Inductees

Thomas Edison Greenwade was born on August 21, 1904, in Willard, Missouri, an area he called home his entire life. His first money in baseball came when Jim Austin, a traveling salesman for a cookie company saw him pitch one day.  Austin offered the young hurler $25 a Sunday to pitch for the town team in Clinton. He began his professional career in 1923 as a pitcher with the Portsmouth, Arkansas club, making three more stops before his contract was purchased by the St. Louis Browns. After spending time in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Springfield, Missouri, Tom became disappointed with his playing time and opted to play independent baseball. He had a fine year in 1926, going 22 -2. After a bout with Typhoid took him out of the game for two years, Greenwade found employment with the IRS until 1937.

It was in 1940 that the Brooklyn Dodgers came calling and hired Tom as a scout. He would soon become Branch Rickey’s top lookout. As racial tensions were the norm in 1940’s America, Rickey was waiting for the proper time to integrate Major League Baseball.  In 1943, he sent Greenwade to Mexico, to observe the play of a young Cuban shortstop by the name of Silvio Garcia.  Garcia, it was assumed, would be the first player to break baseball’s color barrier. However, baseball lore has it that although considered the greatest shortstop the island had ever produced, Garcia when asked what he would do if a member of a rival team hurled racial slurs at him, responded “I would kill him.” That effectively ended his chances of playing in the Majors.

When, in 1945, Mr. Rickey discussed the possibility of Negro League shortstop, Jackie Robinson, becoming the first African American major leaguer, he sent his best scout, Tom Greenwade to check out the Robinson’s skills. Greenwade recommended that the youngster was worth signing but noted that if he did make it, it was be as a second or first baseman, not as a shortstop.

Brooklyn eventually signed both Jackie Robinson and catcher Roy Campanella based on his reports.  By the time this happened though, Greenwade had been hired away by the New York Yankees. Among the players Greenwade signed for the Yankees were Ralph Terry, Elston Howard, Hank Bauer, Tom Sturdivant, Vic Power, Jerry Lumpe, George Kell, Ruben Gomez, Rex Barney, Cal McLish,  Bobby Murcer and West Plains’ own Bill Virdon.  However, Tom is best known for his signing of a young switch-hitting shortstop out of Commerce, Oklahoma, by the name of Mickey Mantle. Later in life, Greenwade said that although he was very proud of all his signings, he was especially proud to have recommended the signing of Robinson to the Dodgers. Robinson did not disappoint, as he would be named the 1947 Rookie of the Year, and in 1949, the National League MVP.

In December of 1959, Tom led the vanguard in the seven player trade which sent Roger Maris from the A’s to the Yankees.

Greenwade was considered the finest scout of his era by the time of his retirement in 1982. He passed away in 1986 at the age of 81. Tom and his wife, Florence, had two children, Angeline and Bunch, and seven grandchildren.