Larry Doby 75th Anniversary 

 Larry Doby, the second Black player to integrate baseball and the first Black player in the American League for the Cleveland Indians, later joined the Chicago White Sox as an outfielder and became Major League Baseball’s second Black manager for the Sox.

Seventy-five years ago, on a cloudy day in Comiskey Park, Larry Doby stepped out of the shadows into an exclusionary world. On that day — July 5, 1947 — the unassuming 22-year-old Paterson, New Jersey native joined the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians).

Only 24 hours earlier, Doby had hit a home run in his last at-bat for the Newark Eagles in the Negro Leagues, whose plucky existence emanated from apartheid in America’s pastime.

Doby’s contract had been unexpectedly sold for $10,000 by Newark owner Effa Manley to Bill Veeck, Cleveland’s maverick owner. With no clue what lay ahead, Doby took a cab to Comiskey with Veeck. He started the game on the bench, surrounded by Chicago plainclothes policemen. In the seventh inning, Doby was called to pinch-hit, and struck out.

So began his enduring niche in history as the first Black player to integrate the American Leagues. Yet his legacy remains in the shadows, if not near-obscurity.