{{Short description|American baseball player (1924–1996)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox baseball biography |name=Jim Pendleton |position=Outfielder |image=Jim Pendleton.JPG |bats=Right |throws=Right |birth_date={{Birth date|1924|1|7}} |birth_place=St. Charles, Missouri, U.S. |death_date={{Death date and age|1996|3|20|1924|1|9}} |death_place=Houston, Texas, U.S. |debutleague = NgL |debutdate= |debutyear=1948 |debutteam=Chicago American Giants |debut2league = MLB |debut2date=April 17 |debut2year=1953 |debut2team=Milwaukee Braves |finalleague = MLB |finaldate=September 30 |finalyear=1962 |finalteam=Houston Colt .45s |statleague = MLB{{efn|On December 16, 2020, Major League Baseball declared the Negro leagues, from the span of 1920–1948, to be a "Major League".<ref>{{cite web|title=MLB officially designates the Negro Leagues as 'Major League'|url=https://www.mlb.com/press-release/press-release-mlb-officially-designates-the-negro-leagues-as-major-league|website=MLB.com|date=December 16, 2020|accessdate=July 7, 2024}}</ref> Pendleton's statistics reflect his time in the Negro leagues during the 1948 season.}} |stat1label=Batting average |stat1value=.259 |stat2label=Home runs |stat2value=20 |stat3label=Runs batted in |stat3value=105 |teams= *Chicago American Giants ({{by|1948}}) *Milwaukee Braves ({{mlby|1953}}–{{mlby|1956}}) *Pittsburgh Pirates ({{mlby|1957}}–{{mlby|1958}}) *Cincinnati Reds ({{mlby|1959}}) *Houston Colt .45s ({{mlby|1962}}) }} '''James Edward Pendleton''' (January 7, 1924 — March 20, 1996) was an American professional baseball player, an outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1953 and 1962. He played for the Milwaukee Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds and Houston Colt .45s. Before appearing in MLB, he was a Negro league player. He was a right-handed batter and thrower, measured {{convert|6|ft}} tall and weighed {{convert|185|lb}}.
==Early life== Pendleton was born in 1924 in St. Charles, Missouri. Pendleton joined a Negro minor league team in Asheville before he was promoted to the Negro American League in 1948. Playing shortstop for the Chicago American Giants, he hit .301. The following year, he was in the American Association as an outfielder with the St. Paul Saints, an affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Upon signing with the Dodgers organization, he took two years off his age. He was the only black player in the American Association at the time of his signing. In 1951, St. Paul moved him back to shortstop. The next year, he played for the Dodgers' minor league team in Montreal.<ref name=Swaine/>
Between 1950 and 1952, Pendleton hit between .291 and .301 each season, averaging 14 home runs and more than 15 triples per year during that period. Despite his minor league success, two factors worked against the possibility of a promotion to the Dodgers. Brooklyn already had a star major league shortstop, Pee Wee Reese, and the franchise was worried about backlash from the rest of baseball if it promoted more than one black player to the major leagues each year. The Dodgers also rejected trade offers from other teams during that time.<ref name=Swaine>{{cite book|last1=Swaine|first1=Rick|title=The Black stars who made baseball whole : the Jackie Robinson generation in the major leagues, 1947 - 1959|date=2006|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=0786423161|page=260|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PraQBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA260|accessdate=March 6, 2016}}</ref>
==MLB career== With Reese holding strong as the Dodgers shortstop, Brooklyn agreed to a trade that sent Pendleton to the Milwaukee Braves<ref name=Swaine/> as part of a four-team February 1953 transaction that involved Cincinnati and the Philadelphia Phillies, as well as the Dodgers. He made his MLB debut at 29 on April 17, 1953. On August 30 of that season, Pendleton hit three home runs in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, to become just the second rookie in Major League history to hit three homers in a single game, joining his teammate Eddie Mathews, who did it a year earlier.<ref>''Milwaukee Braves Heroes and Heartbreak''. Povletich, William (2009). Wisconsin Historical Society Press. {{ISBN|978-0-87-020423-4}}</ref>
Overall, Pendleton played more than 100 games in the outfield for Milwaukee and batted .299 in a part-time role, which increased his popularity. In 1957, he hit .305 in 46 games for the Pirates, but after three at bats in 1958, he was sent back to the minors for the rest of 1958 campaign. He was a member of the first Houston Colt .45s team in {{baseball year|1962}} and played in 117 games at the age of 38.
In his MLB career, Pendleton appeared in 444 games over eight seasons, hitting 19 home runs. He died in Houston, Texas, at the age of 72.
==See also== * List of Negro league baseball players who played in Major League Baseball
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{baseballstats|br=p/pendlji01|brm=pendle001jam}} or [https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=pendl01jim Seamheads], or [http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=pendlji01 Baseball Almanac], or [http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/P/Ppendj101.htm Retrosheet]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pendleton, Jim}} Category:1924 births Category:1996 deaths Category:African-American baseball players Category:Baseball players from Houston Category:Chicago American Giants players Category:Cincinnati Reds players Category:Columbus Jets players Category:Havana Sugar Kings players Category:Houston Colt .45s players Category:Jersey City Jerseys players Category:Leones del Caracas players Category:Major League Baseball outfielders Category:Milwaukee Braves players Category:20th-century American sportsmen Category:Montreal Royals players Category:Navegantes del Magallanes players Category:American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Category:Oklahoma City 89ers players Category:Sportspeople from St. Charles, Missouri Category:Pittsburgh Pirates players Category:St. Paul Saints (AA) players Category:San Antonio Bullets players Category:Toledo Sox players Category:Wichita Braves players Category:20th-century African-American sportsmen Category:American expatriate baseball players in Canada Category:Klamath Falls Gems players Category:American expatriate baseball players in Cuba Category:Burials at Houston National Cemetery