Roy Campanella Biography - A Born Catcher, An African American First, Chronology, It's Good To Be Alive - SELECTED WRITINGS BY CAMPANELLA:
baseball league major player
1921-1993
American baseball player
Known as "Campy" by his friends, colleagues, and fans, Roy Campanella is considered by many to be the best baseball catcher in the history of the game. He is often mentioned in the same breath as the great catcher Yogi Berra, who played for the opposing professional league, the American League. Named the National League's Most Valuable Player three times in the 1950s, Campanella was a pioneering African American player at a time of deep racial prejudice that had prevented blacks from playing in the major leagues until only a year before Campanella joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948. Campanella played on the same team as the first African American major leaguer, Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in 1947.
Not only was Campanella one of the first African Americans to play in the major leagues, he also paved the way for other blacks to play in the position of catcher, a spot until then still off-limits to non-white players. As former fellow Dodger Dusty Baker later told Larry Whiteside of the Boston Globe, "In the days when he caught, catching was basically a white position…. Catching was a thinking position that most of America didn't think people like Campanella could handle. He broke the mold. Because of the mentality of the country, the mentality of baseball, to be black and an MVP meant he had to be head and shoulders above anybody else in the league."
Campanella's career lasted until 1958, when he was paralyzed in an automobile accident. From then on, a total of 35 years until his death, he was confined to a wheelchair. He managed to stay in the game of baseball, however, as a coach and advocate for young baseball players. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969, and he died of a heart attack in 1993.
SELECTED WRITINGS BY CAMPANELLA:
It's Good to Be Alive. Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1959.
Sketch by Michael Belfiore
Additional Topics
Roy Campanella was born in Homestead, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1921. His mother, Ida, was African
Roy Campanella
American, while his father, John, was an immigrant from Italy. As a boy, Campanella worked in his father's produce business and also helped his brother to deliver milk. He first seriously played the game that was to make him famous while still in high school. The posit…
After a brief stint on the St. Paul, Minnesota Class AA team, Campanella was finally moved up to the Brooklyn Dodgers' major league team in 1948. This made him the first African American catcher in major league baseball, and the fourth African American player in the major leagues. Jackie Robinson had preceded Campanella the year before as the first African American major league baseball pla…
Roy Campanella's autobiography, It's Good to Be Alive became the basis of a television movie in 1974. Directed by noted television actor Michael Landon (perhaps best known for his starring role on the Little House on the Prairie TV series), the 100-minute movie was broadcast for the first time on February 22, 1974. This first showing featured an introduction by Campanella and his fam…
Even at the height of his career, however, Campanella realized that he could not play baseball indefinitely, and so he opened a Harlem, New York liquor store with which he planned to support his family after his retirement from playing baseball. The store was a success, and was soon a prosperous business. The day he was forced to retire from baseball came sooner than Campanella planned, however. E…
After a ten-month hospitalization, Campanella underwent rehabilitation at New York University-Bellevue Medical Center's Rusk Institute—a process as grueling as any training in his baseball career. At the end of it, he was able to move his arms, and regained partial use of his hands. The worst was not yet over. Campanella's wife Ruthie, unable to cope with the loss of physical …
"Dodgers Legend Campanella Dies." Chicago Sun Times (June 27, 1993): Sports Sunday, 3. Donnelly, Joe. "Courage in Dodger Blue; Baseball Mourns Campanella, 71." Record (June 28, 1993): D1. "Greatest Dodger of Them All." St. Petersburg Times (June 28, 1993): 1C. "Hall of Fame Catcher Roy Campanella Dies at 71." Jet (July 12, 1993): 14. Pearson,…
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over 1 year ago
shondra
its really good info for a paper that is due or a short essay but not for a 3 page paper or a regular essay