Larry Doby

Doby started to come into his own in 1948. He had hit 14 homers, knocked in 66 runs and finished with a .301 average that year, helping the Indians to a World Series victory over the Boston Braves along the way. Over the following years, he was named to seven consecutive American League All-Star teams. In 1952 and 1954 he was the American league home run champ, he led the league in RBIs in 1954, and in runs in 1952. In 1950, the Sporting News named Doby the best center fielder in baseball, over Joe DiMaggio. Those years were not without pain, however. Segregation from his teammates during many road trips continued. After a bad slump in September 1951, he was blamed for the Indians failure to beat the Yankees for the American League pennant, and the Cleveland papers called for him to be traded.

By 1952 with a salary of $28,000, Larry Doby was the highest paid player on the Cleveland team with the exception of star pitcher Bob Feller. Doby led the Indians to another pennant in 1954, but the team was beaten in the World Series by the New York Giants. His performance fell off in 1955 because of injuries. At the end of the 1955 season, Doby was traded to the Chicago White Sox. He played well in 1956, but injuries were beginning to take their toll on the 30-year-old player. He went on to play with the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland, the Detroit Tigers, and the White Sox, before breaking his ankle in a game with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League in 1959. The injury spelt the end of Larry Doby's major league career.

In 1962 he and former Dodger Don Newcombe joined the Chunichi Dragons for a season, becoming the first former major leaguers to play baseball in Japan. On his return from Japan, Doby moved to Newark New Jersey, where in the summer of 1967 he experienced first-hand the race riot that wracked the city. Early in 1968 he told an interviewer that blacks would probably have to burn down a stadium before there would be any African-American managers or coaches in the big leagues. The comment touched a nerve in Commissioner Bowie Kuhn's office and in 1969 Kuhn arranged for Doby to be hired as a scout by the Montreal Expos. By 1971 Doby won praise as Montreal's batting coach. "There are few great hitters who can communicate," Expo manager Gene Mauch told Joseph Thomas Moore. "Larry Doby has sound theories and he can get the message across to the players. He is articulate and can communicate."