John Kennedy (shortstop)

Kennedy signed as a free agent with the New York Giants in Major League Baseball (MLB) before the 1953 season, but was released prior to the 1954 season. Kennedy caught on with the Birmingham Black Barons, and later the Kansas City Monarchs, both of the Negro American League. Near the end of the 1956 season, with Kennedy having led the NAL batting race for most of the year, the Monarchs sold his contract to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Kennedy hit over .300 in the Phillies 1957 Spring Training. The team initially assigned him to their Schenectady minor league affiliate but without a starting shortstop for opening day, Phillies manager Mayo Smith told reporters on March 25, 1957, that "...if the season opened tomorrow, [Kennedy] would be my shortstop."[1] Phillies general manager Roy Hamey told reporters the shortstop job was Kennedy’s. However the Phillies acquired Chico Fernández before opening day, and named Fernández the starting shortstop.

When Kennedy made his big league debut (April 22, 1957, at Roosevelt Stadium), he became the first black player in Phillies history. The game was exactly 10 years to the day after Phillies manager Ben Chapman led his players in anti-Black verbal attacks on rookie Jackie Robinson at Brooklyn. Playing against the Brooklyn Dodgers, Kennedy entered the game in the top of the 8th inning as a pinch runner for Solly Hemus, who had doubled, but he did not score. The Dodgers won, 5-1.

Kennedy's next game was two days later, playing against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Connie Mack Stadium. He entered the game in the bottom of the 6th as a pinch runner for Harry Anderson, who had singled, and later scored on a bases-loaded triple by Ed Bouchee. The Phillies won, 8-5.

Kennedy got into a total of just five games, the last one on May 3, 1957. At the plate, he was 0-for-2, including one strikeout. In his two appearances at shortstop he had one assist, one error, and participated in one double play.

Kennedy played amateur baseball through his 50s and 60s in a men’s 30-and-over baseball league in Jacksonville, Florida. A granite marker was placed on Kennedy’s unmarked grave in Jacksonville in 2008. The Philadelphia Phillies recognized Kennedy's role in the history of the organization in a pre-game ceremony on June 29, 2022.[2]

• List of first black Major League Baseball players by team and date

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
• John Kennedy at Baseball Gauge
• Baseball Integration Timeline