Irvin, "Monte" (Monford)
Baseball
b. Feb. 25, 1919, Columbia, AL
Although he had only a brief major league career, Irvin was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Committee on the Negro Leagues for his total career, including eight seasons in the Negro National League, a season in the Mexican League, and a season in the Cuban Winter League, as well as eight years in the National League.
Irvin grew up in Orange, NJ, and was all-state in baseball, basketball, football, and track as a high school student. While a student at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, he began playing professional baseball under the name "Jimmy Neilson" with the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League in 1937.
Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who was looking for a player to integrate major league baseball, considered Irvin a candidate in the early 1940s, but Irvin entered the U. S. Army after playing in the Mexican League in 1942 and Jackie Robinson was chosen in 1946, shortly before Irvin returned to the Newark Eagles.
The Dodgers claimed him in 1948, when the Eagles disbanded, but the team owner, Effie Manley, insisted she still had a contract with Irvin, and the Dodgers withdrew their claim at the request of Commissioner Happy Chandler.
Irvin then played in the Cuban Winter League until 1949, when the New York Giants offered him a contract. After playing most of the season in the International League, he was called up to the Giants in July but appeared in only 36 games.
He began the 1950 season in the International League again but rejoined the Giants early in the season. Used mostly in left field and at first base, he batted .299.
In 1951, Irvin helped lead the Giants to a pennant, hitting .312 with 24 home runs and a league-leading 121 RBI. He had a sensational World Series, batting .458 with 11 hits, but the Giants lost in six games to the New York Yankees.
After missing most of 1952 with broken ankle, Irvin rebounded with a .329 average, 21 home runs, and 97 RBI in 1953. The Giants won another pennant in 1954, Irvin contributing 19 home runs and 64 RBI, but he hit only .222 in their World Series victory over the Cleveland Indians.
He hit only .253 in 51 games in 1955, then spent a final season with the Chicago Cubs before retiring. Irvin later worked as a scout for the New York Mets and as a public relations representative in the commissioner's office.