Tribute to Larry Doby

This is a tribute to a wonderful man and a tremendous baseball player named Larry Doby. He also happened to be the first black player in American League history.

He played on two great, pennant winning teams in the American League. The 1948 Cleveland Indians won it all, while the 111 win, (in a 154 game season) 1954 team, was denied in the World Series by Dusty Rhodes, Willie Mays and the New York Giants.

I met Mr. Doby once, appropriately on Martin Luther King day in 1987. He stood quietly and alone when I approached this great man. Doby was friendly and unassuming  as we talked about those fine Cleveland Indians teams. He spoke candidly and was most informative about his playing days. I remember he wore a nice hat which I praised. Then we joked about our respective receding hairlines.

There was no real exchange about “history” as there is none directly, here. I think he knew that I knew some of it, but we talked baseball. “Sadly” but with true respect even awe, we each marveled at the great Yankees teams that won five straight World Series from (1949-1953,) denying Doby’s Indians more shots at World Series titles.

Doby came up to the “Big Leagues” in 1947 the same year “Gentleman’s Agreement,” a magnificent film depicting the horrors of anti-Semitism, premiered. The hotel scene in the movie in which Gregory Peck’s character, who is pretending to be Jewish, tries to register at a “restricted” hotel is overwhelming.  I think of it often and cringe each time.

In Doby’s and other cases in this country, perhaps especially in this country, there was no chance for ambiguity.

Whether from Mars, Venus or somewhere else think about what many of our ancestors endured. Hail people like Larry Doby, who made it to the other side, a better person than when he entered. Not many could accomplish what he was able to do in that regard.