Doby died on June 18, 2003, at his home in Montclair, New Jersey, at age 79 after suffering cancer.

In the majors, however, it was not until the signing of Robinson ( in the National League ) and Larry Doby ( in the American League ) that baseball began to remove its color bar.

* 1923 – Larry Doby, American baseball player ( d. 2003 )

* 1947 – Larry Doby signs a contract with the Cleveland Indians baseball team, becoming the first black player in the American League.

** Larry Doby, baseball player ( d. 2003 )

Statesman and financier Bernard M. Baruch ( 1870-1965 ) and labor leader Lane Kirkland were born in Kershaw County, as was the first African-American baseball player in the American League, Larry Doby.

Doby Bridge and Harris Street Parks have lighted baseball fields, Steele Street and Harris Street Parks have basketball courts, and Steele Street Park has a small water park.

In an article in the July 1952 issue of SPORT, Speaker recounted how Bill Veeck hired him to be a coaching consultant to Larry Doby, who in 1947 had become the American League's first black player and just the second player to cross the baseball color barrier in Major League Baseball.

Lawrence Eugene " Larry " Doby ( December 13, 1923 – June 18, 2003 ) was an American professional baseball player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball ( MLB ).

His military service complete, Doby returned to baseball in 1946, and along with teammate Monte Irvin, helped the Eagles win the Negro League World Series.

Doby's father served in World War I and worked as a horse groomer and played semi-pro baseball but died at the age of 37 from a drowning accident in New York state when the younger Doby was eight years old.

Richard Dubose, known in local African-American circles for his baseball expertise and who had also managed Doby's father, gave Doby some of his first baseball lessons.

Reflecting on his years growing up in South Carolina, including how he and play mates would use worn down broom handles for bats, Doby said, " Growing up in Camden, we didn't have baseball bats.

Doby lettered in track and was an all-state athlete in baseball, football as a wide receiver and basketball while at Paterson Eastside High School.

During summer vacation Doby played baseball with a black semi-pro team, the Smart Sets.

Doby saw real hope in being a professional baseball player instead of his aspirations to be a teacher and coach.

Doby had participated in baseball clinics in 1962 as a member of a travel delegation from the U. S. Department of State.

In Doby came out of retirement and became the third American to play professional baseball in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league, after Wally Kaname Yonamine and Don Newcombe, when he signed a contract with the Chunichi Dragons.

" During the season, when the long-departed Jackie Robinson's number 42 was being retired throughout baseball, and the still-living Doby was being virtually ignored by the media, an editorial in Sports Illustrated pointed out that Doby had to suffer the same indignities that Robinson did, and with nowhere near the media attention and implicit support.

The city of Paterson, New Jersey, renamed the Eastside Park baseball field " Larry Doby Field " on June 1, 2002.

In 2011, the U. S. Postal Service announced that Doby would be one of the four baseball players ( along with fellow Hall of Famers Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, and Willie Stargell ) to appear on a postage stamp in 2012, as part of its " Major League Baseball All-Stars " series.

Over Doby's first two seasons, Gordon became close to the player who was theoretically there to replace him, and Doby would later refer to him as his first friend in white baseball ; however, reports that Gordon deliberately struck out in Doby's first game to keep him from looking bad are erroneous.

The color line in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Major League Baseball and affiliated minor leagues, until Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization for the 1946 season and in 1947, both Robinson in the National League and Larry Doby with the American League's Cleveland Indians appeared in games for the first time in MLB history.

Other members of the Hall who played in both the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball are Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Roy Campanella, Larry Doby, Willie Mays, and Jackie Robinson.

Except for Doby, their play in the Negro leagues was a minor factor in their selection: Aaron, Banks, and Mays played in Negro leagues only briefly and after the leagues had declined with the migration of many black players to the integrated minor leagues ; Campanella ( 1969 ) and Robinson ( 1962 ) were selected before the Hall began considering performance in the Negro leagues.

James adds that Speaker was a staunch supporter of Larry Doby when he broke the American League color barrier, working long hours with him in the outfield, teaching Doby, who mainly played second base before arriving in Cleveland, the center field position ; and Doby mentioned Speaker favorably during his Hall of Fame induction speech.

Doby was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on March 3, 1998, by the Veterans Committee at the age of 73.

Doby became the first member born in South Carolina elected to the Hall.

Although he was the first to play in the MLB, Doby was the last member elected to the Hall of the four players to ever play in both a Negro league and MLB World Series: Doby, Satchel Paige, Monte Irvin, and Willie Mays.

Long before Doby was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame came induction in the Indians Hall of Fame in August 1966.

Larry Doby who also played on the White Sox team in 1959, Ralph Kiner, and Enos Slaughter are all in the Baseball Hall of Fame and belong there.

" 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 her second basemen.

It was rumored Gordon struck out on three swings in his immediate at-bat after Doby to save face for his new teammate, but 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.

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 said only because Gordon asked in the clubhouse to borrow one of the first baseman's glove did he have one to use in the second game of the doubleheader as earlier direct requests from Doby were rejected.

By the end of the 1952 season, Doby was second in the AL in RBIs to teammate Al Rosen by one, 105 to 104.

He led the AL in strikeouts for the second and final time in his career, a career-high 121 times, but hit 29 home runs and 102 RBIs on the year and only two other players in the AL drew more walks on the season than Doby.

Doby finished second in AL MVP.

In 1977, Bill Veeck purchased the White Sox for a second time and hired Doby to be the team's batting coach.

Aged 53 years, Doby became the second black manager in the majors.

Veeck hired player-manager Don Kessinger to succeed Doby, although Kessinger resigned as manager in the second half of the 1979 season.

The New York Times wrote, " In glorifying those who are first, the second is often forgotten ... Larry Doby integrated all those American League ball parks where Jackie Robinson never appeared.

Nobody said, ' We're gonna be nice to the second Black ,'" Doby said.

Larry Doby came up as a second baseman who didn't have time to get his full college education, and was forced to play a different position in his first major league season.

One incident took place during a game as Doby was sliding into second base when the shortstop from the opposing team spat tobacco juice on him.

Starting pitcher Sal Maglie walked Larry Doby and gave up a single to Al Rosen, putting runners on first and second.