78 years ago this month, Larry Doby made history as the first Black player in the American League, debuting with the Cleveland Indians just 11 weeks after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the National League. But Doby’s path was very different, and arguably harder, according to Ideastream Public Media’s sports commentator Terry Pluto. Pluto reflected on Doby’s difficult debut and a legacy too often left out of baseball history.
“After World War II, at least some of the teams in baseball were getting to realize, it's time to integrate the sport,” Pluto said.
The integration process began with Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who “was well thought out and well executed.”
Rickey focused on Jackie Robinson, a star in the Negro Leagues, sending him to the minor leagues for a year.
“…Which was in Montreal, by the way, which helped him quite a bit in terms of not having to play in the Jim Crow South," Pluto said. "So, when they put him on the team to start the 1947 season, there could be some players with the Brooklyn Dodgers who say, ‘Look, I don't like the idea of playing with an African-American guy. I don't like this.’ But they also had to admit Jackie Robinson can really play. I mean, he proved it.”
Bill Veeck, owner of the then-Cleveland Indians, had also been eager to break baseball’s color barrier. When he heard Rickey had signed Jackie Robinson, Veeck acted quickly to bring in a player of his own, Larry Doby.
“Bill Veeck is kind of an impulsive guy," Pluto said. "He's one of the great promoters ever. He had exploding scoreboards with fireworks, and he had clowns before the game and just any crazy promotion you could think of just about has its roots with Bill Veeck. He was like, ‘Let's just go get somebody.’ And they settled on Larry Doby, a young guy who was only 22. By the way, Jackie Robinson was 28 (during) his rookie year.”
At the time, Cleveland’s manager was also the team’s starting shortstop, Lou Boudreau. When team owner Bill Veeck called to tell him he had signed a new player, Boudreau was caught off guard.
“So Veeck calls him, 'Well, Lou, we got a player for you, Larry Doby.' The name meant nothing to Boudreau,” Pluto said.
Expecting that the team had been scouting an outfielder, Boudreau asked what position Doby played. Veeck responded that he was a shortstop, directly competing with Boudreau’s own position. When Boudreau asked if Doby could play anywhere else, Veeck said he also played second base. But that spot was already held by Joe Gordon, one of the team’s best players.
Boudreau then asked when Doby would be joining the team. The answer was the very next day, July 5, 1947.
“In other words, it's the total opposite of the preparation the Dodgers made for Jackie Robinson,” Pluto said.”
The rushed introduction to the team meant Doby faced a rough first season.
“By the end of that first year, five hits, 33 at bats, hardly played," Pluto said. "(At) the end of ’47, (Doby is) thinking, ‘They're gonna cut me. I got no chance.’”
Fortunately, the following year brought a turning point. The team decided to move Doby to the outfield, with guidance from a Hall of Fame mentor, Tris Speaker.
“(Speaker) was a player-manager of the Tribe in 1920 when they won the World Series," Pluto said. "He was a Hall of Fame centerfielder. Well, Speaker was delighted that somebody cared enough to bring him in to work with this young man. He didn't care what color he was; he just cared that he wanted to learn. (Speaker) taught him how to play the outfield. The Tribe that year went on to win the World Series. Doby was a huge part of that."
Doby went on to make seven All-Star teams and eventually earned a place in the Hall of Fame. Yet his name is often less remembered than Jackie Robinson’s.
“I think, outside of Cleveland, how many people remember Larry Doby?” Pluto said.
Doby was enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998 and the franchise honored him with a statue today outside Progressive Field in 2015.
Pluto said it took courage for both Doby and Robinson to break through such significant barriers.
“And this is why over the years I have written some about Doby," Pluto said. "It took two remarkably tough-minded athletes in Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby to pull that off. And they both broke through barriers that very few men would be able to do.”
