Baseball's Larry Doby: 2nd Black Major Leaguer May Get Congressional Medal

Baseball legend Lawrence “Larry” Doby deserves the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal.

That’s what a pair of New Jersey and Ohio lawmakers have to say about the pioneering outfielder who broke the color barrier in the American League in 1947, becoming the second African-American man to play major league baseball.

Earlier this week, U.S. Reps. Jim Renacci, an Ohio Republican, and Bill Pascrell Jr., a New Jersey Democrat, co-sponsored a bill that would posthumously honor Doby's "many achievements and contributions to American major league athletics, civil rights and the armed forces” by awarding him the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the highest civilian awards in the nation.

H.R. 5621 states that the award for the Camden, South Carolina, native – who later moved to Paterson and Montclair, New Jersey — would be presented to his son, Larry Doby, Jr.

"Like me, Larry Doby started out as a kid on the streets of Paterson, New Jersey, but he went on to blossom into a sports legend, a pioneer of American civil rights, and a man of great service to his country," Pascrell said.

“Doby's struggles as the first black player in American League were monumental and often overlooked... In some ways his debut was more difficult than Jackie Robinson's 11 weeks earlier,” the New Jersey-based Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center wrote.

In November, another baseball hero and former New Jersey resident, the late Berra, received a closely related award — the Presidential Medal of Freedom — after a massive online campaign was launched.

• See related article: Yogi Berra Gets Presidential Medal Of Freedom: Montclair's Own Honored

LARRY DOBY’S GREATEST HITS

Doby’s records and achievements include:

• Became the first African-American to play in the American League in 1947
• Elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998
• Served in the United States Navy during WWII (honorable discharge in 1946)
• Played for 13 years, appearing in 1,533 games and batting .283, with 253 home runs and 969 runs batted in
• Voted to seven all-star teams, led the American League in home runs twice and played in two World Series
• Became the manager of the Chicago White Sox in 1978, only the second African-American manager of a Major League Baseball team
• Received honorary doctorate degrees from Long Island University, Princeton University and Fairfield University

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Video: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, YouTube