It is well known that Jackie Robinson was the first player to break the color barrier in major league baseball, and he justly received all the credit and honor due him (albeit after his death). However, Robinson was not the first black baseball player to play in Detroit. Or Washington, D.C. Or Yankee Stadium. Or Comiskey Field. Or even Fenway. That honor belongs to Larry Doby, with the Cleveland Indians. What about being the first person of color to manage any major sports team? I know that Doby himself never felt slighted at all, deferring all credit to Robinson, who preceded him by approximately 2 months. I simply feel that he deserves mre recognition.
Larry Doby is already in the baseball hall of fame and has had his number retired by his first major league ballclub, the Cleveland Indians. The Indians also named him as one of their top 100 players of all-time. Of course that list also includes Rick Manning and Frank Robinson (who was washed up as a player by the time the Indians made him player-manager), so maybe that’s not such a great honor. 
I don’t understand what other honors should be given to Mr. Doby, not to slight him at all, but after being inducted into the HOF what other honor do you want him to have?
It is commonly believed that Jackie Robinson was the first black professional baseball player.
http://www.oberlin.edu/~EOG/OYTT-images/MFWalker.html-0
http://www.gasd.org/highschool/baseball/Weldy%20&%20Moses%20Walker%20DBQ.htm
http://www.projectview.org/BBHOFEFT.WeldyMosesWalker.htm
I hope those will suffice:)
As for what disparity there is in recognizing Doby in addition to Robinson, I fully agree it is present. Growing up, I heard some about Robinson but I didn’t hear a damn thing about Doby. I had no idea who the man was until I think my teens.
I didn’t hear about Walker until I got to college.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by iampunha *
http://www.oberlin.edu/~EOG/OYTT-images/MFWalker.html-0
http://www.gasd.org/highschool/baseball/Weldy%20&%20Moses%20Walker%20DBQ.htm
http://www.projectview.org/BBHOFEFT.WeldyMosesWalker.htm
I hope those will suffice:)
Thank you for the enlightenment iampunha - I had known that Oberlin was the first college to integrate, but I was not in the know about Moses Walker.
Oberlin was also, IIRC, the last Ohio-based football team to beat OSU.
Their coach? John Heisman. I think this was back in the 1890s, though I’ve having a devil of a time finding a cite…
For that matter, Jackie Robinson probably wasn’t the first black Major League Baseball player of the twentieth century, or even of the 1940s, nor was Doby first in the American League. Any number of Cuban or other Hispanic players of the time probably were of African descent (as are we all, if it comes to that). Jose Acosta and Jacinto (aka Jack) Calvo both played in the Negro Leagues in the 1910s – and later in the Major Leagues (both with the Washington Senators) in the 1910s and 1920s. No less a baseball authority than Bill James has speculated, along with others, that the reason outfielder/third baseman Roberto Estalella (grandfather of current Rockies catcher Bobby Estalella) never got the playing time he seemed to deserve was that his appearance veered a little too close to “black”, rather than the more acceptable “Cuban” look. Estalella put up decent numbers in several brief stints in the majors from the mid-thirties through the forties, but was never a regular except during the war years, when most of the talented players in both leagues who were American citizens were in military service. I don’t have Estalella’s minor league stats available at the moment, but a big part of James’ argument, as I recall it, is that his minor league numbers made it clear he belonged at the major league level, and his numbers in his longest pre-war stint with the Senators seem to bear this out: 8 HRs, 41 RBI with a .275 BA, .368 OBP and .468 SLG in 280 AB (81 games) in 1939.
I point this out not to take anything away from (I almost said “denigrate”, but thought better of it) Robinson, Doby, et al., but to make the point that all racial and ethnic classifications of people are vague to the point of uselessness when put to any use other than strict description of ancestry. As a native of Arkansas, I’m proud of sharing that distinction with Dizzy Dean, Lon Warneke, Johnny Sain, Preacher Roe, Arky Vaughn, Travis Jackson, Taylor Douthit, George Kell, Brooks Robinson, Lou Brock, Sherm Lollar, Don Kessinger, Rick Monday, Wally Moon, Alex Johnson, Ellis Kinder, and more recently with Kevin McReynolds, Ellis Valentine, Lloyd Moseby, A. J. Burnett, Pat Burrell, and Torii Hunter (not to mention another hundred-plus former major leaguers); on the other hand, I’m aware of how little that really means: Arky Vaughn actually grew up in California, while Bill Dickey, another Hall of Famer much more strongly identified with Arkansas throughout his life, was actually born in Bastrop, Louisiana. Accidents of birth and geography are ultimately unimportant.
Robinson and Doby were the first men born in the United States to descendents of Africans enslaved in the American South to play major league baseball in the twentieth century, and we rightly honor them for that, but to me it’s far more important to honor them for their achievements on the field. Doby was an outstanding player (top 10 in the AL in OPS nearly every year he was active), but statistically was a player on the order of Tim Salmon, David Justice, Eric Davis, and Kirk Gibson; on the whole, I don’t think he’s unjustly neglected today. Unlike many other Negro League veterans who came into MLB in the late 40s and 50s, Doby didn’t lose more than a few years of his MLB career to segregation (if that – he debuted with Cleveland at 23; Robinson was 28 when he broke the color barrier). I’m not old enough to have seen him play, but based on the statistical record and the opinions I’ve seen from people who did, if anything he’s probably overrated (his stats are less impressive than those of nearly any other HOF’er of his era, with the possible exceptions of George Kell and Phil Rizzuto). I’m perfectly fine with including him in the HOF on the basis of an outstanding (though sub-HOF-caliber) career AND having been nominally the first black American Leaguer, so long as we’re all clear that without the latter distinction he’d just be visiting Cooperstown like the rest of us.
Robinson, OTOH, was a genuinely great player, regardless of his color. Even making no allowance for years lost to segregation, his numbers are very close to HOF-caliber; add four average years from age 23-27 and he’s a lock. He was NL MVP once, ML Rookie of the Year in 1947, and finished in the top ten in MVP voting several more times (Doby’s best MVP showing was second, in 1954, and he finished in the top ten only one other time, at eighth in 1950). Robinson didn’t have Doby’s power, but he was still a more potent offensive threat (his career OPS of .881 is slightly higher than Doby’s .876, in large part because of a career OBP of over .400), and could do more things to beat you, particularly on the basepaths. Statistically, both were above average defensively, but Robinson was much more versatile in the field, logging over 150 games at each of four different positions (2B, 3B, 1B, OF), while Doby played at positions other than OF in only eight of his career 1448 games. Throw in Robinson’s legendary competitive fire and there’s no comparison.
In short, I’d say that Doby’s definitely gotten his due, and possibly a bit more.
BTW, Doby was not only the second Black ballplayer of the modern era (or, at least, the second to admit to being Black), but he also was the second Black manager.
Well, it’s true that doby hasn’t gotten the entire ‘mystique’ thing going for him. But the widely recognize ‘second’ to do something almost never does. Neil Armstrong gets all the credit…Buzz Aldrin gets some attention…Michael Collins gets the shaft.
The firt black manager was Frank Robinson.
Larry Doby is in the Hall of Fame. It’s not as if he’s gone unrecognized. Like it or not, Robinson was first (J. for playing, F. for managing) and Jackie was a greater player.