Being in New York for Yankees Opening Day has a special meaning for Josh Hart and his extended Yankees family.
, the first Black player to play for the organization, in 1955, eight years after Jackie Robinson broke the MLB color barrier for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
“It really is wonderful,” Cheryl Howard, Elston’s daughter, told Sports+ in a phone interview on Wednesday. “We all are very proud of Josh. He’s just a lovely young man, and it’s really great that he’s now in New York, where my father played and coached for many, many years. If my dad were alive now, he’d be very proud, too.
Hart never got the chance to meet Howard, who died in 1980, 15 years before he was born. But he’s said that he’s often heard tales from his father about attending his uncle’s games. “Ellie was such a role model for me, coming up with the Yankees. He taught me about being a professional and being a Yankee, how you conduct yourself. He was a great influence on me, and there’s no doubt he was an incredible athlete.
“Man, Ellie would love this story, he’d be super-proud,” the former Mets manager told Sports+. “Ellie was some kind of athlete, played all kinds of sports growing up, and was such a tremendous competitor. He’d be super-proud to know that someone in his family has made it, and doing it in New York? Are you kidding me?
Howard biographer Ralph Wimbish — a longtime former sports copy editor at The Post — noted in a phone conversation this week that the 1963 AL MVP also was recruited to play basketball, football and track by multiple Big Ten schools before deciding to embark on a baseball career with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues in 1948. The gymnasium at Vashon High School in St. Louis, his hometown, has since been named after Howard, as well.
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