Samuel Jethroe, nicknamed "The Jet" (January 20, 1918 – June 18, 2001), was an American center fielder in Negro League and Major League Baseball. With the Cincinnati & Cleveland Buckeyes he won a pair of batting titles, hit .340 over seven seasons from 1942 to 1948, and helped the team to two pennants and the 1945 Negro League World Series title. He was named the National League's Rookie of the Year in 1950 with the Boston Braves, and led the NL in stolen bases in his first two seasons.

Nicknamed "The Jet" for his stunning speed, Jethroe was born in East St. Louis, Illinois. Until late in his life he was believed to have born in 1922, but more recent sources have given the year as 1917 or 1918. A switch-hitter who threw right-handed, he played semipro ball in the St. Louis area after high school, and briefly appeared as a catcher for the Indianapolis ABCs in 1938. From 1942 to 1948 he played for the Buckeyes of the Negro American League, leading the league in stolen bases three times. He batted .487 in 39 at bats in his first season in 1942, a year in which a car hit several Buckeyes players on September 7 while they were standing next to their disabled bus at a roadside outside Geneva, Ohio; catcher Buster Brown and pitcher Smoky Owens were killed.