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| Don Newcombe Baseball Digest front cover September 1955 via Wikimedia Commons |
- Don Newcombe on Jackie Robinson in ...
Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella
by Neil Lanctot
Neil Lanctot’s biography of Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella—filled with surprises ...
Campy played eight years in the Negro Leagues until the major leagues integrated. Ironically, he and not Jackie Robinson might have been the player to integrate baseball, as Lanctot reveals. An early recruit to Branch Rickey’s “Great Experiment” with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Campy became the first African-American catcher in the twentieth century in the major leagues. As Lanctot discloses, Campanella and Robinson, pioneers of integration, had a contentious relationship, largely as a result of a dispute over postseason barnstorming.
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2 comments:
Here's what Newcombe also said upon the release of the movie, "42":
“Look at, learn, appreciate what he did, because had he failed, there’s no telling where baseball would have gone to, downward, as far as civil rights and the racial degradation that was going on in this country at the time,” Newcombe said.
“Jackie and then Roy Campanella and I — and the ones that followed us — we all worked and couldn’t fight back.
“We just hope they appreciate that Branch Rickey said, ‘If Jackie fails, the deal is closed. No other owner in baseball will pick it up.’ ”
What the hell is a "Bud Selig" inspired person? Is he different from a "King Faye Vincent" inspired person? Is he different from a Bart "I'm going to ban Pete Rose for life because I'm still bitter over the 1975 World Series" Giamatti person? I really wish nerds would have stuck with ComicCon and not inflitrated baseball, with ridiculous made-up non-statistics like WAR. Pathetic dorks.
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