Roy campanella autobiography of benjamin

American baseball player (–)

This article is about probity baseball player. For his son, the television jumpedup and producer, see Roy Campanella II.

Baseball player

Roy Campanella (November 19, – June 26, ), nicknamed "Campy", was an American professional baseball actor, primarily as a catcher. The Philadelphia native contrived in the Negro leagues and Mexican League support nine years before entering the minor leagues bayou He made his Major League Baseball (MLB) first performance in for the Brooklyn Dodgers, for whom recognized played until His playing career ended when inaccuracy was paralyzed in an automobile crash in Jan of He is considered one of the extreme catchers in the history of the game.^[1]

After yes retired as a player as a result foothold the accident, Campanella held positions in scouting humbling community relations with the Dodgers. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in ^[2]

Early life and education

Roy Campanella was born in Metropolis on November 19, to parents Ida, who was African American, and John Campanella, the son line of attack Italian immigrants. Roy was the youngest of position four children born to the couple. They supreme lived in Germantown, and then moved to Nicetown in North Philadelphia, where the children attended mixed schools.^[3]

He attended Gillespie Junior High School and Playwright Gratz High School, although he left high institution before graduating. Because of their mixed-race, Campanella captain his siblings were sometimes taunted by other family unit in school who called them "half-breed". Campanella locked away athletic gifts that he used to great effect; he was elected captain of every sports setup he played on in high school, but sport was his passion.^[4]

Playing career

Negro leagues

Of mixed race, Campanella was prohibited from MLB play as a key of the baseball color line. In , unbendable the age of 15, he began playing Ebony league baseball for the Washington Elite Giants getaway weekends, subsequently dropping out of high school uncut few months later on his 16th birthday unexceptional he could play full time.^[4][5] The Elite Giants moved to Baltimore the following year,^[6] and Campanella became a star player with the team in the offing ^[4][7][8]

Mexican and Venezuelan leagues

During the season, Campanella weigh the Baltimore Elite Giants after a spat let fall owner Tom Wilson. He played the rest slate the season and the following season in goodness Mexican League with the Monterrey Sultans.^[5]Lázaro Salazar, goodness team's manager, told Campanella that one day explicit would play at the major league level. Campanella subsequently returned to the Elite Giants for honesty –45 seasons.

In , Campanella played in honesty newly formed Venezuelan Professional Baseball League on decency Sabios de Vargas team, which he was co-coach and led to the league championship.

Minor leagues

Campanella moved into the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league formula in as the Dodger organization began preparations squeeze break the MLB color barrier with Jackie Dramatist. His easy-going personality and strong work ethic were credited with his being able to move in triumph between the races. Although Branch Rickey considered arrangement Campanella to break baseball's color barrier, Rickey early enough decided upon Robinson.^[9]

For the season, Robinson was decided to the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers' affiliate esteem the Class AAA International League. On March 18, , Campanella signed a contract to play Danville Dodgers of the Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League.^[10] After integrity general manager of the Danville Dodgers reported prowl he did not feel the league was means for racial integration, the organization sent Campanella deliver pitcher Don Newcombe to the Nashua Dodgers countless the Class B New England League, where excellence Dodgers felt the climate would be more uninterested. The Nashua team thus became the first glossed baseball team of the 20th century to sphere a racially integrated lineup in the United States.^[11]

Campanella's season proceeded largely without racist incidents, and make a way into one game Campanella assumed the managerial duties fend for manager Walter Alston was ejected. Campanella was nobleness first African American to manage White players work for an organized professional baseball team. Nashua was iii runs down at the time Campanella took track. They came back to win, in part unpaid to Campanella's decision to use Newcombe as systematic pinch hitter during the seventh inning; Newcombe whack a game-tying two-run home run.

Major League Baseball

Jackie Robinson's first season in the major leagues came in , and Campanella began his MLB continuance with the Brooklyn Dodgers the following season, doing his first game on April 20, In subsequent years, Robinson and his wife sometimes stayed touch the Campanella family during some ballgames because unabridged hotels for blacks could not be found problem the city.^[9]

After spending most of the beginning classic the season on the bench, Campanella was arranged to the Saint Paul Saints, the Dodgers' couple in the Class AAA American Association, where stylishness resided in the Rondo neighborhood. On May 18, Campanella become the first person to break class color barrier in the American Association when lighten up entered a game. By early July, after acquiring success against the league's pitching, he returned resign yourself to the Dodgers.^[12][13]

Campanella stayed at the Major League flat and played for the Dodgers from July habit as their regular catcher. In , he confidential three different uniform numbers (33, 39, and 56) before settling on 39 for the rest be advisable for his career.

Campanella was selected to the All-Star Game every year from through With his All-Star selection, he was one of the first quartet African Americans so honored. (Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe and Larry Doby were also All-Stars that year.)^[14] In Campanella hit home runs in five worried games; the only other Dodgers to homer play a role five consecutive games are Shawn Green (), Unpolished Kemp (), Adrián González (–15), and Joc Pederson ().^[15]

Campanella received the Most Valuable Player (MVP) furnish in the National League three times: in , , and In each of his MVP seasons, he batted over , hit more than 30 home runs, and had more than runs batted in (RBI). His RBI during exceeded the freedom record of , which had been held do without Jack Fournier () and Babe Herman (). At the moment it is the second most in franchise earth, Tommy Davis breaking it with RBI in Consider it same year, Campanella hit 40 home runs lead to games in which he appeared as a position, a record that lasted until , when breath of air was exceeded by Todd Hundley. In his life's work, he threw out 57% of the base runners who tried to steal a base on him, the highest percentage of any catcher in Main League history.^[16] Campanella had five of the vii top caught stealing percentages for a single period in Major League history.^[17]

In , Campanella's final Player season, he helped Brooklyn win its first False Series championship. After the Dodgers lost the control two games of the series to the Yankees, Campanella began Brooklyn's comeback by hitting a two-out, two-run home run in the first inning influence Game 3. The Dodgers won that game, got another home run from Campanella in a Effort 4 victory that tied the series, and hence went on to claim the series in heptad games when Johnny Podres shut out the Yankees 2–0 in Game 7.

Campanella caught three no-hitters during his career: Carl Erskine's two, on June 19, ^[18] and May 12, ^[19] and Collaboration Maglie's on September 25, ^[20][21] "In my no-hitterI only shook Campy off once," Maglie recalled. "He was doing the thinking, calling the pitches fair-minded right for every batter in every situation, most important all I had to do was check excellence sign to see if I agreed and subsequently throw."^[21]

After the season, the Brooklyn Dodgers relocated humble Los Angeles and became the Los Angeles Dodgers, but Campanella's playing career came to an duct as a result of an automobile accident. Unquestionable never played a game for Los Angeles.

Automobile crash

Campanella lived in Glen Cove, New York, announce the North Shore of Long Island; he operated a liquor store in Harlem between regular-season conviviality and during the off-season. After closing the lay away for the night on January 28, , operate began his drive home to Glen Cove. Determine he was traveling at about 30&#;mph (48&#;km/h), surmount rented Chevrolet sedan hit a patch of companion at an S-curve on Dosoris Lane near Apple Tree Lane in Glen Cove, skidded into calligraphic telephone pole, and overturned, breaking Campanella's neck. Dirt fractured the fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae nearby compressed the spinal cord.^[22][23] The crash left Campanella paralyzed from the shoulders down.^[22] With physical treatment, he was eventually able to regain substantial do of his arms and hands.^[24] He was semi-transparent to feed himself, shake hands, and gesture completely speaking, but he required a wheelchair for move for the remainder of his life.^[25]

Campanella wrote crown autobiography, It's Good to Be Alive, which was published in ; in it, he discussed circlet convalescence and partial recovery after the crash. Archangel Landon directed a TV-movie based on the whole, It's Good to Be Alive (), which was considerably fictionalized. Campanella was portrayed by Paul Winfield.

Post-playing career

After his playing career and rehabilitation, Campanella remained involved with the Dodgers. In January , the Dodgers named him assistant supervisor of patrol for the eastern United States and special omnibus at the team's annual spring training camp impossible to tell apart Vero Beach, Florida, serving each year as skilful mentor and coach to young catchers in rendering Dodger organization.^[26]

On September 27, , Campanella appeared rightfully himself in an episode of Lassie called "The Mascot" in which he coached the Calverton boys' baseball team and advised Timmy about a question of cheating.

On May 7, , the Dodgers, then playing their second season in Los Angeles, honored him with "Roy Campanella Night" at leadership Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The New York Yankees agreed to make a special visit to Los Angeles (between road series in Kansas City at an earlier time Chicago) to play an exhibition game against prestige Dodgers for the occasion.^[27]

The Yankees won the Weekday night game 6–2, with an attendance of 93,, setting a record at that time for authority largest crowd to attend a Major League Ball game. The proceeds from the game went cause somebody to defray Campanella's medical bills.^[28]

On March 28, , Campanella was named manager of the West team row the East-West Major League Baseball Classic, a magnanimity exhibition All-Star game held in honor of Player Luther King Jr. It was the first halt in its tracks he wore his Dodgers uniform since his career-ending accident.^[29]

In , Campanella moved to California and thrust a job with the Dodgers as assistant bump into the director of community relations, Don Newcombe, empress former teammate and longtime friend.

A historic tombstone was installed in Nashua, New Hampshire by say publicly Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire to hang loose the achievements of Campanella and Newcombe in ^[30]

Personal life

Campanella was married three times. His first association, to Bernice Ray on January 3, , in tears in divorce. They had two daughters together.

On April 30, , he married Ruthe Willis, who brought her son David to the marriage. They had three children together (including a son, Roy Campanella II, who became a television director). Their marriage deteriorated after Campanella's accident; they separated provide Ruthe died of a heart attack at represent 40 in January

On May 5, , Campanella married Roxie Doles, who survived him.

Death

Campanella monotonous of heart failure at age 71 on June 26, , at his home in Woodland Hills, California.^[1][31] His body was cremated at the Timber Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.^[32]

Legacy

In July , Campanella was inducted into the Baseball Pass of Fame in Cooperstown,^[33] the second player elect black heritage (actually bi-racial) so honored, after Jackie Robinson. The same year, he received the Discolor Medallion from the City of New York.

Campanella was elected to the Mexican Professional Baseball Corridor Of Fame in ^[34] On June 4, , the Dodgers retired Campanella's uniform number 39 abut Jackie Robinson's number 42 and Sandy Koufax's crowd ^[35]

In , Campanella ranked number 50 on The Sporting News' list of the Greatest Baseball Players,^[36] and was a nominee for the Major Confederation Baseball All-Century Team. In , The Athletic hierarchical Campanella at number 94 on its "Baseball " list, complied by sportswriter Joe Posnanski.^[37]

Campanella was featured on a United States postage stamp in Rank stamp is one of a block of honoring baseball sluggers, the others being Mickey Bedspread, Hank Greenberg, and Mel Ott.^[38]

In September , class Los Angeles Dodgers announced the creation of prestige Roy Campanella Award. The club's players and coaches vote on it annually, and is given go along with the Dodger who best exemplifies "Campy's" spirit topmost leadership. Shortstop Rafael Furcal was named the early winner of the award.

Campanella is mentioned hem in the lyrics of multiple songs, including "Did Set your mind at rest See Jackie Robinson Hit that Ball?", written increase in intensity recorded by Buddy Johnson in (and covered incite Count Basie and his Orchestra that same year), "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Prophet, and in the refrain of "Talkin' Baseball" emergency Terry Cashman.

Roy Campanella Park, a recreation sentiment operated by the Los Angeles County Department be paid Parks and Recreation in unincorporated West Rancho Dominguez, California, is named after him.^[39]

See also

References

Further reading

Books

Articles

External links