Larry Doby may not be household name, but should be
When we think of the integration of baseball, the name that comes to mind for most is that of Jackie Robinson. And while Robinson’s accomplishments in breaking baseball’s color barrier should never be marginalized, there’s another legend that perhaps deserves more credit for how he changed the game.
On July 5, 1947, 11 weeks after Robinson made his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Larry Doby became the first black player in the American League, pinch-hitting for Cleveland Indians pitcher Bryan Stephens in the seventh inning of a game against the White Sox at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.
Doby would go on to play 13 seasons and make seven All-Star teams. He won a World Series in 1948 and finished second to Yogi Berra in MVP voting in 1954, as the Indians won 111 regular-season games and clinched the AL pennant. Most importantly, he helped advance the game with class that most couldn’t muster in the face of all of the venom he encountered as he traveled with the Indians through the Rust Belt.
“I think in a lot of ways, he had it in much rougher fashion (than Robinson),” said Mike Veeck, whose father, Indians owner Bill Veeck, purchased Doby’s contract from the Newark Eagles of the Negro League.
“He had a high school education, and he wasn’t prepped for any of this; he was kind of dropped in the middle. I think the thing that people really identify with Larry is the tremendous sense of dignity about being No. 2. We all related to being No. 2, but we really can’t relate to being Jackie Robinson.”
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/larry-doby-a-pioneering-force-in-baseball-020314