Larry Doby is best remembered for becoming the first black player to integrate the American League when he joined the Cleveland Indians.  As well, the second African-American player in the major leagues to break the color barrier, only 11 weeks after Jackie Robinson.   A 7-time All-Star and 2- time American League home run leader in his 13 year career.  Doby played for the Negro National League in 1942 and 1943 and he helped lead the Indians to their last World Series title in 1948.  Although we remember him for breaking the color barrier, he also led the American League in home runs and RBI and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.   Later with the 1978 Chicago White Sox, Doby became just the second black man to manage a major league team, following Frank Robinson.  Doby’s #14 was retired by the Indians in 1994, forty seven years to the date he signed his contract with Cleveland.  Yogi Berra said of Doby, “Larry Doby could do       everything— hit, run, field and throw.”  Ironically, Larry  commenting on Yogi Berra’s kindness toward him said, “Yogi Berra was one of the first opposing players to talk to me.  As a catcher, Yogi talked to everybody.  I finally had to tell the umpire, ...Please tell him to shut up, he asked me how my family was back in the first inning.” Now that’s hilarious.  Upon signing his first major league contract, owner Bill Veeck made a prediction;  “Lawrence, you are going to be part of history,” Doby said Veeck told him that day. “Part of history?  I had no notions about that.  I just wanted to play baseball,” Doby recalled.  In the face of racial prejudice, Doby remained a superior hitter and   outfielder during his career.  Saying, “I had to take it, but I fought back by hitting the ball as far as I could.  That was my answer.”... 

Read the article in its entirety in the October  2015 Bevil newsletter, which accompanies the cover.