Athletes - Bill White

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	Athletes - Bill White

William De Kova White (born January 28, 1934 in Lakewood, Florida) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and left-handed batter who played for the New York and San Francisco Giants (1956, 1958), St. Louis Cardinals (1959-65, 1969) and Philadelphia Phillies (1966-68).

In his 13-season career, White batted .286 with 202 home runs and 870 RBI in 1673 games.

White soon moved on to a career as a sportscaster. After doing some non play-by-play work in Philadelphia, White joined the New York Yankees broadcast crew. He called Yankee games from 1971 to 1988, primarily with Phil Rizzuto and Frank Messer - doing radio as well as television during most of that stretch. He was the first African American to do play-by-play regularly for a major-league sports team.

In 1978, calling the American League East championship game for WPIX-TV, White authored one of baseball's most famous calls -- that of Yankee shortstop Bucky Dent's home run in the seventh inning against the host Boston Red Sox:

:Deep to left! Yastrzemski
will not get it -- it's a home run! A three-run home run for Bucky Dent and the Yankees now lead it by a score of three to two!

White also did sports reports for the CBS Radio Network and also called several World Series on the network; he was seated alongside Jack Buck when the Los Angeles Dodgers' Kirk Gibson hit his dramatic home run to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series over the Oakland Athletics. White also did pre-game work for ABC Television during the 1977 World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers, and covered the trophy presentation in the Yanks' clubhouse following the Game 6 title clinching.

From 1989 to 1994, White served as president of the National League. White was the first African American to hold such a high executive position in sports.

Highlights

5-time All-Star (1959-61, 1963-64)
7-time Gold Glove Award winner (1960-66)
Twice Top 10 in MVP voting (1963-64)
Hit a home run in his first at-bat (May 7, 1956)
8 times hit 20 or more home runs (1956, 1961-66)
Tied a Ty Cobb
record with 14 hits in consecutive doubleheaders (1961)

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