TOWER GROVE — More than 100 players and at least six entire teams will take to the fields Sunday wearing the heaviest number in baseball, Jackie Robinson’s No. 42. The Cardinals and the Brewers will be two of those teams as every player at Busch Stadium will wear a “42″ jersey on the 60th anniversary of Robinson puncturing major-league baseball’s color barrier.

There’s an argument to be had that at least one Cardinal should wear No. 10.

That’s Tom Alston’s number.

On April 13, 1954 — 53 years ago today — the Cardinals opened the season at Busch Stadium I against the Chicago Cubs. Wally Moon homered in his first major-league  at-bat, Stan Musial homered, too, and the Cardinals still lost, 13-4. But the game  was historic for something far more important that hits and runs: Alston, a 23-year-old first baseman, made his debut as the first African-American to play for the Cardinals.

Reader Dan Felty, of Columbia, Mo., posed a worthy question when he wrote me a few days ago:

April 13 is the date Tom Alston, the first black player for the Cardinals, made his debut in 1954. Is there any plan for the team to commemorate this occasion? Alston wore uniform number 10, which, of course, happens to be worn by Tony La Russa. As manager, he is in a unique position to lead the team in honoring Mr. Alston. I think it would be fitting to have a pregame ceremony next Friday (or perhaps on the 15th in conjunction with the Robinson activities) to commemorate Mr. Alston, especially in light of the club’s history as particularly averse to breaking the color barrier. I can’t remember any sort of celebration in the past; please fill me in if such a thing has happened. You have a great position from which to encourage this to take place; please try to get your fellow members of the media and the organization to get behind such a celebration!    

Looking through The Post-Dispatch’s morgue, there is coverage of Alston coming to St. Louis in June 1990 to throw out the first pitch of a game against the Cubs. He attended a card show in St. Louis as well, signing autographs. With this weekend’s planned festivities, there appears to be gathering momentum for something else to be done, or said or planned for two years from now when the 55th anniversary of Alston’s debut offers a neat, round anniversary number — ala 50, when Robinson’s 42 was retired, or 60, when it will be briefly un-retired — to mark.

I did find several compelling  articles on Alston that serve as a fitting reminder  today, the 53rd anniversary of his arrival in St. Louis.

In multiple newspaper accounts, at the time and since, and in David  Halberstam’s book October 1964, the Cardinals  belated  move to sign an African-American player was spurred by new ownership. Specifically, Gussie Busch. Halberstam writes Busch “scoffed at the team’s racial skittishness.” He’s quoted as  pushing  the ball club to integrate, saying: “Hell, we sell beer to everybody.”

In May 1953, the Cardinals signed Leonard Tucker to a contract, and he became the first black player  at many of the team’s minor-league affiliates, according to reports.  During offseason between ‘53 and ‘54, Busch sought to sign Alston, so much so that he went out  to  California to finalize a  trade with the Pacific Coast League’s San Diego club, sending four players (including George Sisler’s son, Dick Sisler) and  $100,000, a huge sum. When Alston made his major-league debut it meant more than half of the 16 teams in MLB at the time were integrated. That’s where  the P-D’s Lorraine Kee’s 1997 article on the Cardinals’ “leisurely integration” picks up the story:    

Said a delighted Alston at the signing at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Jan. 27, 1954: “I have been hoping that it would happen, hoping and waiting, and now it’s a wonderful feeling to know the dream has come true.”

The dream soon turned into a nightmare.

Alston, a  first baseman, was good with a glove, good on his feet.

Although he hit .297 with 101 runs batted his previous season in the minors, he had a so-so rookie season. He batted .246 with 34 RBIs. Things went rapidly downhill from there. He played in 66 games that first season and just 25 more in the next three seasons.

A mysterious malady exhausted Alston’s energy and cramped his career. He was diagnosed with neurasthenia, a mental disorder with physical symptoms. Teammates wondered if the pressure was too much for him.

Alston said later he was never mistreated by his teammates or manager, but their relationship never progressed beyond the superficial stage. A former black teammate of Alston once said they “were kind of on an island.”

Thomas Edison Alston, born in Greensboro, N.C., in 1927, played 91 total games in the majors, all with the Cardinals. His career spanned four seasons in St. Louis, peaking in his rookie season. But not mentioned in those stats is the role he played in integrating the Cardinals’ minor-league affiliate in Rochester, N.Y., or that when he signed with the Cardinals he was coming off a season in which he hit .297 with 23 homers and 101 RBI.

In a column for The Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, Scott Pitoniak wrote about Alston’s slide out of the majors, a retreat attributed to exhaustion that was later diagnosed as an emotional disorder. Pitoniak describes a suicide attempt by Alston, “the man with the sweet swing but troubled soul,”  and how he continued to pursue his pro ball career after it. Pitoniak’s column was re-published in a volume of The Best American Sports Writing, and he  quoted Bob Broeg on  Alston’s playing ability.  

Said Broeg:

“There was a feeling among some that the guy might be a fixture at first base for several years. He looked like a real good athlete. He was outstanding defensively. I remember one foul ball, in particular, when he raced down the right-field line and made this spectacular catch. Snatched the ball right out of the bullpen.”

In the spring of 1955, this note ran in The Greensboro Daily News:

The St. Louis Cardinals are considering moving superstar outfielder Stan Musial to first base, and that could cost Greensboro’s Tom Alston a job. The 6-foot-5 Alston is hoping to make the team as a first baseman and has been batting .277 in spring training.

In many articles about Alston, he  and those who knew him described how  Alston began hearing voices toward the end of his career. He spent time in two state institutions in North  Carolina after his playing career, according to reports. But before he died in 1993, he made the  appearances mentioned above even as those around him said he  still battled the exhaustion and  emotional troubles. An article in The Post-Dispatch in 1990 described a 59-year-old Alston unable to hold onto a job and living on disability.

Post-Dispatch writer Wendy Conlin  covered  Alston’s erosion in that article:  

Alston complained that he grew exhausted at the slightest effort. He batted .246 his first season, and dipped to .125 while playing in just 13 games in 1955. He was shuttled between St. Louis and farm teams in Rochester and Omaha. Busch already had sent Alston to see his personal doctor, who could find nothing physically wrong with him.

Then-trainer Bob Bauman puzzled over Alston, who looked healthy enough, although he was a somewhat lanky 210 pounds in his playing days.

Bauman allowed himself to venture into a world that most statistic-loving baseball men shun, and came up with something. In a word: Neurasthenia. The complicated emotional disorder somehow manifests itself in physical symptoms such as unexplained fatigue, sweating, vertigo, and inability to sleep or concentrate. A psychiatrist confirmed his diagnosis, but no one could identify a cause.

…

After the Cardinals released Alston, they offered to keep him in St. Louis and help him get treatment. But Alston wanted to go home, so he moved in with his father, Shube, who since has died. … Alston had graduated from the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina with a degree in physical education.Still, Alston  found no peace. In 1958, he set fire to a church after an argument with one of his two sisters. ”Don’t ask me why,” he said.

As Sunday approaches and those 100-plus jerseys are stitched up, each with its new “42″, there are some players saying that Ken Griffey Jr.’s initial request to honor Robinson has been diluted by so many players, so many teams taking up the number. Others welcome the masses, the more the better, the bigger the recognition.  (Then there is Angels outfielder Garret Anderson, who told USA Today: “I just don’t feel I’m worthy of it.”)

What if there was the  twist suggested by Felty? It certainly would fit the spirit baseball wishes to capture on the anniversary. What if the Yankees un-retired No. 32 for the day and encouraged Jorge Posada or another player to wear it for Elston Howard?

What if one Cardinal wore No. 10 for Alston?

Can’t think of a better way to salute Robinson, then by also remembering those that came after him.

In 1991, Joe Garagiola came to St. Louis to speak at Harris-Stowe State College about Baseball Alumni Team, an organization he helped found to help ex-professional players in need cover daily living expenses. During his speech, covered in The Post-Dispatch at the time, Garagiola mentioned Alston and told the crowd of his recent conversation with the Cardinals’ first black player.

”When I called Tom Alston, he could hardly believe it,” Garagiola said, according to the report in the paper. ”He was so lonely. I challenge one, two or three of you to remember what he achieved. Write him and make the guy feel that you care.”

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