cwsox Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 that is sad - AL first black player and our first black manager and a great guy and a great player - this is really sad news Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clujer420 Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 that is sad - our first black player and our first black manager and a great guy and a great player - this is really sad news He lived a long life, though. I was gonna post this, as I just read it, but I figured nobody cared since it hadn't been posted yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted June 19, 2003 Author Share Posted June 19, 2003 I screwd up the initial post which I have corrected - "our" and "AL" got confused in my mind 2 seasons with us, we loved him - and then he managed us - a really good guy Larry Doby stats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoxFan1 Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 My condolences to the Doby family. What a loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YASNY Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 A class act. Doby always seem to carry himself with a tremendous amount of dignity. He will be missed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreye Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 He took just as much crap as Jackie Robinson. They ought to have his number hanging in every MLB stadium as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 It really wasn't that long ago that he made history. There must have been a huge lump in his throat when he said yes to play in mlb. I agree his number should be hanging in every stadium, at least in the A.L. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 God Speed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SI1020 Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 This was truly one of the nicest guys ever in MLB. A real fine player too. He was on the team when I first started following baseball and the White Sox. In 1957 the Sox had a major brawl in a game with the Yanks. Enos Slaughter taunted Doby with racial slurs during the altercation and was promptly stomped by Walt "Moose" Dropo of the Sox. Sometimes there is true justice in life. A year earlier Doby, Sherm Lollar and Billy Pierce were featured in a Tribune article after the Sox swept the Yanks in Comiskey. Everyone talks about the ugliness Jackie Robinson had to face, but it happened to Doby too. Robinson was a fierce competitor with a combative nature, Doby did not seem to have that type of armor to protect himself. Bill Veeck liked and admired Doby and expressed some measure of guilt for hiring Doby to manage the Sox after firing Bob Lemon in mid season 1978. Doby was dismissed after the season and Veeck felt that this was the wrong team at the wrong time for Doby. RIP Larry Doby, wish there were more like him in the game today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreye Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 This was truly one of the nicest guys ever in MLB. A real fine player too. He was on the team when I first started following baseball and the White Sox. In 1957 the Sox had a major brawl in a game with the Yanks. Enos Slaughter taunted Doby with racial slurs during the altercation and was promptly stomped by Walt "Moose" Dropo of the Sox. Sometimes there is true justice in life. A year earlier Doby, Sherm Lollar and Billy Pierce were featured in a Tribune article after the Sox swept the Yanks in Comiskey. Everyone talks about the ugliness Jackie Robinson had to face, but it happened to Doby too. Robinson was a fierce competitor with a combative nature, Doby did not seem to have that type of armor to protect himself. Bill Veeck liked and admired Doby and expressed some measure of guilt for hiring Doby to manage the Sox after firing Bob Lemon in mid season 1978. Doby was dismissed after the season and Veeck felt that this was the wrong team at the wrong time for Doby. RIP Larry Doby, wish there were more like him in the game today. Very nice Eulogy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 ESPN Dan Patrick just had an interview with an old friend of Doby's. First off I've always been a huge Bill Veeck fan after listening to how much Veeck did for Doby I was surprised how much hatred there was from within his own team. The Indian player's didn't do much to make Doby comfortable, they did things like refusing to shake his hand, turning their backs, etc. It was also mentioned how other NL teams quickly followed with other balck players while the AL was very slow to add black players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Fainter Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 I always felt like Doby got screwed in the P.R. Dept. Robinson got much more adulation over the years, and I don't want to take anything away from him. Doby had just as tough a road to hoe, and he didn't have Pee Wee Reese next to him. Plus, Doby might have been a better player, for whatever that is worth. I remember a few things about his playing career with the Sox, which was after his prime years. He could really play, and he had all the tools. Fundamentally as sound as anyone. Sox fans booed him a bit much, but it was not because of race. The whole town loved Minoso, remember. But Larry had an arrogant way about him that did not translate well to the fans, especially when he was in a slump. But I remember that BIG FIGHT mentioned earlier. I also remember a homer he hit that was one of the longest in Comiskey Park history. Way up in the upper deck in right center -- a little more to the left and it would have way over the old bullpen, a little higher and it would have been out. I never saw anyone else hit one there. I remember feeling badly that we didn't keep him around for the pennant year of 1959. I also never understood why some team didn't hire him as a hitting coach in the 80's or 90's -- unless I missed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chisoxfn Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 that is sad - AL first black player and our first black manager and a great guy and a great player - this is really sad news Doby was a great player. If I could go back in time, one of the things I'd like to see is how all the great negro league players would of faired in the majors. Its a damn shame that their was a color barrier for so long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Fainter Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 Blame it on FDR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 Blame it on FDR. And sadly a million fans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clujer420 Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 Blame it on FDR. Yeah, let's blame the racist views of a large majority of the nation on 1 man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted June 19, 2003 Author Share Posted June 19, 2003 Blame it on FDR. wtf????????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandoFan Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 wtf????????? Jim Fainter is a GOPer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted June 19, 2003 Author Share Posted June 19, 2003 Yeah, let's blame the racist views of a large majority of the nation on 1 man the color ban started in the late 1800s with cubbie Cap Anson and continued with the strong support of Landis ... how in the world can FDR be connected with this? The crack circlulating today must be worse than the brown acod at Woodstock. I am not writing in resposne to you, clujer, but in support - not quoting you to disagree, just to further comment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Be Good Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 :whiner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted June 19, 2003 Author Share Posted June 19, 2003 Landis died in 1944. the color ban was broken in 1946. There is a reason that it took until after Landis' death to do it - he had total power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Fainter Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 My tongue was in my cheek when I said that about FDR, but I was kidding on the square. It has always pissed me off that black players weren't allowed for all those years. As a baseball fan, I feel cheated. I won't go into the social injustice -- nothing new to offer. But FDR was President for 13 years or so while this was going on, and I think he could have done something, at least made an issue out of it, since he had the power and the clout. I've read all sorts of things about him in my life, good and bad, but I never saw anything about this issue. Maybe he didn't care. Maybe he didn't know about it. Maybe he was too busy on other matters. Maybe he was afraid of political consequences and backed off. But he was wrong not to do something about it. Baseball was a big deal in this country then. Since Judge Landis' position was obvious, it should have been dealt with on a presidential level, that's all I meant to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted June 20, 2003 Author Share Posted June 20, 2003 then it wold also be the fault of Cleveland, Harrson, McKinley, T Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover - that is 2 Dems and 7 Republicans, Republicans as in Judge Landis was - why didn't any of them do anything about the color ban? And since Landis came in during Harding's administration, that means special contempt must go towards Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. I just don't understand the whole argument. If FDR had done anything it would be one more socialist/communist way that the evil evil liberals were interfering in the private sector or something. But blame him, blame all the others and blame the Cub's Cap Anson who got it started and Judge Landis who rigidly enforced it during the time Eleanor Roosevelt was villified for Marian Anderson and other things she did. But then that makes Truman to be like God since the color ban was broken duting his adminsitration. Yeah HST!!!!!!!!! That so much of white America was blind - blame everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SI1020 Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 If I'm remembering my Ken Burns baseball documentary correctly there were a surprising number of white stars including Lou Gehrig and Dizzy Dean who were perfectly willing to allow Negro League players in to MLB. Please, I'm not trying to "whitewash" anything, I'm sure that many if not most of the players of that era were not comfortable with the idea. However there was a lot of "barnstorming" in the 1930's and Gehrig, Dean and other stars of that era often faced off against the best of the Negro League. Dizzy Dean in his prime lost a game 7 of a big series to Satchel Paige and openly admitted that Paige was better then anybody pitching in MLB. Even further back Babe Ruth had been quoted by more than one source as declaring that John Henry Lloyd was the greatest baseball player in the world. Honus Wagner also heaped praise on Lloyd who was a great SS and prolific hitter. As CW pointed out Cap Anson had a lot to do with the color ban being firmly established in the 19th century. It's a historical tragedy, baseball could have been like boxing, which was not a perfectly color blind sport, but did have black champions like Jack Johnson (heavyweight) and Joe Gans (lightweight) early in the 20th century. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted June 20, 2003 Author Share Posted June 20, 2003 good addition to dialogue - I think the barnstorming eventually helped to end the color ban Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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