Carl Long

Carl Russell Long
(Larmardo)

• Bats Right , Throws Right
• Height 6' 3" , Weight 192 lbs

• Born May 9, 1935 in Rock Hill, SC USA
• Died January 12, 2015 in Kinston, NC USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Carl Long played in the Negro Leagues and minor leagues, showing good power. A shoulder injury ended his career at age 22.

Long debuted with the Philadelphia Stars in the dying days of the Negro Leagues. He then moved on to the Birmingham Black Barons. In the 1953 East-West Game, the Birmingham star went 0 for 4 as the starting left fielder and #7 hitter for the East squad.

Long made his Organized Baseball debut in 1954 with the St. Jean Canadians, hitting .275 with 20 homers and 80 RBI. He finished third in the Provincial League in home runs and tied for 6th in RBI. In 1955, the South Carolina native played for the Phoenix Stars (.333 in 13 games) and the Billings Mustangs, batting .283 with 9 triples and 10 home runs for that club.

Long batted .291 with 18 homers and 111 RBI for the 1956 Kinston Eagles. He was fourth in the Carolina League in RBI, 55 behind leader Leon Wagner and 17 behind #2 Curt Flood. He set a Kinston baseball record that would not be matched until 1987, when Casey Webster did so. That year, he and Frank Washington were the first players to break the color barrier for the Kinston team in 1956; it was the sixth season that black players played in the Carolina League (Percy Miller had broken the color line in 1951), but there were still only a handful of black players in the league.

Long split 1957 between the Beaumont Pirates (.221/.303/.364, 7 HR in 73 G) and the Mexico City Tigres (.286/.350/.505, 5 HR in 32 G). Overall, Long homered 62 times in four seasons in Organized Baseball.

After retiring from baseball, Long stayed in Kinston, NC where he became a deputy sheriff and the first black detective on the city's police force. He also worked as a commercial bus driver for Trailways, working for the company for 23 years. Long was inducted into the Kinston Professional Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003. He wrote an autobiography entitled A Game of Faith.

Sources

• 1958 Baseball Guide
• Pat Doyle's Professional Baseball Player Database
• Kinston.com article on Long's induction into the local Hall of Fame
• Black Baseball's National Showcase by Larry Lester

Related Sites

• Obituary from mlb.com