[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 21 (Thursday, March 5, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E308-E309]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO LARRY DOBY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES E. CLYBURN

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 5, 1998

  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the newest 
member of baseball's Hall of Fame, a fellow South Carolinian, and most 
importantly, a true pioneer. I rise today to pay tribute to Larry Doby.
  As of Tuesday, Doby became the first native South Carolinian to be 
inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. While his athletic 
accomplishments alone are an incredible honor, Doby should be honored 
as a pioneer in one of America's favorite professional sports and an 
ambassador of the baseball community.
  Doby grew up in Camden, South Carolina, my father's hometown, where 
he learned to play stickball in the streets and eventually organized 
baseball on local diamonds. He attended Jackson School, the public 
school for black children, and later Mather Academy, my high school 
alma mater. Doby lived in South Carolina until his mid-teens when he 
went to New Jersey with his mother. There, he attended the integrated 
Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, the city in which I was 
married.
  From 1942 to 1943 and 1946 to 1947, Doby played for the Newark Eagles 
of the Negro League. When he signed a contract in 1947 to play with the 
Cleveland Indians, he became the American League's first black player. 
He also twice led the American League in home runs, beating out the 
famed Mickey Mantle. Doby played with the Indians from 1947 until 1955 
when he went to the White Sox for the

[[Page E309]]

1956 and 1957 seasons. He returned to the Indians for 1958 and went on 
to play for Chicago and Detroit until 1959 when he retired.
  While the late Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the 
National League in a much-chronicled story, only 11 weeks later Doby 
followed suit in the American League to a more quiet narrative. Through 
much of his career, Doby was an overlooked pioneer who endured the same 
racial taunts Robinson had from teammates, fans and managers.
  Pitcher Lou Brissie, another native South Carolinian, played both 
with and against Doby in the years following World War II. He remarked 
that Doby was ``really an extraordinary man, in many ways. I have a 
great deal of respect for him. He always carried himself with 
dignity.'' While I congratulate the athlete who topped the American 
League in 1954 with 32 homers and 126 RBIs, it is the man Brissie 
describes that I pay tribute to today.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask you and my colleagues to join me in honoring Larry 
Doby, the newest member of the baseball Hall of Fame, a fine South 
Carolinian, and a model American.

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