BUSINESS
FOLLOWING MR. ROBINSON Red Barber was the long-time major league baseball play-by-play announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees. Barber was a Southerner and the radio announcer for the 1947 Dodgers team that integrated major league baseball with the first African American player in nearly a half century, Jackie Robinson. Barber referred to 1947 as “the year all hell broke loose in baseball.” Baseball’s integration was a pivotal event in the countries attitudes toward ending racial segregation. In 1947 baseball was America’s favorite sport. Professional football and basketball had not captured the American attention to the extent that it does today. Baseball was, in fact, the American pastime. Baseball and society at large in 1947 would be unrecognizable to youth today. While there were hundreds of minor league teams throughout the country, there were only 16 major league franchises, 8 in the American League and 8 in the National League. The four Southernmost teams were the St. Louis Browns, the Washington Senators, The Cincinnati Reds, and the St. Louis Cardinals. Southern players were prominent throughout the league; however, there were no teams on the West Coast or in the Southeast. Most strikingly there were no African American or Latino players to be found on any big-league roster. Likewise, the American workplace and society at large maintained racial segregation. Most of us are familiar with the story of Jackie Robinson. He was the first African American player. Not as well-known is the second African American on a big-league roster and the first in the American League, Larry Doby, a South Carolina native. Doby was born in Camden in 1926. Doby’s father, a World War I vet, spent very little time with his family when Larry was young. His mother relocated to Patterson New Jersey but left Larry in Camden to attend school while living with various relatives. Doby described his childhood saying, “growing up in Camden, we didn’t have baseball bats. We’d use a tree here, a tin can there, for bases.” At the age of 14, Doby moved to Patterson and was reunited with his mother. He was a multi-sport athlete in 18
VIPMagSC.com
May 2022
high school playing on integrated teams. At the age of 17 he was playing in the Negro Leagues for the Newark Eagles using the pseudonym “Larry Walker” in order to maintain his amateur status thus allowing him to compete in college. 1943 Doby joined the United States Navy serving in various bases around the United States as well as in the Pacific. He was honorably discharged in January 1946, married his high school sweetheart, and rejoined the Eagles. This was the same year that Jackie Robinson was playing AAA baseball in Montreal for the Dodgers. In the 1946 season Doby led the Eagles to the Negro World Series Championship over the Kansas City Monarchs. The Cleveland Indians were owned by Bill Veeck, possibly the most colorful owner and promoter in baseball history. Veeck had long advocated for integration of the major leagues. When Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers for the start of the 1947 season, Veeck was not far behind. Veeck had already identified Doby as his man. Rather than placing Doby in the Indian’s minor league organization, Veeck negotiated directly with the owner of the Eagles while Doby continued to play. On July 5, 1947, with
