Popular Red Wings slugger would have turned 109 on Sunday

Happy birthday to one of the most popular players in Rochester Red Wings’ history!

Luke Easter would have turned 109 years old on Aug. 4. He was a star in both the Negro Leagues and with the post-integration Cleveland Guardians. But it was what came after that — the 11 seasons in the minor leagues after his big-league days ended — that endeared him to a generation of fans in western New York.

He was a fan favorite for three seasons in Buffalo before joining the Red Wings in May of 1959. Easter was 43 years old by then, with failing knees that slowed him on the base paths and turned him into a stationary first baseman. But he could still hit towering home runs, and his willingness to engage with fans made him extraordinarily popular.

Long-time Rochester sportswriter George Beahon wrote: “Foul weather or fair, he never denied an autograph. During those years, after I filed stories from the press box to the morning paper, I would see Luke still around the clubhouse or the parking lot, signing his name and making friends for the franchise.”

When he wasn’t playing, Easter served as the team’s first base coach, exchanging laughs with both players and fans from his spot on the field. He also worked with young sluggers who were coming up through the Baltimore Orioles farm system, including Boog Powell, Curt Blefary and Davey Johnson.

He hung up his cleats after the 1964 season and returned to Cleveland with his wife. He was working there as a union steward when he was killed during an armed robbery in 1979.

Easter was one of the inaugural inductees into the Red Wings Hall of Fame in 1989. He and teammate Joe Altobelli are the only Red Wings players to have their uniform numbers retired.

If he had been born during a different era, Luke Easter would certainly have been a big league star. But he came of age during baseball’s segregated era, when racism prevented him from getting an opportunity to compete in the major leagues.

He was a big strong left-handed slugger, 6-foot-4 with a mesmerizing swing that made both fans and players sit up and pay attention.

Baseball historian Bill James described him as a player whose greatness was obscured by a career that straddled the color line. “But if you could clone him and bring him back, you’d have the greatest power hitter in baseball today, if not ever.”

Easter starred for the Homestead Grays, leading the Negro National League in home runs in 1948 and helping the Grays win the Negro World Series , the last ever played.

He was 33 when he joined the Cleveland Guardians. It was two and a half years after Jackie Robinson had made his debut, but Easter was just the 10th Black player to follow him across the color line.

Well past his prime, Easter still established himself as one of the American League’s most dominant power hitters. He batted .280 with 28 home runs and 107 RBI in 1950, his first full season in the major leagues. Easter went on to hit 27 homers in 1951 and a career high 31 in 1952, finishing second in the American League to teammate Larry Doby.

Easter was known for hitting long home runs, which fans would call “Easter eggs.”

While playing for the Grays in 1948, Easter became the first player to hit a home run into the centerfield bleachers at New York’s Polo Grounds, which stood more than 475 feet from home plate. He also hit the longest home run in the history of Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium, a blast over the auxillary scoreboard in right field that was estimated at 477 feet.

When a young fan once told Easter he’d been in the stands to see the slugger hit his longest home run, Easter replied: “If it came down, it wasn’t my longest.”

In 2020, former Deadspin and New York Daily News editor Jim Rich wrote about Luke Easter's "lost career."

"It’s difficult to figure out what he actually did as a player in his younger days, and it’s impossible to know what he could have done had his career not been impeded by racism, World War II and injuries," Rich said.

He closed his story on Easter with a quote from Negro League analyst Eric Chalek.

“To me he’s one of the great ‘What ifs?’ You can dream on him a lot,” Chalek said. “There are these weird contexts to his career in the way that no one else was affected.”

Each week, we recognize a great sports figure from the Rochester area. Who should we profile next? Send an email to wwolcott@rocheste.gannett.com with your suggestions.

Sean Lahman is a former investigative reporter for the Democrat and Chronicle and served as an editor of a number of best-selling sports encyclopedias — including Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball and The ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia.

Producer Bill Wolcott contributed to this story.

This story was originally published in August 2015.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Popular Red Wings slugger would have turned 109 on Sunday