Charlie Grimm had taken over as Braves manager early in the 1952 season and he had once called Jethroe “Sambo,” which didn’t endear him to Jethroe. “Charlie Grimm was a prejudiced man and he didn’t like me,” he told the Globe in 1979.
In 1953, the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee. Jethroe never played for the Milwaukee Braves. On April 13, he was optioned to Toledo on 24-hour recall, but was never recalled. He hit .309 with 28 homers, but with the emergence of Billy Bruton in their outfield the Braves may have felt they were in good enough shape. On the day after Christmas they traded Jethroe, along with five other players and $100,000, to the Pittsburgh Pirates for infielder Danny O’Connell. Clearly, the Braves wanted O’Connell.
Jethroe had one at-bat for Pittsburgh in 1954. Appearing in two games, he played right field for the final two innings of the April 14 game and he pinch hit the next day, in Brooklyn, grounding into a 4-6 force-out at second base. It was his last major-league appearance.
Jethroe spent his last six seasons (1953 through 1958) in the minors, the last five of them with the Toronto Maple Leafs, averaging .280 for those five years. He also styled a little, notably parking his orchid-colored Lincoln in front of the ballpark.
He also spent one more season back in Cuban winter league baseball, 1954-55 with Cienfuegos. And he played semipro ball into the 1970s.
This image portraying six African American ballplayers was taken on March 12, 1953, before a Miami, Florida spring training game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves. From left to right, it includes Jackie Robinson, George Crowe, Joe Black, Sam Jethroe, Roy Campanella and Bill Bruton. Its unquestionable spring training 1953 origin is due to the fact that Bill Bruton played his inaugural and/or rookie season in 1953 with the Milwaukee Braves, even though he is wearing a Boston cap in the illustration along with the two other Braves players (Crowe and Jethroe). So how is this possible? Remarkably, this photograph was taken only a single day before the Boston Braves were officially relocated to Milwaukee! Indeed, on March 13, 1953, Boston Braves owner Lou Perini announced that due to dwindling attendance, he was relocating his Boston Braves from Braves Field to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his team to now play their games at Milwaukee County Stadium. Known as Black Friday to startled Boston fans, they were quickly stripped of their beloved National League franchise, with the Red Sox now the only MLB franchise remaining in Beantown. The photograph depicts six African American MLB ballplayers who only seven years earlier would have never imagined taking part in an MLB photograph.
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