Overview
- Altman’s death at 92 was announced Tuesday by Bob Kendrick, who leads the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
- Signed by Buck O’Neil with the Kansas City Monarchs in 1955, he debuted with the Cubs in 1959 and played nine MLB seasons with Chicago, St. Louis and New York.
- He made back-to-back National League All-Star teams in 1961 and 1962, hitting a pinch-hit homer in his first All-Star at-bat and later posting a multi-homer game against Sandy Koufax.
- After injuries curtailed his MLB run, he became a star in Japan across eight seasons, batting .309 with 205 home runs for the Tokyo/Lotte Orions and Hanshin Tigers.
- He finished with 101 MLB home runs, 403 RBIs and a .269 average, overcame a 1974 colon cancer diagnosis before retiring in 1975, then worked as a Chicago commodities trader and later lived in O’Fallon, Missouri.