Luke Easter

Luke Easter was born August 4, 1915 in Jonestown, Mississippi.  When he was seven years old, his family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. 

Easter was very good at baseball and played for his employer's semi-pro team, the St. Louis Titanium Giants.  After World War II, he signed to play professionally with the Cincinnati Crescents of the Negro National League (NNL).  

In 1947-48, Easter excelled playing for the Homestead Grays also in the NNL.  In 1949, he was signed by the Cleveland Indians of the American League.  Easter played for them for the next six years.  

After he was released by the Indians, Easter signed on with the Buffalo Bisons of the International Baseball League, a minor league franchise.  

One day in the mid-1950s, I was invited by my Aunt Doris and cousin Liz to go with them to a baseball game in Rochester, New York, home of the Red Wings.  They had season tickets right behind the visiting team's dugout.  That day the visiting team was the Buffalo Bisons.

For a moment I was left alone as Aunt Doris and Liz went to buy refreshments.  Luke Easter returned to the dugout after his turn at bat.  Shortly thereafter, the Bisons' equipment manager came out of the dugout and asked me if I wanted Easter's recently cracked bat.  I eagerly said yes.

I had an actual bat used by a former Major League baseball player.  I treasured it...until.  When I was seventeen years-old (1962), I noticed one day that my Luke Easter bat was missing from where I kept it.

My mother admitted that she had donated the damaged bat to a local "rummage sale."  She didn't understand that it was my property nor what was my attachment to it.  

I quickly drove to the sale, but the bat was gone.  Too bad!

On March 29, 1979, Luke Easter was murdered in Cleveland by two robbers.  He was sixty-three years old.  I'll never forget him nor his bat.