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The Story Of Larry Doby, The American League’s First Black Player
Everyone knows Jackie Robinson broke the Major League color line in April of 1947 when he was signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers, but who was the second Black player, the first to play in the American League? Hall of Famer Larry Doby. Larry Doby became the first Black player in the American League – and the first to go directly from the Negro League to the majors - when he joined the Cleveland Indians from the Newark Eagles on July 4, 1947. Recruited by co-owner "Wild Bill" Veeck, Doby was a 23-year-old superstar with Newark who’d helped them win the 1946 Negro League World Series and who many thought would be called to the majors before Jackie Robinson. In Cleveland, he struggled from day one, with the team, the fans and his game. “One by one, [Indians manager] Lou [Boudreau] introduced me to each player,” Doby recalled. “All the guys put their hand out – all but three. As soon as he could, Bill Veeck got rid of those three.” Doby got just one at-bat in his first game, and he struck out, foreshadowing a season of struggles. His game was off. Off the field, he dealt with racist slurs from the crowd and segregation at the team’s hotels and restaurants. But 1948, Doby's first full season in the big leagues, was the turning point for all. Doby found his game, batting over .300, and he became the Indians starting center fielder, Veeck signed 42-year-old Negro League legend Satchel Paige, making Paige the oldest rookie in major league history, and that fall, the Indians won their first World Series in 28 years. The Indians set an all-time record by drawing 2.6 million fans that season. On October 9, 1948, in game four of the World Series against the Boston Braves, Doby became the first African American to hit a home run in the World Series. It would end up being the game-winner and that led to Doby and Satchel Paige becoming the first African Americans to win a World Series title. A locker room photo of Doby and pitcher Steve Gromek joyfully embracing after the winning game become iconic. Some papers published it as a sign of unity and teamwork, others refused to print a photo of a white man hugging a Black man. Doby was delighted, he saw an image of "pure joy," while Gromek would receive threats and lose friends. Both Doby and Gromek would keep copies in their respective homes and offices for the rest of their lives, as their children do to this day. His adopted hometown, Paterson, New Jersey, where he maintained his home and his wife and children lived, loved him. Students were given the day off for a parade in his honor. They celebrated Larry Doby Day and would pay off his mortgage and burn it on Larry Doby Day at Yankee Stadium. There’s a Larry Doby Baseball field. Doby bounced around the last of his playing years. He went to the Chicago White Sox in 1956, returning to the Indians for the ’58 season. He spent the following year with the Detroit Tigers, and then was back in a White Sox uniform in ’59. After he retired, he returned to the game for the ‘62 season with the Chunichi Dragons in Nagoya, Japan. Over his 17 seasons in the Major and Negro Leagues, Doby twice led the American League in home runs, once in RBIs. Doby retired from playing with a career .288 batting average, 273 home runs, and played in nine All-Star games. He was just one of three players to win a World Series in the Negro and Major Leagues. Doby would go on to score another "second" – in 1978, he returned as manager of the Chicago White Sox, the second black manager in the majors. In 1998, he was selected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Hall's Veterans Committee. Larry Doby died in his adopted hometown of Patterson, New Jersey, in 2003 at the age of 79. In 2024, in honor of what would have been his 100th birthday, Larry Doby became just the third baseball player to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor. The image on the back? The 1948 photo of his celebratory hug with Gromek at the insistence of his family.