Larry Doby

Lawrence Eugene Doby (December 13, 1923 – June 18, 2003) was an American professional baseball player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who was the second black player to break baseball's color barrier and the first black player in the American League. A native of Camden, South Carolina and three-sport all-state athlete while in high school in Paterson, New Jersey, Doby accepted a basketball scholarship from Long Island University. At 17 years of age, he began his professional baseball career with the Newark Eagles as the team's second baseman. Doby joined the United States Navy during World War II. His military service complete, Doby returned to baseball in 1946, and along with teammate Monte Irvin, helped the Eagles win the Negro League World Series.
In July 1947—three months after Jackie Robinson made history with the Brooklyn Dodgers—Doby broke the MLB color barrier in the American League when he signed a contract to play with Bill Veeck's Cleveland Indians. Doby was the first player to go directly to the majors from the Negro leagues. A seven-time All-Star center fielder, Doby and teammate Satchel Paige were the first African-American players to win a World Series championship when the Indians took the crown in 1948. He helped the Indians win a franchise-record 111 games and the AL pennant in 1954, finished second in the AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) award voting and was the AL's RBI leader and home run champion. He went on to play for the Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, and Chunichi Dragons before his retirement as a player in 1962.
Doby later served as the second black manager in the majors with the Chicago White Sox, and in 1995 was appointed to a position in the AL's executive office. He also served as a director with the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998 by the Hall's Veterans Committee and died in 2003 at the age of 79.
Early life.
Doby was born in Camden, South Carolina, to David Doby and Etta Brooks. Doby's father served in World War I. He worked as a horse groomer and played semi-pro baseball, but drowned in an accident at age 37 in New York state. Doby's mother, who had divorced David before his death, moved to Paterson, New Jersey; Doby remained in Camden. He lived with his grandmother before moving to live with his father's sister and brother-in-law from 1934 to 1938. He attended Jackson School, which was segregated under South Carolina state law. His first opportunity to play organized baseball came as a student at Boylan-Haven-Mather Academy, a private school affiliated with the Methodist church. Richard Dubose, who had managed Doby's father and was known locally in African-American circles for his baseball expertise, gave Doby some of his first baseball lessons. Reflecting on his years growing up in South Carolina, including how he and playmates used worn down broom handles for bats, Doby said, "Growing up in Camden, we didn't have baseball bats. We'd use a tree here, a tin can there, for bases."
After completing eighth grade, Doby moved north to Paterson at the age of 14 to be reunited with his mother; she visited him weekly while he lived with one of her friends. At Paterson Eastside High School, Doby was a multi-sport athlete; as well as playing baseball and basketball, he was a wide receiver in football and lettered in track. After winning a state football championship, the Eastside team was invited to play in Florida, but the promoters would not allow Doby, the only black player on the team, to participate. Consequently, the team voted to forgo the trip as a gesture of support for Doby.
During summer vacation Doby played baseball with a black semi-pro team, the Smart Sets, where he played with future Hall of Fame shortstop Monte Irvin. He also had a brief stint with the Harlem Renaissance, a professional basketball team, as an unpaid substitute player. Upon completing high school, he accepted an athletic scholarship to play basketball at Long Island University Brooklyn (LIU). Doby had been dating Eastside classmate Helyn Curvy since his sophomore year and, according to Doby, being able to remain close to Paterson was the "main reason" he selected LIU.
In the summer before he enrolled at LIU, Doby accepted an offer to play for the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League (NNL) for the remainder of the 1942 season, and he transferred to Virginia Union University as a result.
Negro leagues and World War II.
Negro league umpire Henry Moore advised Newark Eagles' owners Abe and Effa Manley to give Doby a tryout at Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, which was successful; Doby joined the Eagles in 1942 at the age of 17 for $300. The contract stated Doby would play until September when he would start classes at college; to protect his amateur status he signed using the alias "Larry Walker" and local reporters were told he originated from Los Angeles, California. On May 31, Doby appeared in his first professional game when the Eagles played against the New York Cubans at Yankee Stadium. In the 26 games where box scores have been found, Doby's batting average was .391. Doby recalled a game against catcher Josh Gibson and pitcher Ray Brown of the Homestead Grays:
My first time up, Josh said, 'We're going to find out if you can hit a fastball.' I singled. Next time up, Josh said, 'We're going to find out if you can hit a curveball.' I singled. Third time up, Josh said, 'We're going to find out how you do after you're knocked down.' I popped up the first time after they knocked me down. The second time, I singled.
Doby's career in Newark was interrupted for two years for service in the United States Navy. Doby spent 1943 and part of 1944 at Camp Robert Smalls at the Great Lakes Naval Training School near Chicago. He appeared on an all-black baseball squad and maintained a .342 batting average against teams composed of white players, some of which featured major leaguers. He then went to Treasure Island Naval Base in San Francisco Bay, California. Before serving in the Pacific Theater of World War II, Doby spent time at Navy sites in Ogden, Utah and San Diego, California. He was stationed on Ulithi in the Pacific Ocean in 1945. Doby heard of Jackie Robinson's minor league contract deal with the Montreal Royals of the International League from his base on Ulithi listening to Armed Forces Radio, and as a result Doby saw real hope in becoming a Major League baseball player. While in Hawaii, Doby met fellow Navy man and future teammate Mickey Vernon. Vernon, then with the Washington Senators, was so impressed with Doby's skills he wrote to Senators owner Clark Griffith, encouraging Griffith to sign Doby should the MLB ever allow integration. During his time in the Navy, Doby was described by his colleagues as quiet. Doby was discharged from the Navy in January 1946. In the summer of that year, Doby and Helyn Curvy were married.
After playing for the San Juan Senators in Puerto Rico, Doby rejoined the Eagles in 1946. He made the All-Star roster, batted .360 (fourth in the NNL), hit five home runs (fifth) and led the NNL in triples (six). Manager Biz Mackey led the Eagles, including Doby, Monte Irvin and Johnny Davis, to the Negro World Series championship over Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Monarchs in seven games to conclude the 1946 season. For the Series, Doby hit .372 with one home run, five RBIs, and three stolen bases. Many in the Negro leagues believed Doby or Irvin would be first to break the MLB color barrier, not Robinson. On considering a career in the MLB, Doby said, "I never dreamed that far ahead. Growing up in a segregated society, you couldn't have thought that that was the way it was going to be. There was no bright spot as far as looking at baseball until Mr. Robinson got the opportunity to play in Montreal in '46."
Major League Baseball career.
Integration of American League (1947).
Cleveland Indians owner and team president Bill Veeck proposed integrating baseball in 1942, which had been informally segregated since the turn of the century, but this was rejected by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Veeck had begun the process of finding a young, talented player from the Negro leagues, and told a reporter in Cleveland that he would integrate the Indians' roster if he could find a black player with the necessary talent level who could withstand the taunts and pressure of being the first black athlete in the AL. The reporter suggested Doby, whom Veeck had seen at the Great Lakes Naval Training School. Doby's name was also mentioned when Veeck talked with reporters who covered the Negro leagues. Indians scout Bill Killefer rated Doby favorably and perhaps just as important for Veeck, reported Doby's off-field behavior was not a concern. The Dodgers rated Doby their top young Negro league prospect. But unlike the Brooklyn Dodgers' Branch Rickey, who signed Robinson one full season before bringing him to the National League, Veeck used a different strategy, letting Doby remain with the Eagles instead of bringing him through the Indians' farm system. He told the "Pittsburgh Courier", "One afternoon when the team trots out on the field, a Negro player will be out there with it."
While Rickey declined to pay for the purchasing rights of Robinson while he played for the Kansas City Monarchs, Veeck was "determined to buy Doby's contract from the Eagles" and had no problem paying purchasing rights. Effa Manley, business manager for the Eagles, believed her club's close relationship with the New York Yankees might put Doby in a Yankees uniform, but they did not take interest in him. Veeck finalized a contract deal for Doby with Manley on July 3. Veeck paid her a total of $15,000 for her second baseman—$10,000 for taking him from the Eagles and another $5,000 once it was determined he would stay with the Indians for at least 30 days. After Manley agreed to Veeck's offer, she stated to him, "If Larry Doby were white and a free agent, you'd give him $100,000 to sign as a bonus." The press were not told that Doby had been signed by the Indians as Veeck wanted to manage how fans in Cleveland would be introduced to Doby. "I moved slowly and carefully, perhaps even timidly", Veeck said. The Eagles had a doubleheader on July 4 but Doby, who had a .415 batting average and 14 home runs to that point in the season, only played in the first as Veeck sent his assistant and public relations personnel member, Louis Jones, for Doby. The two took a train from Newark to Chicago where the Indians were scheduled to play the Chicago White Sox the next day.
On July 5, with the Indians in Chicago in the midst of a road trip, Doby made his debut as the second black baseball player after Robinson to play in the majors after establishment of the baseball color line. Veeck hired two plainclothes police officers to accompany Doby as he went to Comiskey Park. Player-manager Lou Boudreau initially had a hard time finding a place in the lineup for Doby, who had played second base and shortstop for most of his career. Boudreau himself was the regular shortstop, while Joe Gordon was the second baseman. That day, Doby met his new teammates for the first time. "I walked down that line, stuck out my hand, and very few hands came back in return. Most of the ones that did were cold-fish handshakes, along with a look that said, 'You don't belong here", Doby reminisced years later. Four of Doby's teammates did not shake his hand, and of those, two turned their backs to Doby when he tried to introduce himself. During warm-ups, Doby languished for minutes while his teammates interacted with one another. Not until Joe Gordon asked Doby to play catch with him was Doby given the chance to engage. Gordon befriended Doby and became one of his closest friends on the team.
Doby entered the game in the seventh inning as a pinch-hitter for relief pitcher Bryan Stephens and recorded a strikeout. In the 1949 movie "The Kid from Cleveland", Veeck tells the story that Gordon struck out on three swings in his immediate at-bat after Doby to save face for his new teammate. However, Doby's second strike was the result of a foul ball, both the Associated Press and "Chicago Tribune" stated Doby struck out on five pitches instead of three, and in addition, Gordon was standing on third base during Doby's at-bat. From "Pride and Prejudice: The Biography of Larry Doby":
After the game, Doby quickly showered and dressed without incident in the Cleveland clubhouse. His escort, Louis Jones, then took him not to the Del Prado Hotel downtown, where the Indians players stayed, but to the black DuSable Hotel in Chicago's predominantly black South Side, near Comiskey Park. The segregated arrangement established a pattern, on Doby's first day, that he would be compelled to follow, in spring training and during the regular season, in many cities, throughout his playing career.
The Indians had a doubleheader against the White Sox on Sunday, July 6, for which 31,566 were in attendance; it was estimated that approximately 30 percent of the crowd were black. Some congregations of black churches let out early while others walked immediately from Sunday service to Comiskey Park. Boudreau had Doby pinch-hit in the first game but for the second, listed him a starter at first base, a position Doby was not expected to fill when the Indians brought him up to play at second base. Doby had played the position before with the Eagles but was without a proper mitt for first base and met much resistance when attempts were made to borrow one from teammates, including first baseman Eddie Robinson, whom Boudreau had asked Doby to replace that day. Doby said only because Gordon asked in the clubhouse to borrow one of the first baseman's mitts did he have one to use in the second game of the doubleheader as earlier direct requests from Doby were rejected. The mitt was loaned by a White Sox player. Boudreau recounts an incident where Robinson refused the mitt to Doby, but when asked by Indians traveling secretary Spud Goldstein, Robinson obliged. It was the only game Doby started for the remainder of the season. Doby recorded his first major league hit in four at-bats and had an RBI in a 5–1 Indians win.
A columnist wrote in the "Plain Dealer" on July 8: "Cleveland's man in the street is the right sort of American, as was evidenced right solidly once more by the response to the question: 'How does the signing of Larry Doby by the Indians strike you? Said the man in the street: Can he hit? ... That's all that counts." Conversely, Doby was criticized from players both active and retired. Noted former player Rogers Hornsby said, after watching Doby play one time in 1947:
Bill Veeck did the Negro race no favor when he signed Larry Doby to a Cleveland contract. If Veeck wanted to demonstrate that the Negro has no place in major league baseball, he could have used no subtler means to establish the point. If he were white he wouldn't be considered good enough to play with a semi-pro club. He is fast on his feet but that lets him out. He hasn't any other quality that could possibly recommend him.
In his rookie year, Doby hit .156 (5-for-32) in 29 games. He played four games at second base and one each at first base and shortstop. Throughout the season he talked with Robinson via telephone, the two encouraging each other. "And Jackie and I agreed we shouldn't challenge anybody or cause trouble—or we'd both be out of the big leagues, just like that. We figured that if we spoke out, we would ruin things for other black players." After his rookie season, Doby again pursued time on the basketball court and appeared with the Paterson Crescents of the American Basketball League after signing a contract in January 1948. He was the first black player to join the league.
Cleveland Indians.
1948–1950.
In 1948, Doby experienced his first spring training with the Indians in Tucson, Arizona. Unlike their white teammates, Doby, along with Satchel Paige and Minnie Miñoso, were not permitted to stay at the nearby Santa Rita hotel but instead stayed with a local black family and used a rental car provided by the Indians for transportation. During spring training, Doby read books concerning outfield play, and received instruction and encouragement from former Indians manager Tris Speaker and Indians' farm system director Hank Greenberg. Doby also credited Indians coach Bill McKechnie with helping him adjust to the majors and learning the outfield. In an exhibition game in Houston against the New York Giants, Doby hit a home run that "may have traveled 500 feet before landing far beyond the fence in center field." As Moore wrote in his biography of Doby, "With that home run, all doubts that Doby would make the 1948 Cleveland team vanished. That year, he played in 121 games and hit .301 for the season with 14 home runs and 66 RBIs. Throughout the regular season Doby was racially abused by opposing teams, and Veeck asked AL president Will Harridge for support in getting players to rein in their animosity towards Doby.
Doby played a major role in Cleveland's World Series victory against the Boston Braves. In Game 4 on October 9, Doby hit the first home run by a black player in World Series history. A picture featuring an embrace between Doby and white teammate Steve Gromek, who had pitched a complete game that day, was on the cover of the next day's "Plain Dealer". Richard Goldstein of "The New York Times" called the photograph "a signature moment in the integration of Major League Baseball." Of the picture, Doby said, "The picture was more rewarding and happy for me than actually hitting the home run. The picture finally showed a moment of a man showing his feelings for me." The Indians defeated the Braves in six games and with it, Cleveland had its first World Series championship since the 1920 season. Doby's .318 batting average during the Series led the Indians. Nationally syndicated columnist Grantland Rice argued that without Doby and Gene Bearden, who had won 20 games that year, the Indians would have finished in fourth or fifth place. After the Series, Doby received a celebratory parade in Paterson, New Jersey, and during the offseason he, along with other teammates, appeared in the 1949 film "The Kid From Cleveland". With additional income available due to the post-season run and Series championship, Doby and his wife attempted to buy a home in Paterson in an all-white neighborhood but were kept out by a petition from members of the community. The Dobys were allowed to purchase their desired home when the Paterson city mayor intervened on their behalf.
During the 1949 season, Doby was selected to his first MLB All-Star Game. He was one of five Indians selected by Boudreau and joined Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe as the first black players to be amongst those chosen to participate in the 1949 All-Star Game. Boudreau fined Doby after he attempted to steal home with no outs and bases loaded in a game against the Yankees on July 20. Of the fine, Boudreau said, "It was not based only on that attempt to steal home. Larry has taken several unnecessary chances lately. This should make him more careful." His home run (24) and RBI (85) totals increased during the 1949 season, and by 1950, he was considered the best center fielder in the game by "The Sporting News". By the first week in July, Doby's .370 batting average trailed only 1949 AL batting champion George Kell, who had a .375 average. He earned career-bests in batting average (.326), hits (164) and on-base percentage (OBP) (.442), while playing in 142 games. Doby hit the 100-RBI mark (102) for the first time in his career while his OBP led the AL. He finished eighth in AL MVP voting, highest among outfielders. At the end of the season, Cleveland signed him to a new, more lucrative contract. Doby was named by Cleveland sports writers as the Cleveland Baseball Man of the Year after the season, the first time a black player was chosen.
1951–1955.
Doby hit 20 home runs and 69 RBIs in 1951, both fewer than the previous season, and his batting average improved to .295. His 21-game hit-streak was the second-longest for the Indians that season, behind Dale Mitchell's mark of 23 games in a row. Indians general manager Hank Greenberg reduced Doby's salary due to the lower home run numbers despite Doby, who attributed the lower numbers to tightness in his legs, stating he would not accept a pay cut. Indians manager Al López confirmed that Doby was injury-riddled throughout the season, stating that he "was beset by first one injury and then another" including "a muscle tear in his thigh, a groin pull, an ankle twist." Doby received blame for the Indians' failure to win the AL pennant and was labeled a "loner" by some in the press, including "Plain Dealer" sports editor Gordon Cobbledick who in an article in "Sport" wrote "Larry's a mixed-up guy—a badly mixed-up guy" stemming from "the emotional impact of discovering racial prejudice against him." Cobbledick also took issue with Doby's assertion that opposing pitchers were knocking him down due to Doby being black. The assertion was confirmed by Sam Lacy, who wrote in the "Baltimore Afro-American", "Statistics show that eight colored players in the two major leagues were hit by pitches a total of 68 times during the 1951 campaign, an average of times per man. No other player was hit as many as eight times in the season."
One month before spring training for the 1952 season, Doby employed former Olympic track and field athlete Harrison Dillard to come to his home in New Jersey to prepare his legs in hopes of eliminating injuries, which had affected him the previous season. Dillard and the Indians' team doctor prescribed lower-body warm-ups to Doby before the start of each game. Leg injuries continued to bother Doby during the start of the season. On June 4, 1952, he hit for the cycle. By the end of the 1952 season, Doby was second in the AL in RBIs to teammate Al Rosen by one, 105 to 104. His .541 slugging percentage, runs scored (104), strikeout (111), and home run (32) totals were all highest in the AL.
Leading up to the 1953 season, Doby asked Greenberg and Indians management for a pay raise after earning $22,000 the previous season. In early March, the raise was granted, and he was slated to make $28,000 that year. For 1953, Doby had a .263 batting average, which was his lowest since joining the league in 1947. He led the AL in strikeouts for the second and final time in his career, a career-high 121 times, but hit 29 home runs and 102 RBIs on the year. He also had 96 walks, which was third in the AL.
For the sixth time in his major league career, Doby was named an All-Star during the 1954 season, one of five Indians named. The game was held at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium and featured the second-largest crowd to watch an All-Star Game (the largest was in 1935 at the same stadium). In what would prove his final career All-Star at bat, Doby hit a pinch-hit solo home run in the eighth inning to tie the game at 9–9; the AL squad went on to win, 11–9. His home run was the first hit by a black player in an All-Star Game. The game, which had a record 17 hits by the AL and was the highest-scoring All-Star Game until 1998, was called the best ever by All-Star Game founder Arch Ward. As the regular season resumed, Doby helped the Indians to win a franchise-record 111 games and the AL pennant. His regular season 32 home runs and career-high 126 RBIs were highest in the AL, which led to him finishing second in AL MVP voting. The Indians were swept in the 1954 World Series by Doby's former Eagles teammate Monte Irvin and the New York Giants.
In his last full season with the Indians in 1955, Doby was selected for his seventh consecutive and final All-Star Game. Doby's leg injuries affected him severely at this point in his career and he did not enter the game. He finished the 1955 season with 26 home runs and 75 RBIs while hitting .291 in 131 games, his fewest played since 1948. Not all in Cleveland were disappointed to see Doby leaving. Wrote one "Plain Dealer" columnist, Franklin Lewis: "He has been a controversial athlete. Highly gifted, he was frequently morose, sullen, and upon occasion, downright surly to his teammates ... He thought of himself, at the beginning, as the symbol of the Negro in his league." Doby responded, "I was looked on as a Black man, not as a human being. I did feel a responsibility to the Black players who came after me, but that was a responsibility, basically, to people, not just to Black people."
Later years (1956–1960).
After spending nine seasons with Cleveland, Doby was traded on October 25, 1955, to the Chicago White Sox for Chico Carrasquel and Jim Busby. Chicago was looking for a consistent home run hitter after finishing the season with 116 home runs as a team. "The search is over for a long ball hitter. We've certainly needed a consistent one—and we've been eying Doby for some time", said White Sox vice president Chuck Comiskey. White Sox manager Marty Marion believed Doby's bat would be a welcome addition to his club when he said, "The guy used to murder us when we played Cleveland. He'll make a big difference in the number of one-run and two-run decisions we might lose." After winning a doubleheader against the Yankees on June 22, 1956, Doby and the White Sox swept New York, the first time since the 1945 season the Yankees had been swept in a four-game series. The White Sox won eight straight games, the longest winning streak in the AL to that point in the season, and had done so with the help of Doby's six home runs during the eight-game stretch. "You know, when we dealt for Doby, we weren't worried about Larry. We knew he'd come through", Comiskey said. Doby finished the season with a .268 batting average and led the team with 24 home runs and 102 RBIs. Chicago finished 1956 in third place in the AL with an 85–69 record.
In a game on August 20, 1957 against the Washington Senators, Doby helped preserve pitcher Bob Keegan's no-hitter with a backhand catch off a long line drive from Herb Plews, one of "two close calls" for Keegan that game. His 1957 home run total of 14 tied for the team-high, as he managed a .288 average and recorded 79 RBIs, second-highest on the team after former Indians teammate Minnie Miñoso. The White Sox finished second in the AL with a 90–64 record.
Doby was part of a December 3, 1957, multi-player trade between the White Sox and Baltimore Orioles, then was traded again on April 1 to Cleveland along with Don Ferrarese for Gene Woodling, Bud Daley, and Dick Williams. He appeared in 89 games with the Indians that season and had a .289 batting average, 13 home runs, and 45 RBIs. He was sent to the Detroit Tigers on March 21, 1959, in exchange for Tito Francona. Tigers general manager Rick Ferrell said, "this gives us some more power and we just hope Doby hits as well in Briggs Stadium this season as he has in other years." He hit .218 with four RBIs before Detroit sold the 35-year-old Doby to the White Sox on May 13 for $20,000.
After 21 games with the White Sox, he was sent to Triple-A affiliate San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League after hitting .241 with no home runs and 9 RBIs. Doby fractured an ankle while sliding into third base after hitting a triple during a road game the Padres played against Sacramento, and was sent to a local hospital in Sacramento before going to Johns Hopkins Hospital for further evaluation. Doby worked out with the White Sox before the 1960 season but, due to nagging injuries, did not earn a roster spot. In late April he joined the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League on a trial basis but was released by the team on May 6 after X-rays showed bone deterioration in his affected ankle.
Doby finished his 13-year major league career with a .283 batting average, accumulated 1,515 hits, 253 home runs and 970 RBIs in 1,533 games and 5,348 at-bats. Of his 1,533 career games, 1,146 of them were spent with the Indians. "I played against great talent in the Major Leagues and I played against great talent in the Negro Leagues. I didn't see a lot of difference", said Doby.
Nippon baseball (1962).
Doby had participated in baseball clinics in 1962 as a member of a travel delegation from the U.S. Department of State. That year, Doby came out of retirement and became one of the first Americans to play professional baseball in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league when he and Don Newcombe, a former teammate with the Newark Eagles, signed contracts with the Chunichi Dragons. After the season, Doby returned to the U.S. in October and resumed his work as a liquor retailer.
Managerial and executive appointments.
After retiring as a player, Doby became a scout with the Montreal Expos in 1969 and served as a minor league instructor with the organization in 1970. He was batting coach under manager Gene Mauch from 1971 to 1973 and again in 1976. He managed various teams during five seasons of winter league baseball in Venezuela, including Águilas del Zulia during the 1970–71 winter season. Doby rejoined the Indians for the 1974 season as first base coach for manager Ken Aspromonte. When Aspromonte was fired after the 1974 season, the Indians named Frank Robinson the club's player-manager and baseball's first black manager.
After Robinson's hire as manager, Doby returned to work for the Expos. In 1976, Bill Veeck purchased the White Sox for a second time and hired Doby to be the team's batting coach. As a team, the White Sox finished the 1976 season with a .255 batting average, 586 runs scored and 73 home runs. By June 29, 1977, the team's average was .284, and had recorded 382 runs scored and 87 home runs. They finished the season second in team batting average (to the Yankees and Red Sox, each with a .281 average) and had 192 home runs and 844 runs scored as a team. After firing the White Sox's manager and former Doby teammate Bob Lemon, Veeck replaced him with Doby on June 30, 1978. At age 53, Doby became the second black manager in the majors after Robinson. "It's so nice to work for a man like Bill Veeck. You just work as hard as you can, and if the opportunity arises, you will certainly get the opportunity to fulfill your dreams", Doby said after being named White Sox manager.
To that point in the season, the White Sox had a 34–40 record. On July 1 in his first game as manager, the White Sox suffered a 10–0 loss to the Minnesota Twins but Doby won his second game, 8–5, the next day against the same team. The White Sox finished 71–90, including 37–50 under Doby, in what would be Doby's sole managerial role. Veeck hired player-manager Don Kessinger to succeed Doby after deciding not to re-hire Doby, although Kessinger resigned as manager in the second half of the 1979 season. After removing Doby from the manager's role and reassigning him to batting coach, the position Doby held before being named manager, Veeck said, "Larry will always have a role on this team in some capacity." He served in that role for one additional season and resigned in October 1979.
After retiring from baseball, Doby was named director of communications for the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets from 1980 to 1989 and also served as the Nets' director of community affairs until 1990. Doby was named special assistant to the AL's last president, Gene Budig, on April 17, 1995.
Second man.
"The New York Times" wrote, "In glorifying those who are first, the second is often forgotten ... Larry Doby integrated all those American League ball parks where Jackie Robinson never appeared. And he did it with class and clout." During the 1997 season, when the long-departed Jackie Robinson's number 42 was being retired throughout baseball, and the still-living Doby was being virtually ignored by the media, an editorial in "Sports Illustrated" pointed out that Doby had to suffer the same indignities that Robinson did, and with nowhere near the media attention and implicit support. Scoop Jackson in 2007 wrote, in response to the tradition of MLB players wearing jerseys in homage of Robinson, "Second place finishers in America are suckers. And so are those who make the story of history less simple than it needs to be. This happens sometimes in America. Those who don't come first or don't do things a certain way get lost. They disappear." "Jackie got all the publicity for putting up with it (racial slurs). But it was the same thing I had to deal with. He was first, but the crap I took was just as bad. Nobody said, 'We're gonna be nice to the second Black,'" Doby said.
Doby served as one of the pallbearers at Robinson's funeral. As fellow Hall of Famer Joe Morgan wrote, "Anyone who knew Larry knew that he admired Robinson and was never jealous of the attention Robinson received." Former teammate Al Rosen said:
Jackie was a college educated man who had been an officer in the service and who played at the Triple-A level. Jackie was brought in by Branch Rickey specifically to be the first black player in major league baseball. Larry Doby came up as a second baseman who didn't have time to get his full college education, and was forced to play a different position in his first major league season. I think, because of those circumstances, he had a more difficult time than Jackie Robinson. I don't think he has gotten the credit he deserves.
Doby experienced many prejudices during his time before, during, and after the majors. One incident took place during a game as Doby was sliding into second base when the shortstop from the opposing team spat tobacco juice on him. Doby called it the worst injustice he experienced on the field. He endured many racial slurs, from the stands and elsewhere, during games. He also received death threats. After he had retired as a player, Doby recalled memories of his days as a barrier-breaker. "You know why I hit so well in Washington and St. Louis? They were major Jim Crow seating parks and when I came to bat, I knew where the noise was coming from and who was making it. I felt like a quarterback with 5,000 cheerleaders calling his name. You know most of them couldn't afford to be there. I never forgot them."
Shortly after the Indians had honored Doby by naming a nearby street after him, "The Plain Dealer" columnist Bill Livingston wrote, "The Larry Doby way of pioneering was the same as the Jackie Robinson way in the National League, only Doby's debut occurred six short weeks later and with almost no advance preparation by Doby or the Indians." Doby threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the 1997 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, played at Jacobs Field. The decision to have the game in Cleveland coincided with the 1997 season marking the fiftieth anniversary of Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier. It was also 50 years and 3 days since Doby became the first black player in the American League.
Hall of Fame.
Doby was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on March 3, 1998, by the Veterans Committee at the age of 74. "This is just a tremendous feeling. It's kind of like a bale of cotton has been on your shoulders, and now it's off", said Doby. When he received word about his election, it was by a telephone call from fellow Hall member Ted Williams. Upon hearing of Doby's election, Gene Mauch, said, "You have to be some kind of special person to go through what Larry and Jackie Robinson went through. They both are. I'm not too sure there's a player in the game today who could handle it."
He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on July 26, 1998. Doby became the first member born in South Carolina elected to the Hall. Although he was the first to play in MLB, Doby was the last member elected to the Hall of the four players to ever play in both a Negro league and MLB World Series, the others being Satchel Paige, Monte Irvin, and Willie Mays.
Death and legacy.
Doby and his wife, Helyn, had five children, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. When the Dobys moved to Montclair, Yogi Berra and his wife became neighborhood friends and children of the two families played baseball and football together. Doby had a kidney removed in 1997 after a cancerous tumor was detected. Helyn, married to Doby for 55 years, died in 2001 after a six-month battle with cancer.
Doby died on June 18, 2003, at his home in Montclair, New Jersey, at age 79 after suffering cancer. When Doby died, President George W. Bush made the following statement:
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig (1992–2015) released a statement a day following Doby's death:
Former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent said:
Long before Doby was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame came induction in the Indians Hall of Fame in August 1966. Later, in May 1973, he was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame and in 2010, the New Jersey Hall of Fame. On August 10, 2007, the Indians paid tribute to Doby on Larry Doby Day by collectively using his number (14) on their uniforms. The franchise again honored him when in 2012, Eagle Avenue, next to the Indians' Progressive Field, was renamed "Larry Doby Way" in an on-field postgame ceremony. Among those present at the ceremony were Jim "Mudcat" Grant, Indians president Mark Shapiro, Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson, and various members of Doby's family.
The city of Paterson, New Jersey, renamed the Eastside Park baseball field "Larry Doby Field" on June 1, 2002. The Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center has a section named the Larry Doby Wing. Of Berra, Doby said, "Yogi was one of the first opposing players to talk to me. As a catcher, Yogi talked to everybody. I finally had to tell the umpire: 'Please tell him to shut up. He asked me how my family was back in the first inning.'" In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service announced that Doby would be one of the four baseball players (along with Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, and Willie Stargell) to appear on a postage stamp in 2012, as part of its "Major League Baseball All-Stars" series. The stamp was released July 21, 2012.
External links.
, or Retrosheet


Paeng Nepomuceno

Rafael "Paeng" Nepomuceno (born January 30, 1957 in Quezon City) is a six time World bowling champion Filipino bowler and coach. He is a World Bowling Hall of Famer.
He has won the World Cup of Bowling four times (1976, 1980, 1992 and 1996). Nepomuceno has also won the World's Invitational Tournament in 1984 and the World Tenpin Masters championship in 1999.
He has been honored by the Guinness World Records four times and has three unbroken records. His records recognizes him as the "youngest tenpin bowling champion" by winning the 1976 Bowling World Cup (BWC) in Tehran, for winning "world titles in three decades" (1976, 1980, 1992, and 1996 BWC titles), and for winning the most career titles in bowling (133 titles as of the 2020 edition of Guinness).
Nepomuceno is also a USBC Gold level coach, the only Asian to hold the certification from the United States Bowling Congress. He was named by the Philippine Sportswriters Association the Athlete of the Century in 1999.
Early life and education.
Rafael "Paeng" Nepomuceno was born on January 30, 1957 in Quezon City, Philippines to Angel Nepomuceno and Teresa Villareal. Paeng Nepomuceno's father, Angel, is a bowling coach while his mother is a former Miss Philippines (1952). He attended La Salle Green Hills for his elementary and high school studies. He studied in Adamson University for his college education.
Career.
Competitive career.
Paeng Nepomuceno was initially into golf at age 10 but later switched to bowling. He got involved in bowling after he and his father sought shelter at the Mile High Bowling Center in Baguio due to rain. He then asked his father to enroll him in a junior league held at Coronado Lanes in Metro Manila.
His first tournament was the Philippine Junior Masters Championship, which he won at age 15. He also won the Philippine International Masters at age 17, becoming the youngest winner of the tournament.
He competed at the Bowling World Cup, becoming the men's champion in four editions (1976, 1980, 1992, and 1996). He was 19 years old when he won the 1976 edition. For this feat he was recognized by Guinness World Records as the youngest bowling champion.


Flawlessly

Flawlessly (1988–2002) was an American Thoroughbred race horse bred by Harbor View Farm. She was a daughter of 1978 Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing champion Affirmed and La Confidence by Nijinsky II.
At two, she trained under Dick Dutrow, winning her first stakes victories, the Tempted Stakes and the Gardenia Stakes, both Grade III events. She came third in the Grade I Frizette Stakes. At three, she was sent to California to be trained by Charlie Whittingham. With Wittingham, who chose her few races carefully, she won four turf stakes in a row. By the end of her third year, she had won five stakes, including the Grade I Matriarch Stakes, the first of her three Matriarch victories. She also finished second in the Grade I Yellow Ribbon Stakes.
Flawlessly raced for five years, from age two to six. In each season except her first, she won at least one Grade I race. Her campaigns earned her the North American distaff grass course championships of both 1992 and 1993. At age five, she earned her largest purses, but even at six, she took her third Grade I Ramona Handicap.
Throughout her career, she won three runnings of the Grade I Matriarch, three runnings of the Ramona Handicap, and two of the Grade 1 Beverly Hills Handicap, in the process defeating the best of her generation: among them champion Hollywood Wildcat and the New Zealand-bred star Let’s Elope.
Flawlessly retired having earned nearly $2.6 million, a winning campaigner on both coasts as well as the Midwest. Her 16 victories included 15 stakes races, eleven of them in graded company, and nine of them Grade 1.
Retirement.
Flawlessly died of kidney problems on September 26, 2002, at the age of 14. She was buried at Elmond Farm near Versailles, Kentucky. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004.


Vladimir Guerrero

Vladimir Alvino Guerrero Sr. (born February 9, 1975), is a Dominican former professional baseball player and Hall of Famer, who spent 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right fielder and designated hitter. He played for the Montreal Expos (–), Anaheim Angels / Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (–), Texas Rangers (), and Baltimore Orioles ().
A nine-time All-Star, Guerrero was widely recognized for his impressive offensive production — regularly hitting for power and average — as well as his defensive range and strong throwing arm. In 2004, he was voted the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP). Guerrero helped lead the Angels to five AL West championships between 2004 and 2009 and was voted one of the most feared hitters in baseball in a 2008 poll of all 30 major league managers.
Regarded as the game's premier "bad-ball hitter", Guerrero consistently hit balls thrown well outside the strike zone, a skill evident on August 14, 2009, when he hit a pitch after it bounced in front of home plate. With his aggressive batting style, he hit more than 30 home runs (HR) in each of 8 seasons and surpassed 100 runs batted in (RBI) 10 times, though he had just 2 seasons with at least 65 walks. In the first pitch of an at-bat, Guerrero hit 126 home runs and put 1,780 balls in play.
On September 26, 2011, Guerrero surpassed Julio Franco as the all-time MLB leader for hits by a Dominican player. (Adrián Beltré claimed the record from Guerrero in 2014.) He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.
Early years and family.
One of nine children, Guerrero is the younger brother of ex-major leaguer Wilton Guerrero, who also played with the Montreal Expos (the two were teammates for several seasons). He is also the cousin of minor leaguer Cristian Guerrero, and the uncle of Miami Marlins farmhand Gabriel Guerrero. His son, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., was born in Montréal in 1999 during the elder Guerrero's time with the Expos. Vladimir Jr. signed with the Toronto Blue Jays on July 2, 2015, and made his major league debut on April 26, 2019.
His frame, strong arm, and unusual ability to hit balls out of the strike zone drew attention at a Dodgers training camp. After injuring his hamstring running out a double, he allegedly hit a home run in his next at bat to avoid having to run the bases. Due to his leg condition, Guerrero only received a 30-day contract. But he grew frustrated with the structure of the Dodgers camp, and left. In March 1993, Guerrero signed with the Montreal Expos. During the process he lied about his age, claiming to be born February 9, 1976. It was not until March 2009 that he revealed to Major League Baseball that he was born February 9, 1975.
Career.
Montreal Expos.
Guerrero was signed by the Montreal Expos as an unsigned amateur free agent, on March 1, 1993. He advanced quickly through the Expos’ Minor League Baseball (MiLB) farm system, making his MLB debut, on September 19, 1996. That night, Guerrero went 1 for 5 at the plate; his first big league hit, a single to center field, came against Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Steve Avery, in the top of the fourth inning, at Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium. Two nights later, on September 21, 1996, Braves closer Mark Wohlers yielded Guerrero's first career home run (HR) — a ninth-inning blast that capped Montreal's scoring, in a 5-4 loss. That contest is also significant, in that it marks Guerrero's first multi-hit game.
Guerrero was criticized during his first full season, in 1997 (he had played only 9 games, in 1996), for being too aggressive at the plate. Nonetheless, he put up solid numbers for a rookie, batting .302, with 11 home runs and 40 runs batted in (RBI), in just 325 at bats (AB).
Guerrero led all big league outfielders in errors, in 1997 (12; tied), 1998 (17), 1999 (19), 2000 (10; tied), and 2001 (12; tied). He also led all NL outfielders in errors in 2002 (10), and led all AL outfielders in 2006 (11), and 2007 (9).
Scorn for Guerrero's free-swinging ways changed into admiration, in 1998. While he continued to swing at pitches that were clearly balls, he also continued to hit them with authority. In one instance, Guerrero got a base hit off a pitch that bounced before arriving at home plate. His superior hand-eye coordination and prodigious strength allowed him to be unusually aggressive at the plate, but still put up high batting averages year after year. Despite Guerrero's freeswinging style, he never struck out 100 times in a season.
Guerrero batted .324, with 38 home runs, and 109 RBI, in 1998. Before the end of the 1998 season, he agreed to a $28 million deal. Guerrero represented the Expos at the 1999 All-Star Game. During the 1999 season, he maintained a 31-game hitting streak‚ at that time, the longest in the majors, in 12 years. Guerrero finished 1999 with 131 RBI, and in 2000, he hit 44 home runs; both figures are career highs.
On July 7, 2001, Guerrero threw out Alberto Castillo in one of the most exalted throws in MLB history. After a base hit by Toronto, Castillo, then a baserunner on second base, saw a patent opportunity to reach home base and score a run, as the batter had hit the ball well into deep-right field. Guerrero caught the ball off a bounce and launched the ball all the way to his catcher, who received the throw, on the fly and squarely into his waiting mitt. Castillo was tagged out short of home plate. The throw's distance has been estimated to have been roughly three hundred feet, with its vertical arch peaking at merely twenty-one feet.
Guerrero posted similar or slightly improved numbers through the 2002 season. He had also developed a running game, stealing 37 bases in 2001. In fact, for the 2001 season, Guerrero led the major leagues in power-speed number (35.4).
In 2002, Guerrero stole a career-high 40 bases, and fell one home run short of becoming the fourth member of the "40-40 club." However, he hit 30+ home runs and stole 30+ bases in both 2001 and 2002 (see 30–30 club).
Guerrero's 2003 season was shortened due to a back injury. In 394 at-bats, he hit .330, with 25 home runs, and 79 RBIs. Because of the injury, some in the media thought signing him would be a risk. While Guerrero was playing injured, though, he still managed to hit for the cycle, on September 14, 2003.
Throughout his career, Guerrero set single season Expos records in batting average, slugging, on-base plus slugging (OPS), home runs, RBI, total bases (TB), hits, extra base hits (XBH), TOB, IBB, as well as several other records. He is the all time Expos career leader in batting (.323), homers (234), slugging (.588), and OPS (.978). Guerrero won the Montreal Expos Player of the Year award in 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2002.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Guerrero was a free agent for the first time after the 2003 season, and signed a five-year, $70 million deal with the Anaheim Angels on January 14, 2004 after being courted by several teams. The owner of the Angels, Arte Moreno, was the first Hispanic controlling owner of a Major League ballclub, and Guerrero cited Moreno's heritage as a motivating factor for choosing the Angels over other teams.
2004 MVP season.
During his first season with Angels, Guerrero led his club, and in some cases the American League (AL), in several offensive categories, including 124 runs (set new club record and led the AL), 13 outfield assists (Tied for 1st in AL), 366 total bases (tied club record and led AL), and a season ending batting average of .337 (3rd in AL). He was the second player in club history with .300/30/100 numbers. Among AL leaders, he finished in the top 10 of 20 major offensive categories,
which led to Guerrero being voted the Gene Autry Trophy (Team MVP) by his teammates. Making his fifth MLB All-Star game appearance in July, he led AL outfielders with 3,024,870 votes and was the first Angel outfielder to be a starter since Reggie Jackson in 1984.
Guerrero continued his offensive dominance in September, earning American League Player of the Month after batting .371 with 24 runs scored, six doubles, a triple, 10 home runs and 23 RBI. Guerrero was clutch down the stretch. Over the final seven games of the season, his 10 runs, six home runs and 11 RBI helped the Angels overcome a 3-game deficit, which ultimately led to an American League West Division Crown.
Down the stretch of the 2004 MLB season, Guerrero was impressive. Mike Scioscia, the Angels manager, said that Guerrero "really carried us on his back" in the last month of the season, as the Angels overtook first place from the faltering Oakland Athletics who finished the season one game behind in the standings. Guerrero leading the Angels to their first Western Division title since 1986 (The Angels won the 2002 World Series as the American League Wild Card). These late-season heroics led to Guerrero being chosen as the second Angel to win the AL MVP in franchise history. He finished with 354 points, 100 more than second-place finisher Gary Sheffield.
In the opening best-of-5 round of the playoffs, the Angels were swept by the Boston Red Sox, and Guerrero had an odd batting line: just a .167 average, but six RBIs in three games. He would also have a grand slam in Game 3.
2005 season.
The Angels won the Western Division again in 2005, with Guerrero batting .317 with 32 home runs and 108 RBIs in 520 at bats. Late in the season, Guerrero became the 12th player to hit his 300th home run before the age of 30 (along with Hank Aaron, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, Eddie Mathews, Harmon Killebrew, Mel Ott, Frank Robinson, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., Juan González, and Andruw Jones, who achieved the mark about the same time as Guerrero).
Guerrero had an up-and-down 2005 postseason, batting .389 in ALDS victory over the New York Yankees, but just .050 in the ALCS against the eventual world champion Chicago White Sox. He fared better in a national TV ad for Pepsi with the Yankees' third baseman Alex Rodriguez; the two engaged in a personal home run competition that ended up with the moon being broken. Guerrero also appeared at Game Four of the 2005 World Series, where he was introduced as a member of Major League Baseball's Latino Legends Team.
Guerrero recorded his 1,000th career RBI on July 15, 2006 at home against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Making his 8th Major League Baseball All-Star Game appearance, Guerrero subsequently won his first career Home Run Derby in the 2007 season, highlighted by a home run. He is the third Angel to win the Derby (after Wally Joyner in 1986, and Garret Anderson in 2003). Guerrero was chosen for the All-Star Game in each of his first four seasons with the Angels (2004–2007). Guerrero's stellar fielding talent dwindled in the later 2000s due to age and injuries, prompting the long-time outfielder to be reassigned as a designated hitter at the start of the 2009 season.
2009 season.
In 2009, Guerrero was named number 37 on the "Sporting News"' list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball. A panel of 100 baseball people, many of them members of the Baseball Hall of Fame and winners of major baseball awards, was polled to arrive at the list.
On August 10, Guerrero hit his 400th career home run off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Russ Springer. On August 26, he recorded his 1,000th career hit as an Angel, a single off Detroit Tigers pitcher Edwin Jackson. This hit made Guerrero only the fourth player (following Frank Robinson, Dave Winfield, and Fred McGriff) to record 1,000 hits as both a National League player "and" as an American League player.
On October 11, in the ninth inning, Guerrero delivered a two-run single, off Jonathan Papelbon of the Boston Red Sox, scoring Bobby Abreu and Chone Figgins. The clutch base knock gave the Angels a 7–6 lead and eventually the win to finally advance to the ALCS, beating the Red Sox for the first time ever in the postseason. It was called "the biggest hit in Vlad's career."
2009 was the first time that Guerrero had a batting average below .300 (.295), an OPS below .800 (.794), or a doubles total less than 20 (16).
Texas Rangers.
On January 11, 2010, Guerrero signed a one-year, $5.5 million deal with incentives and a 2011 option with the Texas Rangers.
He broke up a no-hitter by Shaun Marcum in the seventh inning of the Opening Day game against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 5, 2010.
On May 6, 2010 Guerrero hit two home runs versus the Kansas City Royals to secure a 13–12 win. On May 13, 2010, Guerrero's walk off line drive to left field won the final game of a three-game series against the Oakland Athletics in the bottom of the 12th. On May 25, 2010 he hit two more home runs to secure another win over the Kansas City Royals. On June 30, 2010, against his former team, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Guerrero hit two home runs and went 4-for-4 with 5 RBIs.
Guerrero wound up appearing in 152 games with a batting average of .300, 29 home runs and 115 RBIs. He earned a Silver Slugger Award in the regular season for a Texas Rangers club that wound up winning its division and ultimately, the first pennant in Rangers history. He also won the Edgar Martínez Award and earned his ninth invitation to the All-Star Game. On October 22, 2010, Guerrero drove in 3 runs during game 6 of the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees, capturing the first American League pennant for the Texas Rangers. The Rangers would go on to lose the World Series to the San Francisco Giants in five games. On November 3 the Rangers declined to pick up Guerrero's 2011 option making him a free agent.
Baltimore Orioles.
Guerrero signed a one-year, US$8 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles on February 18, 2011. He became the all-time MLB hits leader among Dominican-born players when he singled off Josh Beckett in the sixth inning of a 6–3 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Camden Yards on September 26, 2011. In 2011, Guerrero hit .290, his lowest batting average since his rookie year with the Montreal Expos in 1996. He also had 13 home runs and 63 RBIs on a struggling Orioles team. Though it seemed like an unproductive year for him, Guerrero still hit in the top 20 and had 163 base hits.
Toronto Blue Jays.
Guerrero remained unsigned by any team going into the 2012 Major League Baseball season, leading to much speculation about his potential retirement, though Guerrero insisted that he would not retire. On May 10, 2012, Guerrero signed a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. During his first game for the Class-A Dunedin Blue Jays on Sunday May 27, 2012, Guerrero hit a home run. Guerrero played in 4 games for Dunedin, with 9 hits in 20 at bats, including 4 home runs and was then promoted to the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s. With the 51s he played in 8 games, with 10 hits in 33 at-bats (.303 avg). He asked for, and was granted, his release on June 12, 2012.
Dominican Professional Baseball League.
He started playing in the Dominican Professional Baseball League with the San Pedro de Macorís team Estrellas Orientales. On November 4, 2012 Guerrero came back to the Liga de Béisbol Profesional de la República Dominicana with Tigres del Licey. He only played eight games with Tigres logging a batting average of .188 without a home run. On November 20, 2012, Guerrero quit the team after he was informed by team management that he would only be used as a pinch hitter.
Long Island Ducks.
On April 4, 2013, Guerrero signed with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. He informed the team that he had family issues to attend to and would not be joining them to start the season. He never appeared with the team in the 2013 season.
Retirement.
On March 31, 2014, Guerrero signed a one-day contract with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and officially retired from professional baseball. Having played his last game in 2011, he became eligible for induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017.
On January 24, 2018, Guerrero, along with Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, and Trevor Hoffman, were announced as having over 75% of the votes needed to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was formally inducted on July 29, becoming the first member of the Hall to be depicted with an Angels cap, even though he appeared in more games (1004-846) and played in more seasons (8-6) as a Montreal Expo.
Career statistics.
In 2,147 games over 16 seasons, Guerrero posted a .318 batting average (2,590-for-8,155) with 1,328 runs, 477 doubles, 46 triples, 449 home runs, 1,496 RBI, 181 stolen bases, 737 bases on balls, .379 on-base percentage and .553 slugging percentage. Defensively, he finished his career with a .963 fielding percentage. In 44 postseason games, he hit .263 (45-for-171) with 17 runs, 7 doubles, 2 home runs, 20 RBI, 2 stolen bases and 14 walks.
Batting style.
Guerrero batted without wearing batting gloves, a custom rarely seen in modern baseball. In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, he attributed this to helping his grandfather pull cows home barehanded as a young boy in the Dominican Republic. To improve his grip on the bat, Guerrero coated his helmet with pine tar and rubbed his helmet before going to the on-deck circle. As the season progressed, his batting helmet would become covered in the substance.
Guerrero batted over .300 from 1997 to 2008. He drove in over 100 runs every season between 1998 and 2007, except for 2003. Along with his 2004 MVP season, he finished 6th (2000), 4th (2002), 3rd (2005), 9th (2006), and 3rd (2007) in MVP voting.
In 2008, Guerrero swung at a higher percentage of pitches outside the strike zone, 45.5%, than any other hitter in major league baseball up to that time.
Guerrero had a 44-game hitting streak exclusively against the Texas Rangers, from 2004 to 2006, the longest such player-vs.-team streak in MLB history, since 1969. The streak occurred over his first 44 appearances against the Rangers. The streak finally came to an end in August 2006 in a game in which Guerrero was intentionally walked three times, walked four times overall, and finished 0-for-1. He decimated Ranger pitching over the course of his major league career, putting up a career batting line of .395/.461/.661/1.122, with 25 home runs, 34 doubles, and 70 RBI, in 108 games played. During the 2009 post-season, Cal Ripken Jr. commented during a TBS post-game report that Guerrero was "the best bad-ball hitter I've ever seen." On one occasion in a game against the Baltimore Orioles, Guerrero hit a pitch that bounced in the dirt before home plate. Even more unusual, his bat struck the ground as well before hitting the ball.
World Baseball Classic.
Guerrero was named to the Dominican Republic's roster for the 2006 World Baseball Classic, although he eventually withdrew due to the death of three cousins in a car accident immediately before the tournament. He has provided job opportunities in his hometown in the Dominican Republic through his business ventures: a concrete-block factory, a propane distribution company, a supermarket, a livestock and vegetable farm, and a women's clothing store.


Calvin Borel

Calvin H. Borel (born November 7, 1966) is an American jockey in thoroughbred horse racing and rode the victorious mount in the 2007 Kentucky Derby, the 2009 Kentucky Derby and the 2010 Kentucky Derby. His 2009 Derby win with Mine That Bird was the second biggest upset in Derby history, and Borel's winning margin of lengths was the greatest in Derby history since Assault won by 8 lengths in 1946. On May 1, 2009, Borel won the Kentucky Oaks aboard Rachel Alexandra, only the second time since 1993 that a jockey has won the Oaks-Derby combo, and just the seventh time overall a jockey has accomplished this feat in the same year. On May 16, 2009, Borel won the 2009 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico with thoroughbred filly Rachel Alexandra. In doing so, Borel became the first jockey to win the first two jewels of the Triple Crown on different mounts. Borel's nickname is "Bo'rail'" due to his penchant for riding close to the rail to save ground.
Life and career.
Calvin Borel hails from south Louisiana: the heart of Cajun Country and famous for having produced a number of top jockeys, such as Randy Romero, Kent Desormeaux, Eddie Delahoussaye and Shane Sellers. Borel began racing horses in the bush tracks near his hometown of Catahoula and started riding in match races at the age of eight. He is known for his Cajun accent and bubbly and emotional personality, both of which were on full display during his post-victory interview after all three of his Kentucky Derby wins.
Borel's older brother, Cecil, had a brief career as a thoroughbred jockey but was not able to maintain his weight. He turned to training horses at Delta Downs in Vinton, Louisiana. Calvin began his professional riding career at Delta Downs.
Over a career spanning 25 years, Borel has become known for his tireless work ethic as well as an ability to slip up the rail to save ground. His colleagues and racing fans therefore frequently refer to him as "Calvin Bo-rail".
Borel is and . He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
His riding career began to surge in June 2006 when he won the $750,000 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs with 91–1 longshot Seek Gold, getting up in the final stride to win by a nose over Perfect Drift and paying $185.40 to win. That year was his big break when he won his first Breeders' Cup on Street Sense in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
Borel then won the 2007 Kentucky Derby aboard Street Sense, guiding the colt to a length victory over Hard Spun. He next had a close second-place finish aboard Street Sense in the Preakness Stakes to Curlin.
On July 5, 2007, Borel became the sixth jockey in the history of Churchill Downs to win six races on a single race card. With his victory in the July 5, 2008 Bashford Manor Stakes, he became the thirty-fourth jockey in North American Thoroughbred racing history to win 4,500 races.
May 2, 2009, saw Borel win the Kentucky Derby on Mine That Bird, a 50–1 long shot, a day after winning the Kentucky Oaks aboard favorite Rachel Alexandra. It was only the second time since 1993 that a jockey has won the Oaks-Derby combo, and he was just the seventh jockey overall to accomplish this feat in the same year.
On May 16, 2009, Borel won the Preakness Stakes on Rachel Alexandra (after that horse was sold following the Derby). This accomplishment marked the first time that a jockey won the first two legs of the Triple Crown on different horses, and Borel, with a win in the Belmont, could become the first Triple Crown winner since Steve Cauthen accomplished it in 1978 on Affirmed. A win would have made him only the second individual to win the Triple Crown by sweeping the races with different horses (D. Wayne Lukas, a trainer, also did so in 1995). However, on June 6, 2009, Borel finished third on Mine That Bird in the Belmont Stakes, failing to accomplish a jockey Triple Crown.
On June 27, 2009, he guided Rachel Alexandra to a victory in the Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont Park, setting a new stakes record, the only horse to break a record held by the great filly Ruffian. Borel then rode her to a six-length victory over Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird in the Haskell Invitational.
On September 5 of the same year, he rode Rachel Alexandra to a historic victory in the Woodward Stakes. It was the first time a filly of any age had won that storied race.
Borel was named the winner of the 2010 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award.
On May 1, 2010, he rode Super Saver to win his 3rd Kentucky Derby in a 4-year span, the first jockey ever to do so. After winning the race, Borel promised he would win the Triple Crown in 2010 but he lost the Preakness.
On June 4, 2010, Borel became only the second jockey to win 1,000 career races at Churchill Downs, joining Hall of Famer Pat Day.
On March 7, 2013, Borel earned his 5,000th victory at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas while riding Hezunusual in the 6th race. He dedicated the win to his agent of over 20 years, Jerry Hissam who retired that year due to chronic pancreas issues after undergoing gall bladder surgery. Borel is the 26th North American jockey to reach 5000 victories.
Borel was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2011 and to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2013.
Borel played himself in the 2014 feature film "50 to 1", about Mine that Bird's 2009 Kentucky Derby win.
On March 30, 2016, Borel announced he would be retiring from horse racing. However, on August 15, he came out of retirement.
Legal issues.
On August 20, 2011, Borel was arrested in Evansville, Indiana for allegedly driving while intoxicated.
On August 26, 2019, Borel was arrested in Corydon, Indiana for allegedly driving while intoxicated after police saw him driving the wrong way on a street.


Lady Angela

Lady Angela (1944–1966) was a British-bred Thoroughbred who became the foundation mare of E.P. Taylor's Windfields Farm in Canada. She was the dam of Nearctic, the Canadian Horse of the Year in 1958 and seven-time leading sire in Canada. Among Nearctic's offspring was the great Northern Dancer, a champion in both Canada and the United States, and subsequently a leading sire in both North America and Europe.
For her worldwide influence on the breed, Lady Angela was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2010.
Background.
Lady Angela was a chestnut mare bred in Great Britain by Martin H. Benson. Benson was a prominent bookmaker and the owner of Beech House Stud. Just before the start of World War II, Benson purchased the undefeated Nearco from Federico Tesio for a then-record £60,000. Benson thought so highly of Nearco that he installed a bomb shelter in Nearco's paddock and had the horse trained to enter it during air raids. Nearco had a dominant, highly strung temperament that he passed on to many of his descendants.
Lady Angela was sired by Hyperion, who won the 1933 Epsom Derby and then became a leading sire and broodmare sire. Lady Angela was out of Sister Sarah, the dam of four stakes winners – Black Peter, Lady Sybil, Barkersgate, and Welsh Abbot. Sister Sarah also produced several influential broodmares, including Caerlissa, Lady Sybil, Sybil's Sister, and The Veil. These mares have produced numerous stakes winners around the world, including St Paddy, To-Agori-Mou, Sixties Icon, and Workforce, as well as important sire Great Nephew.
Racing career.
Lady Angela raced 11 times, earning one win at Epsom. She also placed four times.
Broodmare career.
Lady Angela was retired from racing in 1948. Of her first four foals, only one, a stakes-placed filly by Nearco named Mary Martin, was considered a success. Another, also by Nearco, was so temperamental that he was gelded. These two foals were early examples of what later became a famous "nick", referring to Nearco's higher-than-average success rate when bred to mares by Hyperion. In 1952, Lady Angela was mated once more to Nearco and was then offered in foal at the Newmarket December Sales.
At the same time, Canadian businessman E.P. Taylor was looking to upgrade his breeding stock. He instructed George Blackwell of the British Bloodstock Agency to purchase the best mare available at the Newmarket sale, so Blackwell picked out Lady Angela at a sale-topping price of 10,500 guineas. Before shipping her to Canada, Taylor also wanted the mare bred back to Nearco, for which he paid an additional $3,000. The foal that Lady Angela was carrying at the sale (her third by Nearco, foaled in 1953) was later named Empire Day and won three races from 36 starts. The foal that Lady Angela produced after arriving in Canada (her fourth by Nearco, foaled in 1954) was Nearctic.
Nearctic won 21 of his 42 starts despite an extremely high strung temperament that made him difficult to train. He also had a persistent quarter crack that curtailed his three-year-old campaign. Treated patiently by Horatio Luro, he recovered at age four to win major stakes races in both Canada and the United States, and was named the 1958 Canadian Horse of the Year. Upon retirement, he then became the leading sire in Canada seven times. One of his offspring was Northern Dancer, who became the first Canadian-bred to win the Kentucky Derby and then became the most dominant sire worldwide of the late 20th century. Genetic analysis of Thoroughbreds suggests that the reason for Nearctic's success is that he carried a then-rare allele of a gene called MSTN, associated with muscle growth. The more common "T" allele of MSTN is associated with stamina while the rarer "C" allele that Nearctic carried is associated with speed and earlier development.
After Nearctic, Lady Angela produced eight more foals, seven of which were winners. The most successful on the racetrack was Choperion, by Chop Chop, who won the Coronation Futurity. Several of her daughters became successful producers, including:
Lady Angela died in 1966 and was buried in the Trillium Cemetery at Windfields Farm near Oshawa. The farm was later sold, with the graveyard closed off to public access. In 2014, a request was made to the city of Oshawa to designate portions of the core buildings and cemetery under the Ontario Heritage Act. The proposal summarized Lady Angela's historical importance: "Even if she were the only horse buried in this cemetery, her importance in the way Thoroughbred bloodlines developed due to her influence is enough to preserve and protect it forever."
Lady Angela was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2010, joining Nearctic, Northern Dancer and numerous descendants. The Lady Angela Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack is named in her honour.
Pedigree.
Lady Angela is inbred 4S × 4D to Canterbury Pilgrim, the winner of the 1896 Epsom Oaks, meaning Canterbury Pilgrim appears in the fourth generation of both the sire's and dam's sides of her pedigree. Lady Angela is also inbred 4S × 5S × 5D to St. Simon.


Hank Ilesic

Henry "Hank" Ilesic (born September 7, 1959 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a former all-star punter in the Canadian Football League. He also handled place kicking and kickoffs. He was twice an all-star punter and played in the CFL for 19 seasons. He played on seven Grey Cup winning teams, and retired in 2001. He remains third overall for Most Punting Yards, All-Time Regular Season. He played one season in the National Football League.
Ilesic, at 6 feet 1 inch and 210 pounds, went straight from St. Joseph's High School to the CFL, starring with his hometown Edmonton Eskimos at age 17 in 1977. His punting was an essential part of the Eskimos' record-setting five Grey Cup dynasty. He kicked for Edmonton until joining the Toronto Argonauts in 1983, where he won another Grey Cup. He won the record for most punting yards in the regular season in 1986. He remained there until 1993, then played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats until 1995. Ilesic came out of retirement to punt for the B.C. Lions in 1998, playing only three games. Ilesic signed with the Eskimos again in 2001 and to the Ottawa Renegades practice squad in 2005, but did not play in any games in either stint.
Ilesic also punted in 1989 for the NFL's San Diego Chargers, punting 76 times in 14 games for 3049 yards, averaging 40.1 yards a punt. He signed with the Los Angeles Rams in 1990, but did not play.
Ilesic is the CFL's third all-time leading punter in yardage with 91,753 yards. His 8,004 yards in 1986 is the second most for a season in league history. He was on a CFL record seven Grey Cup-winning teams and is eighth all-time in CFL history for regular-season games played with 259. His 19 seasons played ranks his tied for fourth all-time. His is also fifth all-time for scoring single points in the regular season with 185, many coming on his exceptionally long kick-offs. In 2018 he was inducted into Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Unlike most modern-day placekickers, Ilesic kicked with the front of his toe (called kicking "straight-on") and not the side (called the "soccer-style").


Tarzan Cooper

Charles "Tarzan" Cooper (August 30, 1907 – December 19, 1980) was an American professional basketball player. He is mostly known for his time with the New York Renaissance (1929–41).
Cooper was born in Newark, Delaware. After playing at Philadelphia Central High School, Cooper turned pro in 1925. He played for the Philadelphia Panthers and Philadelphia Saints until 1929 when he joined the New York Renaissance or Rens for eleven seasons. All were independent teams because the early professional leagues were all-white.
At 6 ft 4 in (193 cm), Cooper has been called the greatest center that ever played by Hall of Famer Joe Lapchick, center for the rival Original Celtics.
Cooper died at age 73 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


Dooley Adams

Frank David “Dooley” Adams (1927, Port Chester, New York – November 12, 2004 in Southern Pines, North Carolina) was an American steeplechase jockey who was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1970.
Early life.
Adams lived for a time in Connecticut where his father, Frank, was the manager and huntsman of the Watertown Hunt. The family moved to the San Diego, California area in the late 1930s. He rode his first winner in 1941 at age 14 at Agua Caliente in Mexico, where his mother Clara Adams, trained thoroughbreds for flat and steeplechase racing.
The family returned East in the mid-1940s, settling in Southern Pines, North Carolina.
Racing career.
Adams gained fame as a steeplechase jockey, winning 301 races and garnering seven National Steeplechase Association championships including five consecutive championships (1951–55) during a career that lasted from 1941-1956. The win total ranks third historically in United States steeplechase victories. Adams three times won more than 30 races in a year, a benchmark for U.S. jump jockeys. In 1954, Adams won a record 38 races. The total has been surpassed just once, when fellow Hall of Famer Joe Aitcheson took 40 victories in 1964.
Among the horses ridden by Adams were champions Neji, Elkridge, Oedipus, and Ancestor. Oedipus was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1978.
The thoroughbred Refugio is most closely associated with Adams. Purchased by his parents for $300, the California-bred won on the flat and over jumps at Agua Caliente and was a competitive jumper on the U.S. circuit with a third-place finish in the 1946 American Grand National. Adams entered the horse in the Grand National, and was one of 57 starters in the 1947 English Grand National. With Adams up, Refugio finished seventh in a competition where 40 horses failed to complete the course. The Adams family farm was later named after the horse.
Adams was a multiple winner of several major races, including four wins in the Saratoga Steeplechase Handicap and Beverwyck Steeplechase Handicap, three wins in the Brook National Steeplechase Handicap, the Harbor Hill Steeplechase Handicap and the Temple Gwathmey, and two wins in the American Grand National Steeplechase.
Retiring from steeplechase racing at age 29, Adams was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1970.
Family.
Adams was survived by a son, Frank Michael Adams; a daughter, Melissa Adams; a sister, Joan W. Ketcham; and four grandchildren, Ashley Jordan, Courtney Jordan, Rowdie-Jo Adams and Jett Adams.
The paddock at the Stoneybrook race course in the Carolina Horse Park in Raeford, North Carolina was posthumously named in Adams honor.
Adams is buried at Refugio Farm, on Youngs Road Southern Pines.


Ed Healey

Edward Francis Healey Jr. (December 28, 1894 – December 9, 1978) was an American football player. Regarded as one of the best linemen in the early days of the National Football League (NFL), Healey was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of its second induction class in 1964. He was also named in 1969 to the NFL 1920s All-Decade Team. In 1974, he was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
A native of Springfield, Massachusetts, Healey played college football at College of the Holy Cross in 1914 and at Dartmouth College in 1916, 1917, and 1919.
Healey played professional football as a tackle in the NFL for the Rock Island Independents from 1920 to 1922 and for the Chicago Bears from 1922 to 1927. He never played for a team with a losing record during his NFL career and, in 1922, became the first player in NFL history to be sold to another team. He was named as a first-team All Pro player by at least one selector for five consecutive years from 1922 to 1926.
Early years.
Healey was born in 1894 in Indian Orchard, a neighborhood at the northeast end of Springfield, Massachusetts. His parents, Edward F. Healey, Sr., and Nora Healey were the children of Irish immigrants, both born in Massachusetts. His father worked in the street sprinkler business and later as a contractor in the wood business. Healey had four older sisters and one younger sister.
Healey attended Central High School in Springfield, Massachusetts. He then attended and played college football at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1914 and at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, for three years. In Healey's three years with the Dartmouth football program, the teams compiled records of 5–2–2 (1916), 5–3 (1917), and 6–1–1 (1919). Walter Camp reportedly called Healey "the best tackle I ever saw."
Professional football.
Rock Island Independents.
Healey began playing professional football with the Rock Island Independents in 1920, the inaugural season of the National Football League (known as the American Professional Football Association until 1922). He helped lead the 1920 Rock Island team to a 6–2–2 record, good for fourth place out of 14 teams.
Healey remained with Rock Island during its 1922 season when the team compiled a 4–2–1 record and finished in fifth place out of 21 teams.
Healey began the 1922 NFL season with Rock Island. The team opened its season with a 19–14 victory over the Green Bay Packers before losing a close game, 10–6, against the Chicago Bears. George Halas, owner, coach and player for the Bears, was impressed with Healey's tough tackling, including tackling of Halas, and bought Healey's contract for $100. Healey thus became the first NFL player to be sold to another club. Healey later recalled his pleasure at joining a team with superior facilities: "At Rock Island, we had no showers and seldom a trainer. At Wrigley Field, we had a nice warm place to dress and nice warm showers."
Chicago Bears.
Healey spent six seasons with the Bears from 1922 to 1927. During Healey's tenure with the Bears, the club never had a losing season, winning at least nine games in five of the six seasons. Healey was selected as a first-team All-Pro by at least one major selector each year from 1922 to 1926.
In 1924, he ran more than 30 yards to tackle teammate Oscar Knop who ran the wrong way after intercepting a pass. In 1925, he was the only player to be selected as a first-team All Pro by "Collyers Eye" magazine, the "Green Bay Press-Gazette", and Joseph Carr. In 1926, the "Green Bay Press-Gazette" called him "the best tackle in the Pro loop," and Bears owner George Halas later called Healey "the most versatile tackle of all time".
Family, later years, and honors.
Healey married Lucille Falk in November 1927. After retiring from football, Healey and his wife lived in South Bend, Indiana, where he worked as a salesman and later sales manager for France Stone Company. Healey and his wife had a son, Thomas, in approximately 1938. The family later moved to Niles, Michigan.
Interviewed in 1949, Healey opined that, with the development of the platoon system, modern linemen were "something akin to sissies" and added, "In the old days we used to go on the field prepared for 60 minutes of work and nothing short of a broken leg, arm, or ankle could get us out of there."
During his retirement, Healey received numerous honors for his contributions to the sport of football. These honors include the following:
Healey's wife died in September 1975. Healey died three years later in December 1978 at age 83 from multiple causes, including malnutrition, cardiac and pulmonary failure, and cancer of the stomach and lung. He died at the Cardinal Nursing Home in South Bend, Indiana. His funeral service was held in Niles, Michigan, and he was then buried at Calvary Cemetery in that city.


George Barbee

George Barbee (January 1850 in Norfolk, England – October 30, 1939 in Long Island, New York) was an English-born jockey who was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1996. Published reports indicate Barbee lived to be 89, and is buried near Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.
Barbee began his racing career as an apprentice to Tom Jennings, Sr., for whom he exercised the 1865 English Triple Crown winner Gladiateur.
Barbee moved to the United States in 1872 specifically to ride for John Chamberlain. He began his stateside career riding at Monmouth Park Racetrack.
Racing career.
In 1873 Barbee won the inaugural Preakness Stakes aboard Survivor who won by 10 lengths, a record until Smarty Jones 11½ length victory in 2004. He later won two other Preakness Stakes aboard Shirley (1876) and Jacobus (1883).
His record three Preakness victories was not surpassed until Eddie Arcaro won his fourth in 1951.
In addition to the Preakness victories, Barbee won the 1874 Belmont Stakes aboard Saxon, and the 1874 and 1875 Travers Stakes aboard Attila and D'Artagnan, respectively.
Tom Ochiltree was one of Barbee's most important mounts. He took the colt to victory in the Saratoga, Monmouth, Centennial, Westchester and Baltimore Cups. Other significant horses ridden by Barbee include Springbok, Duke of Magenta, Eole, and Uncas.
Legacy.
George Barbee was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1996, chosen by the Hall of Fame's Historical Review Committee.


George Hay (ice hockey)

William George "The Western Wizard" Hay (January 10, 1898 – July 13, 1975) was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played for the Regina Capitals and Portland Rosebuds of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) and the Chicago Black Hawks and Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was a top star on the Canadian prairies, named a WCHL All-Star four times in five seasons. He transferred to the NHL in 1926 when the Rosebuds were sold to the rival league and went on to score the first goal in the history of the Chicago Black Hawks. He retired in 1933 after several seasons with the Red Wings. Hay was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958.
Early life.
Hay was born in Listowel, Ontario but moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba at an early age. He and childhood friend Dick Irvin were teammates on the Winnipeg Monarchs when they played junior, but Hay left hockey for three years to serve with the Canadian Forestry Corps during World War I. He had also followed in the footsteps of his older brother Reginald "Reg" Hay (b. 1890) who was also a hockey player and a member of the 1915 Winnipeg Monarchs senior team which had captured the Allan Cup as senior amateur champions of Canada. Before the Hay brothers both joined the military ranks they played together on the Monarchs senior team in the Division A of the Manitoba Hockey League during the 1915–16 season.
Playing career.
Returning from the war, Hay settled in Regina, Saskatchewan and played two seasons with the Regina Victorias of the Saskatchewan Senior Hockey League between 1919 and 1921. He then joined the Regina Capitals and began his professional career in the WCHL. In four years in Regina, he was named a league First-Team All-Star three times. Hay remained with the team after it relocated to become the Portland Rosebuds in 1925, and was named an All-Star for the fourth time in 1925–26. When the league collapsed in 1926, the Rosebuds were sold in their entirety to the NHL and became the Chicago Black Hawks.
Hay joined the team in Chicago for the 1926–27 NHL season, and on November 17, 1926 scored the first goal in the history of the Black Hawks. He completed the season in Chicago but was traded, along with Percy Traub, to the Detroit Cougars in exchange for $15,000 after its conclusion. Hay played his finest NHL season in 1927–28, leading the team in goals and points, and was named to an unofficial all-star team by the league's managers. He played seven seasons in the Detroit organization, and retired one game into the 1933–34 season to take over as the coach of their minor league team, the Detroit Olympics, whom he spent three years with before leaving the game.
He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958, and has been honoured by the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame. He was considered one of the best stickhandlers in the game during his time in the NHL.
Off the ice.
Following his hockey career, Hay worked in insurance until the outbreak of World War II. He served as a flight-lieutenant and instructor with the Royal Canadian Air Force until the conclusion of the war, after which he returned to his insurance business. He retired in 1965 and lived quietly until his death in Stratford, Ontario ten years later.


Mike McCallum

Mike McCallum (born 7 December 1956) is a Jamaican former professional boxer who competed from 1981 to 1997. He held world championships in three weight classes, including the WBA super welterweight title from 1984 to 1988, the WBA middleweight title from 1989 to 1991, and the WBC light heavyweight title from 1994 to 1995.
A slick, hard-hitting technician in the ring, McCallum was known for his exceptionally durable chin and toughness, and was never stopped in any of his five losses. He earned his nickname of "The Bodysnatcher" due to his ability to land vicious body punches in fights. McCallum was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2011, "The Ring" magazine ranked him as eighth on their list of the "10 best middleweight title holders of the last 50 years."
Amateur career.
Claimed an amateur record of 240–10
Professional career.
Light middleweight.
Mike McCallum turned professional in 1981. As a professional, he fought almost exclusively in the USA. He first became a world champion in 1984 by defeating Sean Mannion to win the vacant WBA super welterweight title. McCallum would defend that title six times, winning all six fights by knock out.
His first prominent opponent was future two-weight world champion and future fellow International Boxing Hall of Fame member Julian Jackson, whom McCallum fought in his third title defense. McCallum survived some punishment in the first round and came back to stop the undefeated Jackson in the second round.
McCallum really came to prominence when he knocked out former WBC welterweight title-holder Milton McCrory and former undisputed world welterweight champion, another future International Boxing Hall of Fame member, Donald Curry in 1987. Curry was ahead on all three scorecards going into the fifth round when McCallum knocked him out with what some have called a "perfect" left hook.
Middleweight.
In 1988, he moved up to middleweight, suffering his first defeat, a clear unanimous decision, in an attempt to win the WBA middleweight championship from Sumbu Kalambay. In 1989, McCallum defeated Herol Graham by a split decision to win the then-vacant WBA middleweight title (which had been stripped from Kalambay for signing to face IBF champion Michael Nunn). He defended the title three times, defeating Steve Collins, Michael Watson, and Kalambay in a rematch.
McCallum fought IBF middleweight champion James Toney in 1991. McCallum was stripped of the WBA title before the bout. The fight ended in a draw, and McCallum lost the second fight by a controversial majority decision the following year. Some felt that McCallum won both fights.
Light heavyweight.
McCallum then moved up two weight divisions and won the WBC interim light heavyweight title against Randall Yonker, then won the full WBC title by outpointing Jeff Harding in 1994. Being in his late thirties, he did not hold the crown long, losing the title to Fabrice Tiozzo. At 40 years of age, he attempted to regain the vacant Interim WBC title against Roy Jones Jr in December 1996, but lost by a wide decision.
In his last fight, McCallum lost a rubber match to James Toney via a unanimous decision in a cruiserweight bout.
McCallum had a professional record of 49-5-1 (36 knockouts). He was never knocked out as a professional. After McCallum retired, he moved to Las Vegas and became a trainer. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003.


Ben Brush

Ben Brush (1893–1918) was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1896 Kentucky Derby.
Walter Vosburgh, for whom the Vosburgh Stakes is named, said Bramble was "a breed as tough as pine nuts." On May 6, 1896, Bramble and Roseville's son Ben Brush was the first horse to win the Kentucky Derby at its modern distance of 1¼ miles. (Since its inception in 1875, the Derby had been staged over 1½ miles, the length of the original Derby at Epsom Downs in England.) It was the 22nd running of the Derby and the first to drape a blanket of white and pink roses over the shoulders of the victor.
Background.
Ben Brush was a bay stallion by Bramble (1879 champion handicap horse) out of Roseville (a sister to Azra, the 1892 Kentucky Derby and Travers Stakes winner) by Reform. Ben Brush was bred at Runnymeade Farm.
Racing Career.
1895: Two-Year-Old Season.
Ben Brush's dam, Roseville, was purchased by Colonel Catesby Woodford and Colonel Ezekial Clay of Runnymede Farm near Paris, Kentucky in 1891 from the horseman H. Eugene Leigh. At the time, she was in foal to Leigh's La Belle Stud stallion Bramble, a son of Bonnie Scotland who was the Leading sire in North America in 1880 and 1882.. When the resulting colt was offered for sale by Clay and Woodford, Leigh and his new partner, the African-American Hall of Famer Ed Brown, bought him for $1,200. Brown named him Ben Brush in honor of the superintendent of the old Gravesend Race Track at Sheepshead Bay in Gravesend on Coney Island, New York who'd allowed them scarce, therefore valuable, stall space. The original Ben Brush was a strict disciplinarian, but ever after, Leigh and Brown found him very lenient when it came to his namesake. When others complained of his double standard, the human Brush said, "Not a damn one of you fellows ever named a horse Ben Brush!"
Ben Brush raced 40 times, won 25 of those races, placed in five, and showed in 5, earning $65,208. Joe Palmer said of him in his "Names in Pedigrees," that he was "not a particularly impressive-looking animal." The colt was a "rather small horse, a bit longer for his height than Bramble, almost equally coarse about the head."
Under trainer Ed Brown, Ben Brush began racing in Louisville. In his first race at two, he won by five lengths. In his second start, he came home by three lengths. His third effort saw him gallop home ahead of the good horse Nimrod. Ben then went to Ohio, winning the Emerald Stakes and the Diamond Stakes.
After five wins in five starts, Ben Brush went to New York, where he ran third at Sheepshead Bay but then won an overnight handicap, giving 19 pounds to his nearest rival. He then lost to the high-class Requital in the Flatbush Stakes. He ran out of the money for the first time in the Great Eastern Handicap but won the Holly Handicap. At this point, he was sold to the famous gambler Mike Dwyer, who had, with his brother Philip, raced his sire Bramble as well as the champions Hindoo, Hanover, Miss Woodford, and Luke Blackburn. Ben Brush was the last champion to carry Mike Dwyer's colors. The reported sum was $18,000. (A race for three-year-olds, the Dwyer Stakes, held at Belmont Park since 1918, was named in their honor.)
Now ridden by Hall of Famer Willie Simms, an African-American considered one of the greatest riders of his day, and trained by Hardy Campbell Jr., Ben Brush won six more races as a two-year-old. He earned $21,398 with 13 wins in 16 starts. In 1895, he was Champion Two-Year-Old Colt. At this point, Walter Vosburgh said he "could have beaten any three-year-old of that season." (Willie Simms also rode in England, where he was the first to introduce the short-stirrup style. After his stint in Europe, he was retained by Dwyer as his stable rider, but such was Simms's stature that he had the freedom to accept mounts from other stables as well. The nation's leading rider of 1893–94, he remains the only African-American jockey to have won the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont.)
1896: Three-Year-Old Season.
Ben Brush's first race in his 1896 season was the Kentucky Derby. Without benefit of a prep race and having never run farther than seven furlongs in his career, he stumbled badly coming away from the barrier, nearly unseating Simms. By the time they recovered, the race seemed over for Ben Brush, but he made a tremendous move on the backstretch, caught First Mate on the turn for home, and battled fiercely with Ben Elder down the stretch before winning by a nose. The correspondent for the "Spirit of the Times" wrote, "Simms made one last and desperate rally with Ben Brush, displaying as vigorous a piece of riding as was ever seen, and gradually but surely gaining on the other Ben, he finally beat him out by a nose in a terrific and hair-raising finish, which elicited a wild and spontaneous shout from the grandstand." When Simms saw how deeply his spurs had cut his mount, and that his sides were covered in blood, he cried with shame. (Col. Clark, the guiding force behind the development of Churchill and then serving as the track's presiding judge, credited Simms with the victory. "It was a great race—one of the greatest I ever saw," Clark said. "There was no doubt in the world about the finish. Simms simply lifted Brush a foot or so in front at the last jump.")
Ben Brush finished his season with four wins and almost $27,000 in earnings.
1897: Four-Year-Old Season.
In the view of many, Ben Brush's 1897 campaign, as Palmer put it, "perhaps put the stamp of greatness on him more unmistakably than did his performances at two and three." During this last racing season, Ben Brush met Ornament, the American Champion Three-Year-Old Colt and 1897's American Horse of the Year, giving Ornament nine pounds and winning by three lengths. He beat the 1895 Preakness Stakes and Belmont winner Belmar; 1896 Belmont winner Hastings, the grandsire of Man o' War; 1897 Champion Three-Year-Old Ornament, the winner of 20 of 33 lifetime starts; and the high-class Clifford, who twice defeated Henry of Navarre and Domino in 1894–95.
Stud Career.
Ben Brush was a success at stud, so much so that he became one of the building blocks of the American Thoroughbred. Although his direct male line no longer exists, he continues to influence the breed. Ben Brush appears in the pedigrees of 48 of the last 50 Derby winners, including every Derby winner from 1972 onward. The leading sire of 1909, he produced Delhi, the 1904 Belmont Stakes winner and Champion Three Year Old Colt; Pebbles, the Juvenile Champion of 1914; Broomstick, who won the 1904 Travers Stakes, set a new American record for a mile and a quarter in the Brighton Handicap, and then led the sire's list from 1913 until 1915 (siring Regret, the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby) as well as ranking 71 in the top 100 U.S. Thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century by Blood-Horse magazine; and Sweep, twice leading sire, winner of the 1910 Belmont Stakes, and a champion at two and three. His most influential daughter was Belgravia, who produced Black Toney, sire of Black Gold.
Ben Brush died in Versailles, Kentucky on June 8, 1918, at the age of 25. His headstone erroneously reads 1917.
Ben Brush was part of the inaugural class inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955.


Manuel Ortiz (boxer)

Manuel Ortiz (July 2, 1916 – May 31, 1970) was one of the very best boxers of the 1940s, and was named to Ring Magazine's list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years. In 1996, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Amateur career.
Ortiz, who was of Mexican American descent, started an amateur career in 1937. Within a year, Ortiz won the Southern California Amateur Flyweight Title, the Golden Gloves Title, and the National AAU title in Boston. He also defeated Chief Lopez, who was an Olympic runner-up, and Bobby Hagar (father of former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar) twice. In their first fight, Ortiz decked Hagar 17 times. In their second match, Ortiz decked Hagar twenty times.
Professional career.
Ortiz turned pro in 1938 and in 1942 won the World Bantamweight title by beating Lou Salica. He defended the title a division record of 15 times against 11 boxers before losing to Harold Dade in 1947. He regained the title in a rematch later in the year, and defended the title four more times giving him the most combined title defenses of any bantamweight champion in history at 19 title defenses. After losing his undisputed championship to the undefeated Vic Toweel in 1950, he went on to fight for 5 more years never getting a chance at an unprecedented third bantamweight title reign.