The second Black baseball player to break the major league’s color barrier posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal on what would have been his 100th birthday.
According to ESPN, congressional leaders presented the medal to the son of Hall of Famer Larry Doby, who died in 2003, on Wednesday in a ceremony at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
A close-up view of the Congressional Gold Medal honoring late baseball player Larry Doby is seen at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 13, 2023, in Washington, D.C. on what would have been his 100th birthday. Doby, the first African-American to play in the American League in 1947, was posthumously awarded with the Congressional Gold Medal. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“This means the world to my family,” said Larry Doby Jr., accepting the medal on his late father’s behalf. “He would be extremely proud and humbled by this.”
Doby, a standout in the Negro Leagues who fought in the Navy during WWII, joined the major leagues three months after Brooklyn Dodgers’ second baseman Jackie Robinson and faced much of the same harsh treatment from insult-hurling racists. As the American League’s first Black player, the Hall of Famer overcame many obstacles to excel for the Cleveland Indians and, subsequently, the Chicago White Sox.
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In 1948, a year after following in Robinson’s footsteps, Doby became the first Black baseball player to smash a home run in a World Series game when Cleveland won the championship.
He helped pioneer Black management in the major leagues after retiring as a player, becoming baseball’s second Black manager when the White Sox appointed him in 1978, following the now-late Frank Robinson, who began managing the Indians in 1975 after a stellar career playing. Robinson died in 2019.
“Larry Doby will forever be remembered as a pioneer who demonstrated great character and courage throughout his life,” said Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred in a statement. “His legacy as a trailblazing player and manager endures to this day, and he will always remain one of the great heroes that our national pastime and nation have ever known.”
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