George Altman's return home brings back memories

By Cam Ellis
Published in Sports on May 23, 2015 10:35 PM

• Print
• Email

George Altman remembers a different Wayne County.

Things have changed quite a bit since Altman, now 82, grew up on the north end of the city.

As a 10-year-old, he spent his days picking cotton and tobacco fields to make enough money to buy school supplies. He also found time to play a more affordable version of baseball -- substituting bottlecaps for baseballs and broomsticks for bats.

Altman attended Dillard High School and excelled in baseball, but he also stood out on the basketball court.

His first love was baseball and his journey started on the north side of Chicago. He worked his way through the historic and well-documented Negro Leagues, and played for the Kansas City Monarchs and legendary head coach Buck O'Neil.

"I had no expectations going into it," he said. "I just wanted to go play baseball. I thought I would just go there for three or for months, and then go back to coaching basketball."

Coaching never happened.

Instead, a year into his minor league career, Altman got the news that most men got at that time. He had been drafted into the Army.

All things considered, he lucked out. There were no active conflicts during the time he was drafted, so Altman spent 21 months training in Carson, Colorado, before being granted an early release. Being his enlistment didn't stop him from playing baseball, however. While stationed out west, the team he played for won the All-Army Championship.

Altman returned to the minor leagues and played for a Cubs farm team in Pueblo, Colo. A year later, attended the Cubs' spring training and made such an impression on the coaching staff, drew an invitation to play in the Major Leagues.

His career started in Chicago, but he made stops in St. Louis (1963 Cardinals) and New York (1964 Mets). He spent six of his patrolling the outfield and chasing down fly balls on the ivy-covered walls at historic Wrigley Field.

"Once a Cub, you're always a Cub," said Altman whose nine-year career numbers were a .296 batting average, 101 home runs and 403 RBI.

Altman's best season was 1961 when he hit a crisp .303 with 27 homers and 96 RBI. He led the Majors in triples and it was the only season in a 19-year span where someone other than Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ron Santo led the Cub in RBI. All three are in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

That season earned Altman a spot in the annual All-Star game where he shared an outfield along with Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. He didn't start the game, but belted a home run in a pinch-hit appearance for Roberto Clemente.

That wasn't Altman's most-impressive at-bat of his career, however. He had two hits against Sandy Koufax -- the pitcher he considers the hardest to hit -- in the same game. He's the only left-handed batter to do that against Koufax, another Hall of Famer.

His most-memorable at-bat was his first-ever appearance as a Major League player. He got hit in the knee by Don Drysdale during a snowy day in Chicago.

Baseball is a young man's game, however.

Soon enough, Altman found himself on the outside-looking-in on the Cubs' lineup. Eager to prove that he could still play, Altman left Chicago and the United States behind, hopped the Pacific and began a new career in Japan.

"I still, at least in my mind, could play," he said. "Part of it was that I was dealing with a lot of injuries, but the main thing was that in my mind I knew I could play better than some of the guys that were playing in front of me."

He was right. Altman hit .309 with 205 homers during his eight-season stint in Japan.

"They had a lot of pitchers that were major-league caliber," he said. "It was tough over there. You could say it was almost as tough as the major leagues. I really enjoyed my experience there. It gave me an opportunity to prove to myself what I thought: that I could still play."

The thing about professional sports is that many people don't comprehend how short of a career even the good players have. A 35-year old man is considered "old." They usually get pushed out, retire and enjoy the life ahead of them.

Altman entered the financial market. An old issue of "Negro Digest" profiled him in this manner:

"Unlike legions of his predecessors of infinite racial constitution, George is a trail-blazer for the new breed of Negro athlete who prepares for his post-athletic days by firming a foundation in a reputable profession while he yet wields a big stick and holds a hot hand with the fans."

It's the kind of race-ladened praise that he was used to receiving his entire life -- first as a standout African-American athlete in the still very segregated south and then as an American in Japan.

 For a year, Altman traded stocks.

While there were times when business was good, he could never stomach the idea of losing people their hard-earned money.

He switched over to the Chicago Board of Trade, where he worked for 13 years.

Now Altman resides in the St. Louis area.

A lucrative career in baseball and stock broking allows one such luxury.

A competitor at heart, he's still finding ways to get the juices flowing.

This time, however, the sport is horseshoes.

"Now I play in leagues and tournaments," he said. "That takes care of my challenges. These days, it's good when I'm doing it, but the I really feel it the next day. After a couple days I usually feel better, and then I'm right back at it."