CHARLESTON — If you’ve been to The Joe for a RiverDogs game, you’ve likely walked along the mezzanine on the eastern side of the downtown ballpark along the Ashley River. A plaque there, tucked behind section 207, commemorates the man who broke the color barrier in the American League.
Often overlooked for the first Black player in Major League Baseball (Brooklyn Dodgers star Jackie Robinson), S.C. native Larry Doby had a decorated and ground-breaking career as a professional baseball (and, for a time, basketball) player and later coach. As then-President George W. Bush said after his passing in June 2003, Doby had “a profound influence on the game of baseball.”
That influence began in Kershaw County, where Doby’s father David was a star first baseman for the Camden Sluggers. The elder Doby, as the Charleston News and Courier once reported, wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and had him playing ball at the the age of seven. Richard DuBose, the promoter for the Sluggers, told the paper that the younger Doby was “just a natural player.”
“When he was with me, I used him as a first baseman,” DuBose said. “You would never know the power those skinny arms carried until you saw him throw the ball or swing a bat. He just lived and breathed baseball.”
Doby began his professional baseball career as an infielder for the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League. His professional career was put on hold for a couple years when he enlisted to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II, though his talent did not lapse during wartime. When he returned to America’s pastime after the war, Doby led the Eagles to the 1946 championship.
The following year, legendary baseball promoter Bill Veeck — in his second year of owning the Cleveland Indians — signed Doby to his roster. At the time, Veeck told the press he wanted to get the best of the Black pros “while the grabbing was good.” Doby told reporters that “it’s a big jump from our league to the majors, but I think I can make it.”
And make it he did.
During his first full season with the Indians in 1948, Doby would make history again as the first Black player to hit a home run in a World Series game. His team ultimately beat the Boston Braves to win the championship that year, making him and teammate Satchel Paige the first Black players to win the World Series. In his 13 year career, Doby was twice the home-run leader in the American League and selected for seven All-Star teams.
After retiring from play, Doby served in various coaching roles in the league before becoming the manager for the Chicago White Sox in 1978 under the same man who gave him his big break more than 30 years earlier — Veeck. The move made Doby the second Black manager in the majors.
Doby was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. After several years and support from S.C. lawmakers, he posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2023 on what would have been his 100th birthday.
But before he received those accolades, Doby was honored here in Charleston.
In 1997, when the RiverDogs moved into the newly-built Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park, the mezzanine overlooking the third base side of the ballpark was dubbed “Doby’s Deck.” That season, he was honored with his own night. The only retired number in RiverDogs history is Doby’s 14.
Ever since, the team has hosted an annual Larry Doby Weekend to honor him and other Black trailblazers in baseball, like the Cannon Street All Stars.
This dedication to keeping Doby’s memory alive has been driven in no small part by Mike Veeck, who, like his father, had a unique appreciation for the legendary player.
“Nobody identifies with being number one, but we can all identify with being number two,” Veeck said.
Veeck, who is one of the RiverDogs’ owners and previously served as general manager, said the three words he would use to describe Doby’s character are dignity, courage and grit. He said that even in the face of the racism and segregation he experienced during his career, Doby was never bitter. He noted that he thinks the Congressional Gold Medal would have meant just as much to him him as being a hall of famer, if not more.
“In spite of everything, he loved his country,” Veeck said. “He loved what it represented, and he understood that even though there was a tremendous distance to go, they made a little dent.”
Veeck recalled a moment, now over two decades ago, during Doby’s final trip to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., where Black players came up to him and thanked him for opening the door for them.
“From Henry Aaron to Reggie Jackson, … it was an unbelievable tip of the hat from his peers, from the people who knew historically what he meant to the game,” Veeck said. “He was given the respect that had eluded him, and his compatriots recognized what an important part of history he was. And I know that meant the world to him.”
Veeck joked that Doby would poke fun at his naming of the mezzanine after him. But that’s because they were pals, Veeck said. He noted that the hall of famer had a “tremendous soft spot” for his daughter Rebecca, who tragically died in 2019 after battling Batten Disease.
“At that point, he only knew that she was blind. He didn’t know that she had been sentenced to death,” he said. “But they had a great relationship, and she took great comfort in the sadness that she could feel emanating from him just over the lack of progress at certain points.
“He was a terrific guy,” Veeck added. “If it sounds like I love him, I do. I still love him with the same passion that I did when he was amongst us.”