Editing Larry Doby (section)

===Integration of American League (1947)===
[[Cleveland Indians]] owner and team president [[Bill Veeck]] proposed integrating baseball in 1942, which had been [[baseball color line|informally segregated]] since the turn of the century, but this was rejected by [[Commissioner of Baseball|Commissioner]] [[Kenesaw Mountain Landis]].<ref name="Moore" />{{rp|p.19}} Veeck had begun the process of finding a young, talented player from the Negro leagues, and told a reporter in Cleveland that he would integrate the Indians' roster if he could find a black player with the necessary talent level who could withstand the taunts and pressure of being the first black athlete in the AL. The reporter suggested Doby, whom Veeck had seen at the Great Lakes Naval Training School. Doby's name was also mentioned when Veeck talked with reporters who covered the Negro leagues.<ref name="Tygiel" />{{rp|p.4}} Indians scout Bill Killefer rated Doby favorably and perhaps just as important for Veeck, reported Doby's off-field behavior was not a concern.<ref name="Bechtel" /> The Dodgers rated Doby their top young Negro league prospect.<ref name="Tygiel" />{{rp|p.4}} But unlike the [[History of the Brooklyn Dodgers|Brooklyn Dodgers']] [[Branch Rickey]], who signed Robinson one full season before bringing him to the [[National League (baseball)|National League]], Veeck used a different strategy, letting Doby remain with the Eagles instead of bringing him through the Indians' farm system. He told the ''Pittsburgh Courier'', "One afternoon when the team trots out on the field, a Negro player will be out there with it."<ref name="Tygiel" />{{rp|p.4}}

While Rickey declined to pay for the purchasing rights of Robinson while he played for the Kansas City Monarchs, Veeck was "determined to buy Doby's contract from the Eagles" and had no problem paying purchasing rights.<ref name="Beisbol">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoqyGjsXYnwC&q=larry+dobby+effa+manley+bill+veeck+contract&pg=PA37|title=Béisbol|editor=Ilan Stavans|series=The Ilan Stavans Library of Latino Civilization|year=2012|isbn=978-0-313-37513-2|publisher=Greenwood|location=Santa Barbara, California}}</ref>{{rp|p.37}} Effa Manley, business manager for the Eagles, believed her club's close relationship with the [[New York Yankees]] might put Doby in a Yankees uniform, but they did not take interest in him. Veeck finalized a contract deal for Doby with Manley on July 3. Veeck paid her a total of $15,000 for her second baseman—$10,000 for taking him from the Eagles and another $5,000 once it was determined he would stay with the Indians for at least 30 days.<ref name="Cooperstown_Simons">{{cite book|title=The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2000|editor=Alvin L. Hall|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|last=Simons|first=William M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OT2oXO8-5KwC&q=larry+dobby+effa+manley+bill+veeck+contract&pg=PA288|isbn=0-7864-1120-1|date=May 1, 2001}}</ref>{{rp|p.288}} After Manley agreed to Veeck's offer, she stated to him, "If Larry Doby were white and a free agent, you'd give him $100,000 to sign as a bonus."<ref name="Beisbol" />{{rp|p.37}} The press were not told that Doby had been signed by the Indians as Veeck wanted to manage how fans in Cleveland would be introduced to Doby. "I moved slowly and carefully, perhaps even timidly", Veeck said.<ref name="Tygiel" />{{rp|p.4}} The Eagles had a doubleheader on July 4 but Doby, who had a .415 batting average and 14 home runs to that point in the season, only played in the first as Veeck sent his assistant and public relations personnel member, Louis Jones, for Doby. The two took a train from Newark to Chicago where the Indians were scheduled to play the [[Chicago White Sox]] the next day.<ref name="Tygiel" />{{rp|p.4}}

On July 5, with the Indians in Chicago in the midst of a road trip, Doby made his debut as the second black baseball player after Robinson to play in the majors after establishment of the baseball color line. Veeck hired two plainclothes police officers to accompany Doby as he went to [[Comiskey Park]].<ref name="Moffi">{{cite book|title=Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers, 1947–1959|last1=Moffi|first1=Larry|last2=Kronstadt|first2=Jonathan|page=16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jRHgMttlKDIC&q=larry+doby&pg=PA9|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|isbn=0-8032-8316-4|year=2006}}</ref>{{rp|p.16}} Player-manager [[Lou Boudreau]] initially had a hard time finding a place in the lineup for Doby, who had played second base and shortstop for most of his career. Boudreau himself was the regular shortstop, while [[Joe Gordon]] was the second baseman.<ref>{{cite book|title=Our Tribe: A Baseball Memoir|last=Pluto|first=Terry|author-link=Terry Pluto|location=New York City|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1999|isbn=0-684-84505-9}}</ref> That day, Doby met his new teammates for the first time. "I walked down that line, stuck out my hand, and very few hands came back in return. Most of the ones that did were cold-fish handshakes, along with a look that said, 'You don't belong here", Doby reminisced years later.<ref name="Cold">{{cite news|url=http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/izenbergcol/index.ssf/2012/07/izenberg_larry_doby_should_be.html|title=Larry Doby should be honored by Newark|last=Izenberg|first=Jerry|work=[[The Star-Ledger|Newark Star-Ledger]]|date=July 7, 2012|access-date=July 12, 2012}}</ref><ref name="Ohio">{{cite web|url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1828|title=Ohio History Central – Larry Doby|access-date=July 14, 2012}}</ref> Four of Doby's teammates did not shake his hand, and of those, two turned their backs to Doby when he tried to introduce himself.<ref name="Anderson">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/20/sports/sports-of-the-times-larry-doby-understands-handshakes.html|title=Larry Doby Understands Handshakes|last=Anderson|first=Dave|date=April 20, 1995|access-date=July 29, 2012|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> During warm-ups, Doby languished for minutes while his teammates interacted with one another. Not until [[Joe Gordon]] asked Doby to play catch with him was Doby given the chance to engage. Gordon befriended Doby and became one of his closest friends on the team.<ref name="Vincent">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/sports/baseball/22VINC.html|title=Larry Doby Played with Dignity and Without Bitterness|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=June 22, 2003|access-date=July 29, 2012|author=Vincent, Fay}}</ref>

Doby entered the game in the seventh inning as a [[Pinch hitter|pinch-hitter]] for relief pitcher [[Bryan Stephens]] and recorded a strikeout. In the 1949 movie ''The Kid from Cleveland'', Veeck tells the story that Gordon struck out on three swings in his immediate at-bat after Doby to save face for his new teammate. However, Doby's second strike was the result of a foul ball, both the [[Associated Press]] and ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' stated Doby struck out on five pitches instead of three, and in addition, Gordon was standing on third base during Doby's at-bat.<ref name="Castrovince" /> From ''Pride and Prejudice: The Biography of Larry Doby'':

<blockquote>After the game, Doby quickly showered and dressed without incident in the Cleveland clubhouse. His escort, Louis Jones, then took him not to the Del Prado Hotel downtown, where the Indians players stayed, but to the black DuSable Hotel in Chicago's predominantly black South Side, near Comiskey Park. The segregated arrangement established a pattern, on Doby's first day, that he would be compelled to follow, in spring training and during the regular season, in many cities, throughout his playing career.<ref name="Moore" />{{rp|p.52}}</blockquote>

The Indians had a doubleheader against the White Sox on Sunday, July 6, for which 31,566 were in attendance; it was estimated that approximately 30 percent of the crowd were black. Some congregations of black churches let out early while others walked immediately from Sunday service to Comiskey Park.<ref name="Moore" />{{rp|p.53}} Boudreau had Doby pinch-hit in the first game but for the second, listed him a starter at first base, a position Doby was not expected to fill when the Indians brought him up to play at second base. Doby had played the position before with the Eagles but was without a proper mitt for first base and met much resistance when attempts were made to borrow one from teammates, including first baseman [[Eddie Robinson (baseball)|Eddie Robinson]], whom Boudreau had asked Doby to replace that day.<ref name="Jacobson" />{{rp|p.32}} Doby said only because Gordon asked in the clubhouse to borrow one of the first baseman's mitts did he have one to use in the second game of the doubleheader as earlier direct requests from Doby were rejected.<ref name="Anderson" /> The mitt was loaned by a White Sox player.<ref name="Jacobson" />{{rp|p.32}} Boudreau recounts an incident where Robinson refused the mitt to Doby, but when asked by Indians traveling secretary Spud Goldstein, Robinson obliged.<ref name="Boudreau">{{cite book|title=Lou Boudreau: Covering All the Bases|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8eSUdoov0AEC&q=larry+doby+gordon+cobbledick&pg=PA97|last1=Boudreau|first1=Lou|last2=Schneider|first2=Russell|year=1993|isbn=0-915611-72-4|publisher=Sagamore Publishing|location=Chicago}}</ref>{{rp|p.96}} It was the only game Doby started for the remainder of the season. Doby recorded his first major league hit in four at-bats and had an RBI in a 5–1 Indians win.<ref name="Encyclopedia">{{cite book|title=The Cleveland Indians Encyclopedia|edition=Third|year=2004|location=Champaign, Illinois|publisher=Sports Publishing|last=Schneider|first=Russell|isbn=1-58261-840-2|page=435}}</ref>

A columnist wrote in the ''[[Plain Dealer]]'' on July 8: "Cleveland's man in the street is the right sort of American, as was evidenced right solidly once more by the response to the question: 'How does the signing of Larry Doby by the Indians strike you? Said the man in the street: Can he hit?&nbsp;... That's all that counts."<ref name="Cooperstown">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zePVsAMiC10C&q=larry+doby+&pg=PA120|title=The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 1997 (Jackie Robinson)|last=Hall|first=Alvin|editor=Peter M. Rutkoff|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=0-7864-0831-6|year=2000}}</ref>{{rp|p.114}} Conversely, Doby was criticized from players both active and retired. Noted former player [[Rogers Hornsby]] said, after watching Doby play one time in 1947:

<blockquote>Bill Veeck did the Negro race no favor when he signed Larry Doby to a Cleveland contract. If Veeck wanted to demonstrate that the Negro has no place in major league baseball, he could have used no subtler means to establish the point. If he were white he wouldn't be considered good enough to play with a semi-pro club. He is fast on his feet but that lets him out. He hasn't any other quality that could possibly recommend him.<ref name="Swaine">{{cite book|title=The Integration of Major League Baseball: A Team by Team History|last=Swaine|first=Rick|isbn=978-0-7864-3903-4|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|publisher=McFarland & Company|year=2009}}</ref>{{rp|p.69}}</blockquote>

In his rookie year, Doby hit .156 (5-for-32) in 29 games. He played four games at second base and one each at first base and shortstop.<ref name="Boudreau" />{{rp|p.98}} Throughout the season, he talked with Jackie Robinson via telephone, the two encouraging each other.<ref name="Bechtel">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.si.com/vault/2003/06/30/345718/the-next-one-larry-doby1923-2003-after-jackie-robinson-doby-blazed-a-trail-of-his-own|title=The Next One|last=Bechtel|first=Mark|date=June 30, 2003|access-date=May 26, 2016|magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.courant.com/1997/04/15/larry-doby-remembers-being-introduced-to/|newspaper=[[Hartford Courant]]|date=April 15, 1997|last=Amore|first=Dom|access-date=July 30, 2012|title=Larry Doby Remembers Being Introduced To|archive-date=April 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130415011046/http://articles.courant.com/1997-04-15/sports/9704150685_1_larry-doby-jackie-robinson-modern-major-leagues|url-status=live}}</ref> "And Jackie and I agreed we shouldn't challenge anybody or cause trouble—or we'd both be out of the big leagues, just like that. We figured that if we spoke out, we would ruin things for other black players."<ref name="Prugh">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vXIjAAAAIBAJ&pg=7308,5698498&dq=larry+doby+japan&hl=en|newspaper=[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]]|date=May 12, 1974|access-date=August 25, 2012|last=Prugh|first=Jeff|title=Larry Doby Patiently Waiting for Chance to Manage}}</ref> After his rookie season, Doby again pursued time on the basketball court and appeared with the [[Paterson Crescents]] of the [[American Basketball League (1925–1955)|American Basketball League]] after signing a contract in January 1948.<ref name="Moore" />{{rp|p.67}}<ref name="Luke" />{{rp|p.147}} He was the first black player to join the league.<ref name="Moffi" />{{rp|p.16}}