In his life after his playing career, Sam and Elsie operated Jethroe’s Bar and Restaurant, a steakhouse, in Erie, Pennsylvania. The business did well for several years but then in the 1990s the city’s redevelopment authority forced him to sell the property. Sportswriter Jim Auchmutey says he took out a loan and bought another place, but it was in a “tougher part of town where drug-dealing and gunplay are commonplace. Once there was a shooting death inside the bar.” The business declined rapidly, and Jethroe found himself forced to sell off his Rookie of the Year award for $3,500.84. By the end of 1994, after he’d lost his home to fire that November, he was living four blocks away in the bar.
Sam Jethroe came back to Boston twice, in 1992 and 1995, to attend player-fan reunions organized by the Boston Braves Historical Association. After the fire, the BBHA was able to raise over $2,100 and present him a check.
At a gathering in Cleveland to honor Larry Doby, Jethroe told his former Montreal roommate Don Newcombe of the difficulties he was having. Sam and Elsie were living in the bar with two grandchildren, aged 10 and 16.
An attorney friend of Newcombe’s, John Puttock, was present and felt moved to act. The pension rule at the time was that one had to have served four full years in the majors to qualify. Jethroe had three years and seven days of service time. Arguably, Jethroe and several former Negro Leaguers had been deprived of the opportunity to start sooner than they had. “We were held back because of the color of our skin,” said Newcombe.
A class action lawsuit was filed in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania contending that racial discrimination had prevented Jethroe from qualifying and receiving a major-league pension. The major leagues moved to dismiss the suit on the grounds that Jethroe had taken too long to file it, that the statute of limitations had long since expired. The suit was dismissed in October 1996.
Several people appear to have pitched in to help address the problem. One article says that one of Puttock’s friends mentioned the problem to U. S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Illinois), who talked to Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Reinsdorf reportedly persuaded the other owners to create a special fund that was announced in January 1997, providing annual payments of $7,500 to $10,000 to former Negro League players.
Murray Chass of the New York Times wrote that National League president Leonard Coleman and former pitcher Joe Black, who like Jethroe played in both the Negro Leagues and the majors, headed up the committee. Noted Negro League historian Larry Lester provided Major League Baseball with the names of qualified players and their mailing addresses.
“I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of what (the owners) have done,” said Jethroe, who by then had suffered a stroke and had other health issues. It did indeed offer him a little more hope, and a feeling of some validation, in his later years.
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