Larry Doby

Lawrence Eugene Doby (December 13, 1923 – June 18, 2003) was an American professional baseball player. He played in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB). Doby was the second black player to break baseball's color barrier and the first black player in the American League. He was from Camden, South Carolina. He was a three-sport all-state athlete while in high school in Paterson, New Jersey. Doby accepted a basketball scholarship from Long Island University. At 17 years of age, he began his professionalbaseball career with the Newark Eagles as the team's second baseman. Doby joined the United States Navy during World War II. After the war, Doby returned to baseball in 1946, and along with teammate Monte Irvin, helped the Eagles win the Negro League World Series.

In July 1947, Doby broke the color barrier in the American League when he signed a contract to play with Bill Veeck's Cleveland Indians. This happened three months after Jackie Robinson made history with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Doby was the first player to go directly to Major League Baseball from the Negro leagues. He was a seven-time All-Star center fielder. Doby and teammate Satchel Paige were the first African-American players to win a World Series championship. They won it with the Indians in 1948. He helped the Indians win 111 games (second-best in MLB history at the time) and the AL pennant in 1954. That year he finished second in the American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) award voting and was the AL's RBI leader and home run champion. He went on to play for the Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, and Chunichi Dragons before he retired as a player in 1962.

Doby was the second black manager in Major League Baseball with the Chicago White Sox. In 1995, we worked in a position in the American League's offices. He also served as a director with the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998 by the Hall's Veterans Committee and died in 2003 at the age of 79.

Doby was born in Camden, South Carolina on December 13, 1923. His parents were David Doby and Etta Brooks.^[1]: p.7 Doby's father served in World War I. David worked as a horse groomer. He played semi-professional baseball. He drowned in an accident at age 37 in New York state.^{[1]: p.9 [2]} Doby's mother, who had divorced David before his death, moved to Paterson, New Jersey. Doby stayed in Camden. He lived with his grandmother. He then lived with his father's sister and brother-in-law from 1934 to 1938.^[1]: p.10 He played baseball as a student at Boylan-Haven-Mather Academy. Richard Dubose gave Doby some of his first baseball lessons.^[1]: p.59 Dubose had been Doby's father baseball coach, too. Doby said, "Growing up in Camden, we didn't have baseball bats. We'd use a tree here, a tin can there, for bases."^[3]

After finishing eighth grade, Doby moved north to Paterson at the age of 14. He reunited with his mother. She visited him weekly while he lived with one of her friends.^{[1]: p.11 [4]: p.30} At Paterson Eastside High School, Doby was a multi-sport athlete. He played baseball, basketball, football, and track and field. After winning a state football championship, the Eastside team was invited to play in Florida. The people in charge would not allow Doby, the only black player on the team, to play. The team voted to not go to Florida to support Doby.^[5]: p.31

During summer vacation, Doby played baseball with a black semi-professional team, the Smart Sets. He played on the team with future Hall of Fame shortstop Monte Irvin.^[1]: p.15 He also played with the Harlem Renaissance, a professional basketball team, as an unpaid substitute player.^[4]: p.30 After high school, he accepted an athletic scholarship to play basketball at Long Island University Brooklyn (LIU).^{[1]: p.23 [6]} Doby had been dating Eastside classmate Helyn Curvy since his sophomore year. According to Doby, being able to stay close to Paterson was the "main reason" he chose LIU.^[1]: p.23

In the summer before he started at LIU, Doby accepted an offer to play for the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League (NNL) for the rest of the 1942 season,^{[1]: p.19 [7]: p.83}. He also changed schools to Virginia Union University.^[8]: p.98

Negro league umpire Henry Moore told Newark Eagles' owners Abe and Effa Manley to give Doby a tryout at Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson. Doby did well and joined the Eagles in 1942 at the age of 17 for $300.^[1]: p.20 The contract said Doby would play until September when he would start classes at college. He was called "Larry Walker" and local reporters were told he came from Los Angeles, California. This was so he could still be an amateur (someone who does not play sports for money).^[1]: p.20 On May 31, Doby play in his first professional game when the Eagles played against the New York Cubans at Yankee Stadium.^{[4]: p.19 [7]: p.83} In the 26 games where box scores have been found, Doby's batting average was .391.^[1]: p.20 Doby said about a game against catcher Josh Gibson and pitcher Ray Brown of the Homestead Grays:

My first time up, Josh said, 'We're going to find out if you can hit a fastball.' I singled. Next time up, Josh said, 'We're going to find out if you can hit a curveball.' I singled. Third time up, Josh said, 'We're going to find out how you do after you're knocked down.' I popped up the first time after they knocked me down. The second time, I singled.^[9]

Doby's career in Newark stopped for two years for service in the United States Navy. Doby spent 1943 and part of 1944 at Camp Robert Smalls at the Great Lakes Naval Training School near Chicago.^[10]: p.68 He played on an all-black baseball team. He had a .342 batting average against teams of white players. Some of those teams had major league players.^[11] He then went to Treasure Island Naval Base in San Francisco Bay, California. Before serving in the Pacific Theater of World War II, Doby spent time at Navy sites in Ogden, Utah and San Diego, California. He was based on Ulithi in the Pacific Ocean in 1945. Doby heard of Jackie Robinson's minor league contract with the Montreal Royals of the International League from his base on Ulithi listening to Armed Forces Radio. This made Doby have real hope of being a Major League baseball player.^[4]: p.31 While in Hawaii, Doby met future teammate Mickey Vernon who was also in the Navy.^[12] Vernon liked Doby's skills so much that he wrote to Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith. He told Griffith to sign Doby if the MLB ever let black players in the league.^[13] During his time in the Navy, other people in the Navy said Doby was quiet.^[10]: p.71 Doby left the Navy in January 1946.^[4]: p.57 In the summer of that year, Doby and Helyn Curvy were married.^[1]: p.33

He played for the San Juan Senators in Puerto Rico after the war. Doby went back to the Eagles in 1946.^[14] He made the All-Star roster. He batted .360 (fourth in the NNL). He hit five home runs (fifth in the NNL). He also led the NNL in triples with six. The Eagles won the Negro World Series championship in 1946. They beat Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Monarchs in seven games. In the Series, Doby hit .372 with one home run, five RBIs, and three stolen bases.^[4]: p.31 Many in the Negro leagues believed Doby or Irvin would be first to break the MLB color barrier. They did not think Jackie Robinson would do it first. On considering a career in Major League Baseball, Doby said, "I never dreamed that far ahead. Growing up in a segregated society, you couldn't have thought that that was the way it was going to be. There was no bright spot as far as looking at baseball until Mr. Robinson got the opportunity to play in Montreal in '46."^[15]

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12} Moore, Joseph Thomas (1988). Pride and Prejudice: The Biography of Larry Doby. New York: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0-275-92984-1. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Moore" defined multiple times with different content
2. ↑ "Personal Profiles: Larry Doby". Negro Leagues Baseball eMuseum. Kansas State University. Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
3. ↑ Laise, Jim (1978-07-07). "Camden Roots Affected Doby's Climb". The News and Courier. Charleston, South Carolina. p. 3C. Retrieved 2025-02-24 – via GenealogyBank.com.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5} Martin, Alfred M.; Martin, Alfred T. (2008). The Negro Leagues in New Jersey: A History. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-3900-3. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Martin" defined multiple times with different content
5. ↑ Jacobson, Steve (2007). Carrying Jackie's Torch: The Players Who Integrated Baseball—and America. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books. ISBN 978-1-55652-639-8.
6. ↑ H.Con.Res.235 – Celebrating the life and achievements of Lawrence Eugene "Larry" Doby (PDF), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, June 26, 2003
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Knight, Jonathan (2011). Summer of Shadows: A Murder, A Pennant Race, and the Twilight of the Best Location in the nation (First ed.). Cincinnati, Ohio: Clerisy Press. ISBN 978-1-57860-468-5.
8. ↑ Luke, Bob (2011). The Most Famous Woman in Baseball:Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-59797-546-9.
9. ↑ Anderson, Dave (June 20, 2003). "Sports of the Times: A Serious Statesman of the Game". The New York Times. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Young, A.S. (February 1969). "A Black Man in the Wigwam". Ebony. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
11. ↑ Tygiel, Jules (June 27, 1983). "Those Who Came After". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on February 18, 2014. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
12. ↑ Schudel, Matt (September 26, 2008). "Mickey Vernon; Smooth Fielder, Hot Hitter for Senators". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 31, 2012.
13. ↑ Gay, Timothy M. (2012). Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Integration. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 186–187. ISBN 978-1-4165-4798-3.
14. ↑ Harris, Robert L. Jr.; Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn (2006). The Columbia Guide to African American History Since 1939. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 270. ISBN 0-231-13810-5.
15. ↑ Hill, Justice B. "Living to tell about it: Larry Doby recounts his time in the Negro Leagues". MLB.com. Archived from the original on February 16, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2012.

• Branson, Douglas M. (2016). Greatness in the Shadows: Larry Doby and the Integration of the American League. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0803285521.
• Moore, Joseph Thomas (1988). Pride Against Prejudice: The Biography of Larry Doby. Praeger. ISBN 031325995X.
• Moore, Joseph Thomas (2012). Larry Doby: The Struggle of the American League's First Black Player. Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0486483375.