The Great Larry Doby

Tonight, the Yankees are in Cleveland to start up a 3 game series with the Indians which marks the beginning of a tough stretch of games for the Bronx Bombers. I'll discuss the Yanks schedule at another time, but for now I want to recognize one of the more underrated players in baseball history - Larry Doby. The Indians will honor the Hall of Famer tonight by having all players wear his retired #14. The jerseys will later be auctioned for charity.

Larry Doby, simply put, was the Jackie Robinson of the American League. While Jackie was the first African American player in the major leagues, debuting on April 15, 1947, Doby became the first African American player in American League history July 5 of that same year. While Doby wasn't exactly Robinson - let's face it, not many people in history were as good as Jackie was - he was certainly worthy of his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1998.

Larry was a local legend here in New Jersey, becoming a star athlete in Paterson before joining the Newark Eagles of the Negro Leagues in 1942 at the ripe age of 17. After a brief 2-year stint in the Navy, he rejoined the Eagles in 1946 before being signed to the Indians in 1947. In his first full season in the major leagues in 1948, Doby hit .301 with 14 home runs and 66 RBI, scoring 83 runs while becoming an important piece on Cleveland's World Series-winning team. However, his next season began his rise to stardom, as he hit .280 with 24 home runs and 85 RBI while scoring 106 runs, earning his first All Star selection. He continued his barrage on American League pitching over the next few years, highlighted by his 1950 season in which he hit .326 with 25 home runs and 102 RBI while scoring 110 runs, which helped him finish 8th in the MVP voting that year. However, his greatest year was 1954, when he hit .272, crushed 32 home runs and had a career-high 126 RBI, all while scoring 94 runs, as he finished a close 2nd in the MVP voting for that season to Yogi Berra of the Yankees, who hit .307 with 22 home runs and 125 RBI. Doby's 1954 season lead the Indians to 111 regular season wins, which was the AL record at the time. They lost to the New York Giants in that World Series, which had one of the most remarkable plays of all time- "The Catch" by Willie Mays (remember, the one where he runs really far back and makes the over the shoulder catch that every fan has seen at least once in their lifetime?).

Doby would go on to become a 7-time All Star, all between 1949 and 1956, would lead the league in home runs in 1952 and 1954, in RBI in 1954, in runs in 1952, in On-Base Percentage in 1950, in Slugging Percentage in 1952, and in On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS) in 1950.

For his career, Doby hit .283 with 253 home runs and 970 RBI, played in 1,533 games, and is one of the few players in history to have both hit for the cycle and slugged 3 home runs in a single game. He went on to become the manager for the Chicago White Sox in 1978, ironically he was also the second black manager in the history of baseball (preceded only by Frank Robinson, who became the manager of the Cleveland Indians in 1975. Also an ironic note, Doby was hired as the manager by the same man who signed him to his first major league contract, Bill Veeck.

Doby passed in 2003 in Montclair, NJ, ending his life in the same state and area that he made himself a star. He was truly one of the great men of baseball, as he once said "I went through everything Jackie did" (Referencing the hatred and prejudice experienced by Robinson in Brooklyn) "It just didn't get as much attention, mainly because Jack was the first but also because of where he was, in New York. That was OK by me. I just wanted to play the game. That's all I ever cared about."

Much like Willie Mays this year in San Francisco, Doby threw out the first pitch at the 1997 All-Star game in Cleveland, the 50th anniversary of his entrance into the major leagues. He was one of the most unappreciated players in baseball history, as he didn't get voted into the Hall of Fame by the media, instead being elected by the Veteran's Committee in 1998, which was long overdue. Doby's contributions to the game of baseball paralleled those of Jackie Robinson, except he was the second black player in baseball, and didn't get the attention that Robinson did. However, we as sports fans cannot overlook Doby's contributions and stellar play. Instead, we must celebrate it like the Indians do, and will tonight. Not only was he one of the best players in history, but he was also one of the most important, and one of the friendliest around, unlike a certain someone I wrote about in my first real post. If you get the chance, learn more about Larry Doby and his career and celebrate with the Indians tonight as they honor one of baseball's greats.

#14 in our hearts and minds forever