1730 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Camden, SC 29020, United States
Larry attended Jackson School.
Gallery of Larry Doby
Camden, South Carolina, United States
Larry completed the eighth grade at Boylan-Haven-Mather Academy.
Gallery of Larry Doby
150 Park Ave, Paterson, NJ 07501, United States
Doby attended Paterson Eastside High School.
College/University
Gallery of Larry Doby
1 University Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11201, United States
Doby was offered a basketball scholarship at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York, after his high-school graduation in 1942.
Gallery of Larry Doby
1500 N Lombardy St, Richmond, VA 23220, United States
In his freshman year, Doby transferred to Virginia Union College (now Virginia Union University), an African-American institution in Richmond, and played on its basketball team.
Career
Gallery of Larry Doby
1948
4 Jersey St, Boston, MA 02215, United States
Larry Doby, an outfielder for the Cleveland Indians, is congratulated by teammate and manager Lou Boudreau at Fenway Park's home plate after hitting a home run on May 10, 1948.
Gallery of Larry Doby
1948
100 Alfred Lerner Way, Cleveland, OH 44114, United States
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians kisses the bat with which he hit a home run in game four of the 1948 World Series against the Boston Braves on October 9, 1948 at Cleveland Stadium (now FirstEnergy Stadium) in Cleveland, Ohio.
Gallery of Larry Doby
1949
1085 West 3rd Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44114, United States
Larry Doby, Cleveland Indians' left fielder, is in the batter's box during a game at Municipal Stadium (now FirstEnergy Stadium) in Cleveland during the 1949 season.
Gallery of Larry Doby
1950
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Larry Doby and Early Wynn talk about their performances in the clubhouse after a game in Cleveland.
Gallery of Larry Doby
1955
1 E 161 St, The Bronx, NY 10451, United States
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians hits in the batting cage before an MLB game against the New York Yankees on May 11, 1955 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York.
Gallery of Larry Doby
1955
1085 West 3rd Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44114, United States
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians hits in the batting cage before an MLB game against the Chicago White Sox on May 26, 1955 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium (now FirstEnergy Stadium) in Cleveland, Ohio.
Gallery of Larry Doby
1955
Portrait of Larry Doby, the first African-American player in the American League, wearing his Cleveland Indians uniform.
Gallery of Larry Doby
1955
1 E 161 St, The Bronx, NY 10451, United States
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians hits in the batting cage before an MLB game against the New York Yankees on May 11, 1955 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York.
Gallery of Larry Doby
1955
Larry Doby
Gallery of Larry Doby
Larry Doby poses with his bat for a season portrait.
Gallery of Larry Doby
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians poses for an action portrait before a season game.
Gallery of Larry Doby
1 E 161 St, The Bronx, NY 10451, United States
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians poses for an action portrait prior to a circa 1950s game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in New York City, New York.
Gallery of Larry Doby
1 E 161 St, The Bronx, NY 10451, United States
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians poses for a portrait prior to a circa 1950s game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in New York City, New York.
Gallery of Larry Doby
Satchel Paige and Larry Doby
Gallery of Larry Doby
Larry Doby and Jackie Robinson
Gallery of Larry Doby
Larry Doby and Bobby Avila congratulating each other on titles.
Gallery of Larry Doby
Larry Doby holding a baseball bat.
Gallery of Larry Doby
Brooklyn Dodgers' infielder Jackie Robinson with Larry Doby and Satchel Paige of the Cleveland Indians.
Gallery of Larry Doby
Larry Doby and Satchel Paige
Achievements
2401 Ontario St, Cleveland, OH 44115, United States
Doby's statue near Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio
Larry Doby, an outfielder for the Cleveland Indians, is congratulated by teammate and manager Lou Boudreau at Fenway Park's home plate after hitting a home run on May 10, 1948.
Larry Doby and his wife Helyn wave to cheering Eastside High School students who were given half a day off from school studies to help celebrate Larry's homecoming in Patterson, New Jersey.
100 Alfred Lerner Way, Cleveland, OH 44114, United States
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians kisses the bat with which he hit a home run in game four of the 1948 World Series against the Boston Braves on October 9, 1948 at Cleveland Stadium (now FirstEnergy Stadium) in Cleveland, Ohio.
Larry Doby, the American League's first black player, shakes hands with his new boss, President Bill Veeck of the Cleveland Indians, after Doby arrived in Chicago on July 5, 1948, from Newmark, to join the Cleveland club.
1085 West 3rd Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44114, United States
Larry Doby, Cleveland Indians' left fielder, is in the batter's box during a game at Municipal Stadium (now FirstEnergy Stadium) in Cleveland during the 1949 season.
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians hits in the batting cage before an MLB game against the New York Yankees on May 11, 1955 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York.
1085 West 3rd Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44114, United States
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians hits in the batting cage before an MLB game against the Chicago White Sox on May 26, 1955 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium (now FirstEnergy Stadium) in Cleveland, Ohio.
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians hits in the batting cage before an MLB game against the New York Yankees on May 11, 1955 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York.
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians poses for an action portrait prior to a circa 1950s game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in New York City, New York.
Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians poses for a portrait prior to a circa 1950s game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in New York City, New York.
1500 N Lombardy St, Richmond, VA 23220, United States
In his freshman year, Doby transferred to Virginia Union College (now Virginia Union University), an African-American institution in Richmond, and played on its basketball team.
Larry Doby was an American baseball player, the second African-American player in the major leagues and the first in the American League when he joined the Cleveland Indians in 1947.
Background
Lawrence Eugene Doby was born on December 13, 1923, in Camden, South Carolina, United States. His father, David Doby, was a professional horse groom whose long trips to racetracks in the North led to the breakup of his marriage while Larry was still a child. When his mother, the former Etta Brooks, went North looking for work for herself, Larry was put in the care of others, first his grandmother and then his aunt and uncle.
Education
Doby saw little of his father during his childhood because David Doby went north to work as a groom. His mother also went north, to Paterson, New Jersey, to work as a domestic, leaving her son in the care of his maternal grandmother and, later, his father's sister and her husband. Larry attended Jackson School. He completed the eighth grade at Boylan-Haven-Mather Academy, a Methodist mission school for African-American children, in 1938.
That summer he visited his mother in Paterson, and she insisted that he stay there and attend Eastside High School. Eastside was well regarded academically and had a strong sports program. Doby, a quiet, reserved young man, was one of about twenty-five African-American students in the school. As a superb athlete, he was popular with students of all races. In his four years at Eastside, Doby won eleven letters in baseball, football, basketball, and track and earned All-State honors in the first three sports. During high school, Doby played basketball in a recreational league as well as on the school team. In summer he played with three semiprofessional baseball teams, including the well-known African-American team Smart Set.
Doby was offered a basketball scholarship at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York, after his high-school graduation in 1942. He also signed to play professional baseball as an infielder with the Newark (New Jersey) Eagles, who finished in third place in the Negro National League (NNL) that year. To protect his amateur standing at Long Island University, he appeared with the Eagles as Larry Walker. Late in his freshman year, Doby transferred to Virginia Union College (now Virginia Union University), an African-American institution in Richmond, and played on its basketball team.
In 1987, Doby was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters by Montclair State College (now Montclair State University).
After a year of college at Long Island University and Virginia Union, Doby was drafted into the Navy. When he returned to the United States in 1946, Jackie Robinson had been signed by the National League's Brooklyn Dodgers. Doby's future abruptly changed.
Doby, a 22-year-old second baseman, rejoined the Newark Eagles in 1946, hitting .348 and helping the Eagles to a victory over the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro World Series. Then fate intervened in the person of Cleveland Indian owner Bill Veeck. Veeck was looking for a black player for the Indians. He had good reports on Doby, who in addition to boasting a .414 batting average and 14 home runs for the first half of 1947, neither smoked, drank, nor swore. Veeck bought Doby's contract from the Eagles. On July 3, while the Indians were playing in Chicago, Larry Doby made his debut as the American League's first black player.
Veeck expected Doby - like Robinson in Brooklyn - to comport himself by a different set of rules from other players: Doby was told not to react to the inevitable racial insults he would encounter. He must not fight back on the field. He could not disagree with umpires or react to fans. Doby was glad to submit. His resolve was put to the test from the time he entered the Indians clubhouse. Introduced to the team, some Cleveland players refused to shake Doby's hand. On the field before the game, he stood alone for five minutes before second baseman Joe Gordon finally threw him a ball and warmed up with him.
Those were just the beginning of the indignities. Hotels across the country refused to let Doby room with his Indian teammates. He was denied service in restaurants. He was barred from entering ballparks in the South during spring training. On the field, he was thrown at by opposing pitchers and spat on when he slid into base. He received hate mail from all over the country. With no other blacks on the Indians during his first year, Doby was forced to spend hours on the road by himself. Forty years after the fact some thought that Robinson's earlier entry into the big leagues would have made things easier for Doby.
Doby struck out in his first at bat and sat on the bench for most of the remainder of the 1947 season. Realizing he was unlikely to replace either Joe Gordon or Lou Boudreau - both All-Stars - in the infield, the Indians converted Doby to an outfielder in 1948. He had never played there before, but within a couple of years, he made himself into one of the finest defensive centerfielders in baseball.
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 Indian's 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 put an end to 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.
Doby had his sights set on becoming a manager. After a season managing winter ball, he had let it be known that he was available for a job. Unfortunately, baseball in the 1970s seemed as unwilling to admit a black manager as it had been in the 1940s to admit black players. Doby took a coaching job in Cleveland with an understanding that he would be in line for the manager's job there. When the manager was sacked, however, Doby was passed over in favor of another African-American, Frank Robinson. Returning to a coaching position with the Expos, he was passed over two more times within one season for the manager's job. Discouraged, he considered leaving baseball for good.
In 1977, however, Doby's old mentor, Bill Veeck, offered him a coaching job with the Chicago White Sox. When the team got off to a slow start in 1978, Veeck made Doby another offer - to manage the team. It was a bittersweet opportunity for Doby. He would be replacing Bob Lemon, a friend, and teammate from the Indians. Veeck not only wanted Doby to turn the club around in the standings, but also to attract more black fans to Comiskey Park. When neither materialized, Doby was replaced. He had become the second black major league manager, but he was never given a fair opportunity to show what he could do.
After leaving the White Sox, Doby became the Director of Community Relations for the New Jersey Nets of the NBA. In the 1990s, he became a special assistant for licensing matters to the president of the American League.
Doby's grandmother made him go to church with her all the time. Larry said: "I liked what I heard in the Twenty-Third Psalm and the Ten Commandments. Somehow I got the feeling that the church helped black people to be themselves. I liked that feeling."
Views
Quotations:
"Kids are our future, and we hope baseball has given them some idea of what it is to live together and how we can get along, whether you be black or white."
"I knew being accepted was going to be hard, but I knew I was involved in a situation that was going to bring opportunities to other blacks."
"I was never bitter because I believed in the man upstairs. I continue to do my best. I let someone else be bitter. If I was bitter, I was only hurting me. I prefer to remember Bill Veeck and Jim Hegan and Joe Gordon, the good guys. There is no point in talking about the others."
Personality
Throughout his life, Doby not only dealt with the racist hatred directed toward him, but the lack of recognition for what he went through since he was baseball's second black player, rather than its first. Doby endured those slights with an understated sense of grace and courage that was in line with his quiet personality.
Doby was more introspective than demonstrative, and his personality could confuse his teammates. As recounted by biographer Moore, high-school teammate Al Kachuadurian never felt he could slap Doby on the back, and thought Doby kept his teammates at a distance.
Doby said that he had gotten accustomed to being alone based upon the circumstances in his life. In some sense, his self-reliance may have been mistaken for aloofness.
Physical Characteristics:
Larry Doby was 6 ft 1 inch (185 cm) tall and weighed 180 lb (81 kg).
In 1997, Doby had a kidney removed after a cancerous tumor was detected. He died at the age of 79 after suffering from cancer.
Quotes from others about the person
Bob Feller: "He was a great American, served the country in World War II, and he was a great ballplayer. He was kind of like Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, because he was the second African-American in the majors behind Jackie Robinson. He was just as good of a ballplayer, an exciting player, and a very good teammate."
Al Rosen: "Larry Doby came up as a second baseman who didn't have time to get his full college education, and was forced to play a different position in his first major league season. I think, because of those circumstances, he had a more difficult time than Jackie Robinson. I don't think he has gotten the credit he deserves."
George W. Bush: "Larry Doby was a good and honorable man, and a tremendous athlete and manager. He had a profound influence on the game of baseball, and he will be missed. As the first African-American player in the American League, he helped lead the Cleveland Indians to their last World Series title in 1948, became a nine-time All-Star, and was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998."
Fay Vincent: "Larry's role in history was recognized slowly and belatedly. Jackie Robinson, who broke the color line first but in the same year, quite naturally received most of the attention. Larry played out his career with dignity and then slid gracefully into various front-office positions in basketball and then later in baseball. Only in the 90's did baseball wake up to the obvious fact that Larry was every bit as deserving of recognition as Jackie."
Interests
Sport & Clubs
baseball, basketball, and football
Connections
Doby married Helyn Curvy on August 10, 1946, and the couple had five children - Chris, Leslie, Larry Junior, Kim, Susan. The Dobys had been married almost fifty-seven years when Helyn Doby died in 2001.
Greatness in the Shadows: Larry Doby and the Integration of the American League
Well into the 1950s, Doby was the only African-American All-Star in the American League during a period in which fifteen black players became National League All-Stars. Why is Doby largely forgotten as a central figure in baseball's integration? Why has he not been accorded his rightful place in baseball history? Greatness in the Shadows attempts to answer these questions, bringing Doby's story to life and sharing his achievements and firsts with a new generation.
2016
Pride Against Prejudice: The Biography of Larry Doby
Aware of Mr. Doby's neglect by biographers, Mr. Moore, who has been a fan of his subject ever since he heard the Doby legend, seeks to give him recognition... Mr. Moore effectively uses records, interviews, and a clear narrative style to make his points, and gives voice to some of Mr. Doby's severest critics…. Pride Against Prejudice is a tribute to both its author and Larry Doby.
1988
Just as Good: How Larry Doby Changed America's Game
Kid-friendly and vividly illustrated, this long-overdue biography, featuring an extensive bibliography and historical note, illuminates the effect Larry Doby had on his fans as both a baseball hero and a champion for civil rights.