Quincey Trouppe
*Quincy Trouppe was born on this date in 1912. He was a Black professional baseball player and an amateur boxing champion.
He was born Quincy Thomas Troupe, a native of Dublin, Georgia. He later changed the spelling to Trouppe in 1946.
He played in the Mexican League and the Canadian Provincial League. His teams included St. Louis Stars, Detroit Wolves, Homestead Grays, Kansas City Monarchs, Chicago American Giants, Indianapolis ABC’s/St. Louis Stars, Cleveland Buckeyes (whom he managed to Negro American League titles in 1945 and 1947), New York Cubans, and the Bismarck Grays. He played in Latin America for fourteen winter seasons and barnstormed with black all-star teams against white major league players. He managed in the Puerto Rican winter league, winning the 1947-48 season championship. He was a catcher in the Negro leagues from 1930 to 1949.
Trouppe caught six games for the 1952 Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball and made 84 appearances with their Triple-A farm club. He became one of the oldest rookies in MLB history when he made his major league debut on April 30, 1952, at Shibe Park. He was 39 years old. On May 3, he was behind the plate when relief pitcher “Toothpick Sam” Jones entered the game, forming the first black battery in American League history. Trouppe played his last game for the Indians on May 10.
In his short stint with Cleveland, he was 1-for-10 with a single in his last major league game), a walk, and a run scored. He handled 25 chances in the field flawlessly for a fielding percentage 1.000. Quincy Trouppe died on August 10, 1993, at 80, in Creve Coeur, Missouri.
