Quote:
Originally Posted by Schlesinj
I believe listening to the Black Diamonds podcast he received a significantly lower offer to serve as both roles with the team. He was initially pissed, but he felt a higher value of accepting the offer to make a change as he felt if he declined it would hinder an opportunity for African American players in the future to serve as manager.
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I believe he was the first ever black manager in the majors (and no,I am not going back and counting the Negro leagues in this). And Cleveland makes sense, as they were right behind the Dodgers and Jackie Robinson by just three months in being the first team to integrate the American League with Larry Doby, And Cleveland was also the first major US city to elect a black mayor, Carl Stokes, in November of 1967. (And sorry, I don't consider Gary, Indiana a "major" US city.)
After he took over as the Indian's skipper, apparently he and starting pitcher Gaylord Perry did not quite see eye-to-eye on things.
