William De Kova White (born January 28, 1934 in Lakewood , Florida) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and left-handed batter who played for the New York and San Francisco Giants (1956, 1958), St. Louis Cardinals (1959-65, 1969) and Philadelphia Phillies (1966-68).
In his 13-season career, White batted .286 with 202 home runs and 870 RBI in 1673 games.
White soon moved on to a career as a sportscaster, enjoying stints at ABC, CBS Radio, and WPIX-TV, where he called New York Yankees games -- primarily with with Phil Rizzuto and Frank Messer . White served the Yankees broadcast crew from 1971 to 1988, doing radio as well as TV during most of that stretch. He was the first African American to do play-by-play regularly for a major-league sports team.
In 1978, calling the American League East championship game for WPIX-TV, White authored one of baseball's most famous calls -- that of Yankee shortstop Bucky Dent's home run in the seventh inning against the host Boston Red Sox:
- Deep to left! Yastrzemski will not get it -- it's a home run! A three-run home run for Bucky Dent and the Yankees now lead it by a score of three to two!
From 1989 to 1994, White served as president of the National League. White was the first African American to hold such a high executive postion in sports.
Highlights
- 5-time All-Star (1959-61, 1963-64)
- 7-time Gold Glove winner (1960-66)
- Twice Top 10 in MVP voting (1963-64)
- Hit a home run in his first at-bat (May 7, 1956)
- 8 times hit 20 or more home runs (1956, 1961-66)
- Tied a Ty Cobb record with 14 hits in consecutive doubleheaders (1961)
External links
Last updated: 05-09-2005 15:49:07
