President Obama on Sunday mourned the death of Minnie Minoso, the first black Major League Baseball player in Chicago.
“For South Siders and Sox fans all across the country, including me, Minnie Minoso is and will always be ‘Mr. White Sox,” the president said in a statement.
Minoso died in Chicago Sunday morning at the age of 90, according to multiple reports.
“And as he helped to integrate baseball in the 1950s, he was a target of racial slurs from fans and opponents, sometimes forced to stay in different motels from his teammates,” Obama said. “But his speed, his power — and his resilient optimism — earned him multiple All-Star appearances and Gold Gloves in left field, and he became one of the most dominant and dynamic players of the 1950s.”
Obama said that, while Minoso was passed over by the Baseball Hall of Fame, his “quintessentially American story embodies far more than a plaque ever could.”
“Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to his family and fans in Chicago, Cleveland, and around the world.”