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Doby Excelled Despite Playing In Robinson's Shadow

By BRUCE LOWITT Tribune correspondent

Published: Jul 3, 2007

There will be no national Larry Doby Day on Thursday. Being second across the line - even Major League Baseball's color line - means forever being in the shadow of whomever crossed first.

"He was kind of like Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon," pitcher Bob Feller, Doby's teammate with Cleveland, once said.

When Doby pinch hit for the Indians on July 5, 1947, he became the American League's first black player - 81 days after Brooklyn's Jackie Robinson became the first in the majors.

On June 30, 1978, Doby was named the majors' second black manager, with the White Sox - 3½ years after Frank Robinson became the first, with the Indians.

Doby was, though, the first black player to lead his league in home runs, to hit a World Series homer and to win a World Series title.

Still, Doby, who died of cancer in 2003 at age 79, always has been more of an afterthought than a significant character in the national pastime's history.

"Jackie was my hero," Pumpsie Green, who became the first black player for the Red Sox in 1959, said from his suburban Oakland home. "I only knew about Jackie. I never heard of Larry Doby."

During the April 15 celebration of the 60{+t}{+h} anniversary of Robinson's debut, Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia observed, "I don't think a lot of people know who Larry Doby is."

Star In His Own Right

Robinson retired after the 1956 season. In 1962, his first year of eligibility, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Doby's last season was 1959. He was enshrined 39 years later.

Like Robinson, Doby was a four-sport high school star - baseball, basketball, football and track. He attended college while playing for the Negro National League's Newark Eagles under the alias Larry Walker to protect his amateur standing.

After two years in the Navy, he returned to the Eagles in 1946, the year they won the Negro World Series, and was batting .415 when Indians owner Bill Veeck signed him on July 2, 1947.

Doby was a seven-time All-Star (1949-55) and led the AL in home runs in 1952 and '54. He played 10 of his 13 seasons with Cleveland, splitting the rest between the White Sox and Tigers before retiring in 1959.

On the sunny Saturday in Chicago when Doby joined the Indians, player-manager Lou Boudreau escorted him around the clubhouse. Some players shook Doby's hand. Most did not. It was, he said, "one of the most embarrassing moments of my life."

'A Rousing Hand'

Later, Doby put on uniform No. 14, grabbed his glove, walked onto the field and stood around, waiting for a teammate to ask him to play catch. For several minutes, no one did.

Then Joe Gordon, Cleveland's All-Star second baseman, shouted, "Hey, kid, let's warm up." Gordon became Doby's first and closest friend on the team.

In the seventh inning Doby pinch hit with one out and runners on first and third. The Associated Press reported: "Obviously nervous, the 22-year-old player from Paterson, N.J., … got a rousing hand from a Comiskey Park crowd of more than 18,000 as he stepped up to bat for pitcher Bryan Stephens."

And after he struck out on five pitches, one of them "a scorching line drive down the left-field line which was foul by inches," the AP wrote, "… The Negro again was loudly applauded on the way back to the bench."

Cleveland first baseman Eddie Robinson said Doby "was pretty much accepted immediately. I think Jackie suffered through it a lot more than Larry did because Jackie was first. By the time Larry joined us, just about every player had accepted the fact that this was the way it was going to be in baseball."

In reality, only a few teammates befriended Doby that summer of '47. Most of the rest were indifferent at best, never protesting when he was turned away from hotels and restaurants that welcomed his white teammates. There was widespread hostility toward Doby and Robinson throughout the majors.

When Doby spoke of his experiences, he did it without rancor.

"After you look back at the progress that's been made and the minorities involved in baseball, you can't think about the bad things that happened to you in '47," he once said. "It was all worth it. Baseball has come a long way. If I had something to do with it, I'm proud."