Black History Month

Our 11 year old Rebecca came into the kitchen the other day, all excited.

"Grandma, the first black person to play Major League baseball was Jackie Robinson."

"Right, good for you, Rebecca to know that."

"And the second is Barry Bonds!!".

"No, Rebecca".

"Yes, grandma".

"Rebecca, the second was Larry Doby. It was when grandma was a little girl".

I'm showing my age here. I'm still not sure she believes me.

I've been thinking about Larry off and on ever since and what it must have been like to be number two. All of the pain, very little of the glory. A sportscaster said that being the second in baseball was rather like being the second person to invent the telephone.

I make no apologies for being a baseball fan. I grew up listening to the Brooklyn Dodgers on the radio from the mid 40's on. I was crushed when they moved to L.A. about the same time I moved to San Francisco. I remember when Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers in 1947 and, even young as I was, I remember what he endured. It may have been the beginning of my activism even though I didn't realize it at the time. I knew the hatred was wrong.

And I remember Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians. He came in not quite 3 months after Robinson; the second in major league baseball and the first in the American League. I listened to the 1948 World Series even though Brooklyn wasn't involved. Cleveland played the then Boston Braves. Cleveland won the Series and Larry won the 4th game with a home run.

He played for many years, one of the unsung journeymen of the game. The Hall of Fame finally elected him in 1998.

Much later he was second again; the second black major league manager (White Sox). Frank Robinson was the first.

After retiring, he spent much of the rest of his long life working to benefit children. He died in 2003 at the age of 79. Quite a guy.

There must be a reason I've been thinking about him. I wish he'd received more recognition for his low key but lifelong contribution to civil rights and for breaking the American League color bar. On the other hand, he may have been first at something. Perhaps his career and his status as "second" was the beginning of acceptance of athletes as baseball players who happen to be black rather than black baseball players.