SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The San Diego Padres will commemorate the 75th anniversary of Johnny Ritchey breaking the professional baseball color barrier on the West Coast by wearing their Pacific Coast League uniforms for Monday evening's game against the Atlanta Braves.
The team will also honor the 2023 winners of the Johnny Ritchey Scholarship Program in an on-field pregame ceremony at Petco Park. The $10,000 scholarships -- distributed evenly over four years -- are awarded to deserving, and often underserved, high school seniors in San Diego County who have encountered and overcome significant personal adversity in pursuit of higher education.
The program began in 2019 and was expanded this year in partnership with the Masons of California and Reality Changers of San Diego, a nonprofit organization that describes its mission as preparing youth to become first- generation college graduates and agents of change in their communities.
The uniforms, which were worn by the 1948 PCL Padres, feature navy blue script over the chest outlined in red with piping along the neck, arms and buttons, while the navy blue hat highlights a red "S" for San Diego. The game- used jerseys will be autographed by Padres players and auctioned off at www.Padres.com/auctions, with proceeds benefiting the scholarship program.
Limited commemorative PCL Padres merchandise will also be available to fans at the Padres New Era team store at Petco Park beginning this week.
Carlee Battle, a granddaughter of Ritchey, will throw the ceremonial first pitch.
The Padres will conduct their African American Heritage Celebration Monday, including offering a theme game package that includes a commemorative 1948 PCL hat, a donation to a local community group and a ticket to the game. The package is expected to sell out, a team official told City News Service.
Ritchey made his Padres debut March 30, 1948, grounding out as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning of a 7-4 season-opening loss to Los Angeles Angels at Lane Field, now the site of a park bearing its name in downtown San Diego.
Ritchey's debut came nearly one year after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
Ritchey was born and raised in San Diego and graduated from San Diego High School. He was a star member of the Post 6 American Legion baseball team, but was not allowed to play in national championships held in the South because of laws forbidding integrated athletic competitions.
He also played at the then-San Diego State College. Ritchey's time in college was interrupted by serving in the U.S. Army for 27 months during World War II in a combat engineering unit, seeing service at the invasion of Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge and in the Philippines, rising to the rank of staff sergeant.
Ritchey returned to San Diego State following the war and was the Aztecs' leading hitter in 1946 with a .356 average. He began his professional career in 1947 with the Chicago American Giants, leading the Negro American League with a .381 batting average.
Ritchey batted .323 as a rookie with the Padres in 1948. He also played with the Padres in 1949. He played with three other PCL teams, the Vancouver Capilanos of the Western International League and the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League during his nine-season career in organized baseball which ended in 1956.
Ritchey died in 2003 in Chula Vista at the age of 80.
A bust of Ritchey and plaque honoring him as "The Jackie Robinson of the Pacific Coast League" is in The Draft at Petco Park.
The plaque includes a quote from Ritchie: "It was a thrill to play for the Padres. The fans cheered and my feeling was it was because I was a San Diego boy making good. It had nothing to do with race."
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