Racism and baseball cards

[Topnotchsy]

Originally Posted by cgjackson222

+1

People think of Larry Doby as having had barriers broken down for him by Jackie Robinson, but as you point out, because the AL and NL were so separate, the players and fans in the in the AL basically treated Doby as the 1st to break the color barrier.

Doby was also overshaded by a different Robinson--Frank Robinson became the 1st black Manager in 1974, and four years later, Doby became the 2nd black Manager (for the White Sox).

I have a Facebook page called "Baseball History Through Lineup Cards" where I highlight lineup cards in my collection and tell some stories of baseball history. I recently posted about this:

Larry Doby had a habit of being second in a world that only has the attention span to really know about the first. And because of it, he remains one of the most underappreciated people in the story of baseball history.

On July 5, 1947 in the top of the 7th inning of a 5-1 game between the White Sox and Indians, and runners on 1st and 3rd, Larry Eugene Doby stepped up to the plate for the Indians. He was a military veteran, having spent time at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Treasure Island Naval Base and time in the Pacific Theatre. He had attended college at Virginia Union University. The day before he had been playing with the Newark Eagles. On this day, he stepped up to the plate, and promptly struck out.

There are many aspect of Larry Doby's journey that mirrored Jackie Robinson's. Their university education. Their military experience. Their time spent in the Negro Leagues. They both played against teams who had never faced a black ballplayer in a professional game, as Robinson played in the NL while Doby played in the AL, at a time when there was no interleague play outside of the World Series.

There are differences of course. Jackie Robinson was signed a year earlier and played a season in the Minors, while Doby was playing in the Negro Leagues until immediately before. But maybe the biggest difference is that Jackie was first.

Jackie Robinson was signed to be a trailblazer. Branch Rickey planned every detail. He made sure that Jackie had black teammates while he was in the Minors in Montreal, signing John Wright, and later Roy Partlow.

In contrast, Doby was signed by Bill Veeck, the legendary showman who owned the Indians for just a few years. Who was known for his off-the-wall ideas. There was no preparation. Doby was thrown into a league who largely did not want him there. He was challenged to stand on his own two feet. To blaze a path similar to Jackie's but without the reknown and focus.
And like Jackie, and a shocking number of early integrators, Doby overcame the adversity and played at a Hall-of-Fame level, an honor bestowed in 1998, just 5 years before his passing.

28 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier as a Dodgers player, Frank Robinson became the first black manager. He was towards the end of his career when he had been traded to the Indians near the end of 1974, and in 1975, he became player-manager. Robinson would go on to manage for 17 years total, spread across the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's.

Doby meanwhile, had followed up his career becoming a scout for the Montreal Expos in their inaugural 1969 season. He was their minor league instructor in 1970 and their batting coach from 1971-1973. In 1976, Bill Veeck bought the White Sox (for the second time) and hired Doby. In 1978, after Veeck fired Doby's former teammate and fellow HOF Bob Lemon from the managerial position, Doby took his place. In doing so, on June 30, 1978, he became the second black manager in baseball.

The White Sox were playing sub-.500 ball for the 74 games before Doby became manager. In the remaining 87 games of the season, he was unable to turn the team around. And after the season, Veeck decided to hire Don Kessinger as manager for the 1979 season. Kessinger himself would only manage for little more than half the season, before resigning. His doing so made way for a 34-year former player with almost no MLB playing experience and no managerial experience to become manager. This manager, the fourth in two years, would finally stick and Tony LaRussa would manage for the next 35 straight seasons, (albeit not all with the White Sox) winning 3 World Series.

Doby would never manage again. He returned to the role of batting coach for a season before resigning, and this largely marked the end of his time in the game. One of the great heroes of baseball, but a man who seemed to always be overshadowed.

Those who knew him though, knew who he was. Bob Feller stated, "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."

This lineup card is the only one I have ever come across from Doby's time as manager. It was used on August 27, 1978 in a 6-0 win against the Cleveland Indians. This copy was the bottom copy on the lineup card pad, and because of how faded it was, Doby signed his name in pen and someone (presumably Doby) rewrote the lineup out.

On Martin Luther King Day of 2025, we remember one of the great black pioneers of baseball, a sport whose integration King recognized as paving the road for his work.