Someone You Should Know: Larry Doby

As we celebrate Jackie Robinson this weekend and the great things he did, The World Around Us would like to shine our spotlight on another baseball player: Larry Doby. Often forgotten in life are the "2nd's", those that achieved greatness just shortly after someone did the same (like, say for instance, Buzz Aldrin, who was the 2nd person to set foot on the moon).

Lawrence Eugene Doby, also known as Larry, was an African American baseball player in the Negro Leagues and Major League Baseball. He was the 2nd black player to play in the modern major leagues and the 1st to do so in teh American League. He was signed by the Cleveland Indians in 1947, only 11 weeks after Mr Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the National League.

In addition to playing for the Indians, he played for the Chicago White Sox from 1955 to 1958. Then back to Cleveland for one more year, before finishing his career in he majors with the White Sox, after a Detroit Tigers stint. In 1962, he became the 3rd American to play professional baseball in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. in 1978 he managed the White Sox, where he was the 2nd black manager in teh major leagues, after Frank Robinson (no relation to Jackie) in 1975. Elected Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998, Mr Doby died in Montclair, New Jersey at the age of 79 in 2003.

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