By douglasm (68.113.13.31) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 08:14 am:

I realise that baseball is generally not germaine to SD, byt I feel that I should note that the person responsible for the best thing Bill Veeck did for baseball, died at the age of 79 last night at his home in Patterson, NJ.

Doby came up to the majors a couple months after Jackie Robinson with Cleveland, and went on to have an excellent career with the Indians, leading the AL in homers twice, a 7 time (I believe) All-Star, and is in the Hall Of Fame.

God's outfield just got a little better, and my thoughts and prayers are with his family today.

By dvdmike (65.208.234.61) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 08:33 am:

I remember Bill Veeck hiring him to manage the White Sox in the late '70s. At the time, he was only the second Black manager in MLB.

By RD (63.188.32.113) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 08:59 am:

Larry Doby was a seven time All Star who helped the Cleveland Indians win the World Series in 1948. He was one of three great centerfielders in the Indians' history: Tris Speaker, Doby and Kenny Lofton. Ironically, Speaker, who was a member of the Klu Klux Klan, helped Doby (African-American), who came up as a second baseman, learn the centerfield position.

By R&B (138.238.41.154) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 09:15 am:

AS THE FIRST BLACK PLAYER IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE,LARRY DOBY WAS A TRUE PIONEER OF BASEBALL WHO PAVED THE WAY FOR MANY OF THE PLAYERS OF TODAY.

By LTLFTC (12.210.76.205) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 09:55 am:

Larry Doby also played , briefly , with the Detroit Tigers toward the end of his career.

SteveK

By RD (63.188.32.113) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 09:59 am:

Cleveland goofed when they traded Doby to the White Soxs for Chico Carresquel and some other bum.

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 11:14 am:

Hey Gang:
Forgive my sorry-assed lack of knowledge regarding baseball but did Larry Doby play in the Negro League as well as Jackie Robinson?
Kevin Goins - KevGo

By HW (65.116.80.14) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 11:21 am:

Mr. Doby was a star for the Newark Eagles and much beloved in NJ. I know, he was my neighbor.

A small correction: he was from Paterson but he died at his home in Montclair, just down the street from me. It was very very quiet here this morning...

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 11:23 am:

Harry:
Thank you for the info. Please send my regards & condolences to his family if you speak to them.
Kevin Goins - KevGo

By Scratcher (65.238.127.218) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 11:24 am:

Yes. Larry Doby played for the Newark Eagles in the old Negro League. He was a star second baseman who hit .420 his last season for the Eagles. He was brought to Cleveland to replace Joe Gordon at second base but was switched to the outfield because of his power. If he had stayed at second he would have became one of the greatest second basemen of all time.

By HW (65.116.80.14) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 11:26 am:

Here is the NY Times obit, which is worth seeing online for the two photos displayed: one from a few years ago and one from more than 50 years ago.


http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/19/obituaries/19DOBY.html


Larry Doby, 79, Breaker of a Baseball Color Barrier, Dies
By THE NEW YORK TIMES


Larry Doby, who broke the color barrier in the American League in 1947, three months after Jackie Robinson became the first black in modern major league baseball, died last night at his home in Montclair, N.J. He was 79.

He had been ill for some time, his son Larry Jr. told The Associated Press.

Doby, who was promoted to the Cleveland Indians on July 5, 1947, eventually became the second black to manage a major league team and became a member of the Hall of Fame. But his arrival in the major leagues was overshadowed by Robinson's debut.

"The only difference was that Jackie Robinson got all the publicity," Doby later said. "You didn't hear much about what I was going through because the media didn't want to repeat the same story."

Doby was destined to stay in Robinson's broad shadow for most of his career, and it took a half-century for baseball to fully examine his contributions, which included being named a All-Star seven times in a 13-year playing career in addition to his managerial appointment.

By 1997, baseball was honoring not only Robinson but also Doby, who by then had served as special adviser to commissioners and league presidents.

Lawrence Eugene Doby was born on Dec. 13, 1923, in Camden, S.C. The son of a semipro baseball player, he was an all-state athlete in football, basketball and baseball at Paterson Eastside High School in New Jersey, then continued his athletic career at Long Island University.

Doby's early experiences in relatively integrated northeast New Jersey could not prepare him for the discrimination that awaited him in other places. He often spoke of how stunned and embarrassed he was when he arrived for training upon induction into the Navy in 1944 only to be segregated from whites he had played with and even served as captain for on teams while growing up.

Doby played for the Newark Eagles of the Negro Leagues from 1942 to 1943 and 1946 to 1947, before and after his military service.

In 1946, Doby, a 6-foot-1 left-handed-hitting second baseman, batted .341 and was an accomplished power hitter.

That caught the attention of the Indians' owner, Bill Veeck, who had decided to join the Dodgers' general manager, Branch Rickey, in breaking the unwritten rule against signing nonwhite players, assuring the integration of both major leagues.

Doby, who lost his father when he was 8 years old, regarded Veeck, who signed Doby as an infielder, as a second father. "He didn't see color," Doby said of Veeck in an interview with The New York Times in 1997. "To me, he was in every sense, color blind. And I always knew he was there for me. He always seemed to know when things were bad, if things were getting to me. He'd call up and say, `Let's go out, let's get something to eat.' "

Veeck was more than just kind. He also yielded a hammer when needed. When Doby was first introduced to the Indians players by Lou Boudreau, then their player-manager, about 10 players refused to shake his hand.

"The next year Bill Veeck eliminated about five of the guys who were discourteous to me," Doby told Art Rust Jr., author of "Get That Nigger Off the Field; An Informal History of the Black Man in Baseball" (Delacorte, 1976).

Though there was an element of fear involved because of death threats against Robinson and Doby, the players eventually settled into major league life. Lesser burdens such as loneliness and isolation were persistent. Robinson did his best to help Doby prepare for the institutionalized segregation that awaited him around the country.

"When I arrived in Cleveland, Jackie Robinson called, and the first thing we discussed was the hotel and the food situation," Doby told Rust. "These were the two most important things. After you play a hard game of ball and you want to sit down and eat and you have to have your family with you and you can't, it really bothers you.

"We put up with this in the Negro Leagues, but now that we were major leaguers we wanted the same treatment as the white players. This bugged us more than anything else."

Doby appeared in only 29 games in 1947, but by the following season, he was playing the outfield full time and excelled, batting .301 for the pennant-winning Indians.

Doby went on to hit .318 in the Indians' World Series victory over the Boston Braves, starring in Game 2 (a single, a double and a run batted in) and winning Game 4 with a 400-foot homer off Boston's Johnny Sain.

Doby's ascendancy in that Series not only coincided with that of black players in the majors but also underscored the talent levels of the Negro Leagues, while signaling their demise because of the run on that talent following 1947.

By 1950, Doby was a bona fide All-Star when he hit .326. He led the American League in home runs in both 1952 and 1954, with 32 in each season. Doby also drove in 126 runs to lead the league in 1954, when he helped lead the Indians to another pennant.

All told, Doby drove in 100 or more runs five times, hit 253 homers and batted .283 in a 13-year career that included time with the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers.

After brief stints in the minor leagues and in the Japanese major leagues, Doby went on to coach for the Montreal Expos, the Indians and the White Sox.

In 1978, Veeck, then the owner of the White Sox, called on Doby to replace Bob Lemon as manager for the final four months of the season, making Doby only the second black to be a major league manager, after Frank Robinson, now the Expos' manager, who managed the Indians in 1975. Doby posted a 37-50 record managing the White Sox, who finished fifth in their division.

Doby is survived by five children. His wife, Helyn, died in 2001.

In countless venues, including the All-Star Game, Doby, quiet and dignified throughout, never lost focus on what he considered the real triumphs of 1947.

"It was a learning lesson for baseball and the country," said Doby, who was voted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1998. "If we all look back, we can see that baseball helped make this a better country for us all, a more comfortable country for us all.

"Kids are our future and we hope baseball has given them some idea of what it is to live together and how we can get along, whether you be black or white."

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 11:33 am:

HW & Scratcher:
Thank you for the posts, the information & the obit from the Times - I'll buy the newspaper during my lunch break.
To think - Larry, Jackie, Satchel, Willie, Hank, Roberto - these men came in brought the game up to a new level and instilled pride in all of us.

They will never be forgotten.

Kevin Goins - KevGo

By Scratcher (65.238.127.218) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 11:36 am:

There are good articles about Doby in todays Akron Beacon Journal, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and the News Herald (which features an old time writer from the Plain Dealer). All can be viewed online.

By douglasm (68.113.13.31) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 01:43 pm:

HW...
....thanks for the correction. I caught the error after I left the house.
The articles credit Bill Veeck, rightly, for purchasing the contract of Doby from the Eagles--he thought Monte Irvin was too old--rather than signing him outright with no compensation, which is what the Dodgers did with Robinson. A long telling account of Doby's entrance into Major League Baseball is in Bill Veeck's book, "Veeck As In Wreck", an excellent read.

By STUBASS (205.188.209.109) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 01:57 pm:

IN THE DISCOURSE OF THIS TOPIC...IT SHOULD BE IMPORTANT TO RECOGNIZE THAT THE DETROIT TIGERS WERE AMONG THE *LAST* MAJOR LEAGUE TEAMS TO SIGN A BLACK (NEGRO) PLAYER!!!...THE TIGERS HAVE ALWAYS...AT LEAST HISTORICALLY...BEEN VIEWED AS ONE OF THE MORE "RACIST" TEAMS IN ALL OF PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL...FORCED...KICKING AND SCREAMING...TO FINALLY SIGN BLACK BALL PLAYERS!!!...OF COURSE...ANY TEAM BOASTING THE LEGACY OF THE IMMORTAL RACIST TY COBB...WAS JUST FOLLWING IN THAT SORRY TRADITION!!!..STU

By Scratcher (65.238.127.144) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 02:02 pm:

Stu, for the reasons you cited that must be the reason Smokey Robinson's father favorite team was the Cleveland Indians and not the Tigers. He would drive to Cleveland with Smokey to watch the Tigers at the old Municipal Stadium. The fact that the Indians signed Larry Doby and then Satchell Paige were probably prime reasons why he liked the Indians.

By douglasm (68.113.13.31) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 02:18 pm:

Ossie Virgil, wasn't it?
Veeck also brought Paige into the big show.
Veeck, ever the showman--see if you can find the classic picture of catcher Bob Swift on his knees behind Eddie Gaedel--brought Doby up first because he felt the act of bringing up a black player was too important to be tainted by the accusation of showboating.

By Scratcher (65.238.127.144) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 02:29 pm:

Veeck brought Doby up because he hit .420 for the Newark Eagles and he needed a second baseman to replace Joe Gordon, plus he had the attitude needed. Unlike Robinson, Doby was one of the Negro Leagues best players; Jackie Robinson was a good player too but there were others who were better who were not brought into the Majors because it was felt they couldn't deal with the racism. Both Robinson and Doby had the perfect demeanors to deal with the racial climate at that time. When Paige finally made it to the majors he was past 40.

By STUBASS (152.163.252.68) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 02:36 pm:

ACTUALLY...JOSH GIBSON WAS THE BEST OF THE BEST FROM THE NEGRO LEAGUES...BUT...UNFORTUNATLY...HIS BIZARRE BEHAVIOR MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM TO BECOME THE "TEST CASE"!!!...STU

By Scratcher (65.238.127.144) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 02:42 pm:

They say Papa Bell was the best Stu.

By STUBASS (152.163.252.68) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 02:48 pm:

SCRATCHER!!!COOL PAPA BELL WAS A GREAT...BUT JOSH GIBSON..."THE BLACK BABE RUTH!!!...STUBASS

By STUBASS (152.163.252.68) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 02:53 pm:

PS SCRATCHER!!!...THE ENTIRE NEGRO LEAGUE EXPECTED JOSH GIBSON TO BE THE FIRST...HOWEVER...THEY WERE LOOKING AT TALENT...AND NOT THE SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS!!!...EVEN TEAMMATE SATCHEL PAGE TRIED TO SELL THE CONCEPT OF GIBSON BEING THE "FIRST"...BUT BRANCH RICKEY WOULDN'T HAVE IT!!!...THEY SAY THAT REJECTION IS WHAT PUSHED JOSH GIBSON "OVER THE EDGE"!!!...STU

By Scratcher (65.238.127.144) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 02:58 pm:

Stu, many believe that Babe Ruth was half black on his father's side.

By Scratcher (65.238.127.144) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 03:01 pm:

Stu, Ty Cobb thought Ruth was Black and wouldn't eat with him and called him the "N" word. Check this out:

http://www.blackathlete.net/Reflections/ref041600.html

By STUBASS (205.188.209.109) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 03:26 pm:

TOTALLY TRUE SCRATCHER!!!...TY COBB ONCE ATTACKED A BLACK WAITER IN CLEVELAND WITH A KNIFE...JUST BECAUSE THE GUY TRIED TO WAIT ON HIS TABLE!!!...TY WAS ONE F&%*@$ UP HOMBRE!!!...STU

By Scratcher (65.238.127.210) on Thursday, June 19, 2003 - 05:53 pm:

Ty Cobb killed a black man in Cleveland, may have been that waiter, and it was covered up by the chief of police. Cobb also went into the seats during a ballgame and beat unmercifully a one armed man who was heckling him. And they talk about the athletes today...Pleez!

By dave (216.157.203.143) on Friday, June 20, 2003 - 10:49 am:

Briggs, the Tiger's owner in the early 50's, was a strident racist and I remember wanting Doby to hit a homer everytime he came up against Detroit. Brigg's got his comuppance though. His daughter, Janie, was one of the state's most progressive liberals and her husband, Senator Phil Hart, was good enough so we named Detroit's best weekend party sight after him.