On July 5th, 1947, Larry Doby of the Cleveland (then) Indians became the first Black player in the American League (Jackie Robinson played in the National League for the Brooklyn Dodgers). Doby struck out as a pinch hitter. The Cleveland lost to the Chicago White Sox 6-5.

I was born in 1960, 13 years after Larry Doby and Jackie Robinson made their MLB debuts. And just one year after owner Tom Yawkey finally integrated the Boston Red Sox, in 1959!

Red Sox fans used to do a lot of complaining about “The Curse of the Bambino.” The idea was that the Red Sox were cursed by the Baseball Gods as a result of selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.

Books were written about it. Ken Burns gave exorbitant amounts of time to people like Doris Kearns Goodwin to lament about The Curse and the burden of being a Red Sox fan.

Fortunately since the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004–and especially now after World Series wins again 2007, 2013, and 2018– we have not had to hear about The Curse of the Bambino anymore.

The real curse that we should have been hearing about from Doris Kearns Goodwin and all those other Red Sox fans all along was the Curse of Tom Yawkey. Surely if there were Baseball Gods, the Red Sox would never have won a World Series for at least a 100 more years.

Larry Doby’s career stats are impressive. Especially in light of the pressure he, like Jackie Robinson, must have had on him at all times. Now that MLB has added stats from the Negro Leagues, his stats are even more impressive.

Doby led the American League in home runs 2 times and RBI once. In 1946, for the Newark Eagles of the Negro Leagues, he led the league in hits and triples.

Doby started playing in the Majors when he was 25. He played for 11 years, mostly for Cleveland but also with the White Sox and the Tigers. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998 by the Veteran’s Committee. He died in 2003.