Rest in peace, Mr. Doby. Thanks for everything, especially your courage.

Thanks Coach. You certainly have my respect and gratitude for this posting. I think everyone who are baseball fans and have a strong social comittment have held Mr. Doby in esteem.
Mr. Doby retired the year after I was born, I grew up a baseball fan at my fathers knee. I learned of Mr. Doby's accomplishments through the awe of my father. Whenever his name was mentioned during a baseball telecast my mind would be thrown into something like a dream of wonderment.
R.I.P. Larry Doby. You are truly a hero and a focal point of a young white Canadian kid's education.

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So it goes for Larry Doby, the man who broke the American League color barrier in 1947, just several weeks after Jackie Robinson -- rightfully -- carved out his place in history. Doby, a Hall of Fame player who was also the second black manager in the game after Frank Robinson, passed away last night at the age of 79.

What many people don't remember is that Frank Robinson actually fired Doby when Robinson first became the manager of the Indians. You could tell the situation was really difficult for him: Robinson looked up to Doby and what he accomplished as the first black man to play at the AL, but at the same time didn't feel he was right for the coaching staff.

In a way I think Doby was a lot more influential than Robinson in causing the leagues to become fully integrated. Jackie Robinson was seen as an incredible athlete and very intelligent. So Robinson's success in the big leagues didn't naturally suggest to GMs that a lot of blacks could play well in the big leagues, as he was seen as a special case.

Doby wasn't seen as a great athlete or mind... so his success was seen as more representative of the potential of black baseball players. If Doby had fallen flat on his face, I think that would have prevented a lot of GMs from signing black players and would have stalled integration.

Mike