but did not play baseball for the Panthers.
