Preston: On Mickey Stubblefield, who broke color barrier in Kitty League
From SABR member J.G. Preston at the J.G. Preston Experience on March 2, 2013:
“Mickey” Stubblefield died Feb. 19, 2013, a week before his 87th birthday. His brief playing career in Organized Baseball would seem unremarkable, except for the fact that he was the first African-American to play in the Kitty League, a Class D minor league formally known as the Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League (the initials KIT led to the more commonly-used name Kitty).
I don’t know if Mickey was the last man alive who broke a minor league color barrier, but he may have been, and in any case curiosity has led me to put together some of the information I can find about his life.
This isn’t, for now, a thorough biography, but maybe it can serve as a jumping-off point for others. There is a Mickey Stubblefield website where someone, likely family members, has assembled some photos, a few clippings and other biographical information. Some of the information about Mickey available online is contradictory, so I’ve tried to figure out what’s right.
Read the full article here: https://prestonjg.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/on-mickey-stubblefield-who-broke-the-color-barrier-in-the-kitty-league/
Originally published: March 3, 2013. Last Updated: March 3, 2013.