MLB history: The 10 pioneers who integrated baseball
By Bill Felber
MLB history: Following in Jackie Robinson’s footsteps
In July 1947, Larry Doby integrated the American League. Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck signed him out of Newark of the Negro National League, where Doby had hit .333 as a 22-year-old in 1946.
Doby needed the second half of 1947 to adapt to the pressures he faced that rookie season. But he blossomed in 1948. Batting .301 as the Indians’ regular center fielder, he contributed 14 home runs and 66 RBI to Cleveland’s first pennant since 1920. In that October’s World Series, he hit .318 against the Boston Braves with two extra base hits and two RBI.
Roy Campanella joined Robinson with the Dodgers on opening day of 1948. A Negro League veteran who debuted at age 15 in 1937, Campanella had batted .393 for Philadelphia and Baltimore of the Negro National League in 1944.
Signed by Rickey prior to the 1947 season, he followed Robinson to Montreal in 1947, split time between the Dodgers and St. Paul in 1948 and became established as the club’s regular backstop in 1949.
An All-Star selection that first full season when he batted .287 with 22 home runs, Campanella helped Brooklyn secure that season’s pennant. He won the first of his three Most Valuable Player awards in 1951, adding the 1953 and 1955 awards before a crippling auto crash forced his retirement at the end of the 1957 season.