The trailblazing Bill White

Bill White with longtime player and Yankees broadcaster Phil Rizzuto

Bill White, the seven-time Gold Glove winner and eight-time National League All-Star during the 1960s, makes history 54 years ago today as the New York Yankees hire him as the game’s first Black play-by-play broadcaster.

Just a year earlier in 1970, White – in his first year of retirement from playing – is working for WFIL-TV Channel 6 in Philadelphia, where he is seen here interviewing Phillies third baseman Don Money at Connie Mack Stadium.

Don Money and Bill White in 1970

After 18 seasons calling games for the Yankees, White in 1989 becomes the president of the National League, adding to a resume that includes the aforementioned seven Gold Gloves and eight All-Star Game selections, as well as a .286 career batting average over 13 seasons with the Giants, Cardinals and Phillies.

“When I was a ballplayer, I had a lot of faults,” White later says “I couldn’t hit the inside pitch and I couldn’t run that well, but I worked hard and learned.”

White, of course, always approaches the game – whether on the field, in the broadcast booth or as a league president – on his own terms.

“I don't want anyone telling me how much I owe baseball,” White says in 1969, the year he retires from playing.

“Like (onetime manager) Paul Richards saying that Henry Aaron would be running an elevator if not for baseball,” White says. “What would Paul Richards be doing if not for baseball? And what has he ever done for baseball? I gave it 16 years of my life and never less than 100 percent on the field, so we’re even.”