Johnny Ritchey grew up playing baseball year-round in San Diego. His talent so far outclassed his contemporaries that he was known as “Johnny Baseball” throughout high school. While any other kid with his talent could expect a career in the Major Leagues, Ritchey was African-American and in 1938 big league baseball was a whites-only affair. That summer Ritchey starred for the integrated American Legion Post 6 club. The team went on to compete in the Junior World Series, but both Ritchey and fellow African American teammate Nelson Manuel were excluded from playing because the tourney was held in the Jim Crow state of South Carolina. Not only were the pair unable to take the field with their team, but they could not even watch the games from the stands as the stadium was for whites only.

Ritchey went on to enroll in San Diego State and study law, but his education was interrupted by service in World War II. By the time the war ended, Jackie Robinson had begun dismantling baseball’s color barrier. After a season in the Negro Leagues, Ritchey signed with his hometown San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League. He took the field with the Padres at the start of the 1948 season, shattering the PCL’s color barrier as Robinson had done in the Majors a year prior.

This three-piece collection brings Johnny Ritchie’s baseball career full circle. The first is a 13” by 20” original photo of the 1938 American Legion Post 6 team featuring Ritchey (front right) and Manuel (front middle), the two boys excluded from competing in the Junior World Series. The pair are posed with their teammates behind their championship trophy. A small piece on the top left corner has torn and it comes in Good condition overall. The other two companion pieces are different team photos of the 1948 Padres team featuring Johnny Ritchey during the season in which he broke the PCL color barrier. The pieces measure 7.5” by 19.5” and 8” by 18” and show edge wear with some paper loss and overall toning. Three tremendous pieces that depicts Ritchey’s baseball journey from discrimination to triumphant integration.