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Larry Doby: A Baseball Pioneer

The First African American player in the American League

Learn about the story behind this lesser-known trailblazing local Cleveland athlete.

See other dates and locations for this program on our events calendar.

When Larry Doby signed with the Cleveland Indians in July 1947, he became the second African-American player in Major League Baseball and the first in the American League. Though Doby played on some of the greatest Indians teams of all time, he never quite received the same media attention as Jackie Robinson, who had broken MLB’s color barrier on April 15, 1947, which meant that both his achievements and his struggles are less well-known beyond Cleveland.

This program will explore Doby’s life, how Cleveland was well-positioned to field an integrated team by the late 1940s, and how Bill Veeck, the Indians’ owner and team president at the time, chose Doby from all the stellar Negro Leagues players to integrate baseball in Cleveland.

Registration begins Saturday, March 23 at 9:00 a.m.