Jackie and Campy (25 page)

1.
Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 109–12.

2.
Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 120.

3.
Robinson and Duckett
, I Never Had It Made
, 16–18.

4.
Rampersad,
Jackie Robinson
, 34.

5.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 18–20; Rampersad,
Jackie Robinson
, 32–33.

6.
Ray Bartlett quoted in Rampersad,
Jackie Robinson
, 36.

7.
Rampersad
, Jackie Robinson
, 47–49.

8.
Pasadena Star-News
, April 4, 1987.

9.
Rampersad,
Jackie Robinson
, 51, 82.

10.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 23.

11.
Rachel Robinson quoted in
Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers
.

12.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 24–37; and Rampersad,
Jackie Robinson
, 90–110.

13.
Falkner,
Great Time Coming
, 92.

14
. Jackie Robinson, “What’s Wrong with Negro Baseball?,”
Ebony
, June 1948, 116–37.

15.
Falkner,
Great Time Coming
, 94.

16.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 35–36.

17.
Interview of Monte Irvin, Houston, August 21, 2007.

18.
Ron Fimrite, “Triumph of the Spirit,”
Sports Illustrated
, September 24, 1990, 102.

19.
Warner,
The Private City
, 161; Arthur P. Dudden, “The City Embraces Normalcy,” in Weigley,
Philadelphia
, 588.

20.
Warner,
Private City
, 172–173; Dudden, “City Embraces Normalcy,” 588.

21.
Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 29–30; Wolf,
Philadelphia
, 264.

22.
Ida Campanella quoted in Fimrite, “Triumph of the Spirit,” 102.

23.
Davis,
Who Is Black?
Historically the term
black
was used in the United States to refer to “any person with any known African black ancestry” and reflected the “long experience with slavery.”
Mulatto
, on the other hand, was original
ly used to mean the offspring of a “pure African Negro” and a “pure white.” These definitions were established by the U.S. government in the nineteenth century for legal purposes. They were retained until the 1960s, when civil rights legislation rendered them obsolete.

Davis argues that most American blacks, though racially mixed, are “physically distinguishable from whites, but they are also an ethnic group because of the distinctive culture they have developed within the general American framework.” Such an inclusive definition suggests that the terms
black
and
mulatto
should be used to designate “racial,” “cultural,” and “ethnic” traits.

24.
Campanella,
It’s Good To Be Alive
, 43.

25.
Campanella,
It’s Good To Be Alive
, 29.

26.
Lanctot,
Campy
, 14–15.

27.
Broeg, “Campy,” 16.

28.
Interview of Roy Campanella by Lee Allen, Cooperstown
NY
, July 15, 1969, National Baseball Library.

29.
Harry Bacharach (1873–1947) was a Jewish politician and mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey, for two terms (1916–20 and 1930–35). In 1914 he was tried for election fraud in the 1910 mayoral election. See “Harry Bacharach,” obituary,
Time
, May 26, 1947.

30.
“The Man: Roy Campanella,”
Black Sports
, November 1972, 24.

31.
Dixon quoted in Broeg, “Campy,” 16.

32.
There is a discrepancy between Campanella’s recollection of the game and the account that appeared in the
Beach Haven Times
. According to Campanella, Dixon started the game behind the plate, but after he tore a fingernail loose Campy was inserted as catcher. He also recalled that the final score was 3–1 in favor of the Bacharachs. However, the
Beach Haven Times
reported that Campy started the game and went zero for three with an error in a 17–6 win. See Lanctot,
Campy
, 22–23.

33.
Lanctot,
Campy
, 25–26.

34.
Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 49–51, 57–58.

35.
Dixon quoted in Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 55–56.

36.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar explained the accommodationist approach of this generation of blacks in his lyric poem “We Wear the Mask,” about oppressed black Americans forced to hide their pain and frustration behind a façade of happiness and contentment. Dunbar, the son of slaves, wrote the poem in 1896, when racial prejudice was an inherent part of American social, economic, and political culture. The poem suggests that for blacks to reveal publicly their true feelings about whites’ maltreatment of them would have been to risk dangerous retaliation. Instead most blacks wore a mask that suggested happiness and contentment but concealed acute distress and pain. See Braxton,
The Collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar
.

37.
Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 65.

38.
Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 70–73.

39.
“Baltimore Elite Giants,” Negro League Baseball Players Association website.

40.
Fimrite, “Triumph of the Spirit,” 98.

41.
Quote is taken from interview of Monte Irvin, Houston, August 21, 2007. Campanella credited Biz Mackey with influencing him “on and off the field” in Red Smith, “From Jim Crow to Cooperstown,”
New York Times
, February 14, 1978.

42.
Clark and Lester,
The Negro Leagues Book
, 26.

43.
“Roy Campanella, 71, Dies,”
New York Times
, June 28, 1993; Broeg, “Campy,” 16. According to Neil Lanctot, Campanella’s biographer, Campy discovered that Bernice was pregnant in December 1938 and did the honorable thing by marrying her on January 3, 1939. The couple gave birth to a daughter, Joyce, seven months later. See Lanctot,
Campy
, 54–55.

44.
Roy Campanella quoted in Murray Chass, “Campanella Recalls Negro League Days,”
New York Times
, August 3, 1969; Campanella quoted in Halberstam,
Summer of ’49
, 258.

45.
Comparison of Negro League and Major League salaries taken from interviews of Bill Cash, West Chester
PA
, April 18, 1999; Gene Benson, Philadelphia, December 9, 1998; and Monte Irvin.

46.
Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 80–81.

47.
Clark and Lester,
Negro Leagues Book
, 27, 247–48.

48.
Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 86–87.

49.
Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 87.

50.
Irvin interview.

51.
Broeg, “Campy,” 16.

52.
Broeg, “Campy,” 17.

53.
Clark and Lester,
Negro Leagues Book
, 272.

54.
Campanella quoted in Broeg, “Campy,” 16.

55.
Dave Anderson, “In Roy Campanella, the Heart of a Hero,”
New York Times
, June 28, 1993; Roy Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 107. In addition to David, Ruthe’s son from a previous marriage, the couple had three of their own children: Roy Jr., Tony, and Princess.

56.
Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 96–97.

57.
Interview of Mahlon Duckett, West Chester
PA
, May 12, 1999.

58.
Broeg, “Campy,” 17.

59.
Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive
, 104–6; Frommer,
Rickey and Robinson
, 109–10.

60.
Trouppe,
20 Years Too Soon
, 155.

61.
Merl Kleinknecht, “Gene Benson,” in Shatzkin,
The Ballplayers
, 69.

62.
Interview of Gene Benson, Philadelphia, December 9, 1998. Benson also taught Robinson how to hit the curve ball, though he was too humble to accept the credit for it. Ironically the two men were completely different in their approach to hitting. Benson sported one of the most unusual batting stances in the game. Turning his body almost a full 90 degrees so that he was facing the pitcher, he held the bat near his waist. This allowed him to keep his hands still as long as possible, waiting until the last second to drive pitches to the opposite field, which enabled him to become a great curve ball hitter. Despite his unorthodox style, available records indicate that Benson’s lifetime batting average was over .300, with a peak mark of .370 in 1945. Robinson, on the other hand, held the bat over his right shoulder. Although he was more of a lunge hitter, Robinson also kept his hands back as long as possible, just as Benson counseled. Because of that skill, Jackie became one of the greatest curve ball hitters of his generation. See Falkner,
Great Time Coming
, 121.

63.
Campanella,
It’s Good to Be Alive,
113–14.

64.
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 144–45.

65.
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 145–46.

1.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 54–55.

2.
Billy Rowe quoted in Lamb,
Blackout
, 17.

3.
Harold C. Burr, “Give Negroes Fair Play Rickey Urges,”
Sporting News
, March 7, 1946. Wright had won thirty-one games for the Homestead Grays in 1943 before joining the U.S. Navy, where he posted a 15-4 record and had the lowest
ERA
of any pitcher in the armed forces.

4.
Branch Rickey quoted in
Baseball: The Proving Ground of Civil Rights
.

5.
Mann,
The Jackie Robinson Story
, 142.

6.
Clay Hopper quoted in Lloyd McGowan, “Negro’s Steady Play Wins Okay of Pilot Hopper and Montreal Fans,”
Sporting News
, June 5, 1946.

7.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 60.

8.
Lamb,
Blackout
, 88, 135–36, 140; “Royals’ Game Off at Jacksonville,”
New York Times
, March 23, 1946.

9.
Lamb,
Blackout
, 104.

10.
“Jackie Makes Good,”
Time
, August 26, 1946.

11.
Bill Young, “Jackie Robinson and the Montreal Royals, 1945–1946,”
Sherbrooke Record
(Quebec), October 24, 2005.

12.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 114.

13.
“Having a Hand in Baseball History,”
Chicago Tribune
, April 17, 2006.

14.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 56–57; Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 3, 7.

15.
Plaschke with LaSorda,
I Live for This!
, 157. Campanis would go on to become the Los Angeles Dodgers’ general manager and be remembered for a racist statement he made in a live television interview on
ABC
’s
Nightline
on April 6, 1987. When asked about the scarcity of black managers and executives in the Majors, the seventy-year-old Campanis suggested that they did not have the intelligence to hold those positions. See Eric Johnson, “‘Nightline’ Classic: Al Campanis,” April 12, 2007,
www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline/ESPNSports/story?id=3034914
.

16.
McGowan, “Negro’s Steady Play.”

17.
Mel Jones quoted in Lloyd McGowan, “Robinson Topping International Hitters, Rated Ready for Dodgers in ’47,”
Sporting News
, August 21, 1946.

18.
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 139.

19.
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 137.

20.
Tom Meany, “What Chance Has Jackie Robinson?,”
Sport
, January 1947, 13.

21.
Clay Hopper quoted in Monteleone,
Branch Rickey’s Little Blue Book
, 85.

22.
Pittsburgh Courier
, October 12, 1946.

23.
Buzzie Bavasi quoted in Campanella and Young,
The Roy Campanella Story
, 26.

24.
Roy Campanella quoted in “Campanella’s Big Gamble,”
New York Journal
, September 21, 1953.

25.
Roy Campanella quoted in Maury Allen, “Campy: Time for a Black Pilot Is Now,”
New York Post
, February 9, 1972.

26.
Newcombe quoted in Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 147.

27.
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 145.

28.
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 149.

29.
Bob Oates, “Q & A with Roy Campanella,”
USA Today
, June 17, 1985. Campanella’s one-game stint as Nashua manager made him the first African American to manage in organized baseball.

30.
Campanella
, It’s Good to Be Alive
, 120–24; Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 152.

31.
Don Newcombe quoted in
At Nightfall: The Roy Campanella Story
.

32.
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 151.

33.
See “Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882–1968,” University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law,
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingsstate.html
(retrieved July 26, 2010).

34.
Dray,
At the Hands of Persons Unknown
; Wexler,
Fire in a Canebrake
.

35.
Donovan
, Conflict and Crisis
, 332–37. Truman’s commission was established, in part, to address white resistance to integration in such cities as Gary, Indiana; Athens, Alabama; and Philadelphia.

36.
President’s Committee on Civil Rights,
To Secure These Rights
, 9; Anthony Leviero, “Guidelines for Civil Rights Proposed by Truman Board,”
New York Times
, October 30, 1947.

37.
Hamby,
Beyond the New Deal
, 214–15, 247.

38.
Chambers,
Witness
, 799.

39.
“McCarthyism v. Trumanism,”
Time
, August 27, 1951; Reeves,
The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy
, 224, 237.

40.
Shortly after Branch Rickey signed Robinson to a professional baseball contract in November 1945, the
Daily Worker
emphasized the significant role of the American Communist Party in that development. See
Daily Worker
, October 26, 1946. Nat Low, who succeeded Lester Rodney as the sports editor of the newspaper, continued to highlight Robinson’s on-field achievements as well as the discrimination he faced throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s. See Rusinack, “Baseball on the Radical Agenda,” 82.

41.
Falkner,
Great Time Coming
, 119.

42.
See U.S. Department of Justice, “Jack R. Robinson,” September 2, 1958,
FBI
Document No. 100-428850-2,
FBI
Freedom of Information Act Unit, Office of Public and Congressional Affairs, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington
DC
.

43.
See Harold C. Burr, “Robby Faces Slow Climb: Owners Opposed to Bringing Negro Up,”
Brooklyn Eagle
, January 14, 1947; Polner,
Branch Rickey
, 188.

44.
Rickey quoted in Meany, “What Chance Has Robinson?,” 12.

45.
Fred Down, “Robinson Makes Swift Progress in Hard Task,”
New York Times
, August 21, 1947.

46.
Branch Rickey quoted in Arthur Daley, “In Havana, Where the Robinson Saga Began,”
New York Times
, October 26, 1972.

47.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 69.

48.
Marshall,
Baseball’s Pivotal Era
, 142; Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 69.

49.
Pee Wee Reese, “What Robinson Meant to an Old Friend,”
New York Times
, July 17, 1977.

50.
Durocher and Linn,
Nice Guys Finish Last
, 203–5.

51.
New York Times
, April 13, 1947; Anderson, “The Days That Brought the Barriers Down.” Durocher’s managerial tenure in Brooklyn had been troubled by umpire baiting, foul language often heard by fans, his association with gamblers and organized crime, and a very messy and public divorce. When Brooklyn’s Catholic Diocese began a campaign to have him dismissed, Rickey turned to his trusted assistant Clyde Sukeforth as an interim until he secured Burt Shotton’s services. See Marzano,
Brooklyn Dodgers in 1940s
, 130–34, 142.

52.
Bobby Bragan quoted in
Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers
.

53.
Marzano,
Brooklyn Dodgers in 1940s
, 136.

54.
Higbe,
The High Hard One
, 107.

55.
Marzano,
Brooklyn Dodgers in 1940s
, 142.

56.
Branch Rickey quoted in Mann,
The Jackie Robinson Story
, 160–65. Rickey made these remarks before a gathering of African American civic leaders at the predominantly black Carlton branch of Brooklyn’s
YMCA
. They greeted his remarks with applause.

57.
Robinson quoted in Meany, “What Chance Has Robinson?,” 12–13.

58.
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 178.

59.
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 182–87; Kuklick,
To Every Thing a Season
, 145–47; William Ecenbarger, “First among Equals,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, February 19, 1995, 14.

60.
Parrott,
The Lords of Baseball
, 194.

61.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 71–72.

62.
Ecenbarger, “First among Equals,” 14.

63.
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 182–83.

64.
Chapman quoted in
Sporting News
, May 14, 1947.

65.
Sporting News
, May 14, 1947.

66.
Jackie Robinson quoted in
Pittsburgh Courier
, May 3, 10, 1947.

67.
Eddie Stanky quoted in Ward and Burns,
Baseball
, 291.

68.
Branch Rickey, quoted in Rowan and Robinson,
Wait till Next Year
, 181–84; “Robinson Reveals Threats,”
New York Times
, May 19, 1947.

69.
Parrott,
Lords of Baseball
, 192.

70.
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment
, 373. Tygiel cites Parrott as the only source for the controversial phone conversation between Rickey and Pennock. Since then the conversation has been cited repeatedly as fact by several writers, including Ecenbarger, “First among Equals,” 14; Mark Kram, “The Nightmare That Was Philly,”
Philadelphia Daily News
, April 9, 1997 (special supplement on Jackie Robinson), 10; Kuklick,
To Every Thing a Season
, 147; Rampersad,
Jackie Robinson
, 175.

71.
Pennock died of a cerebral hemorrhage on January 30, 1948, at the relatively young age of fifty-four. Rickey passed away at the age of eighty-four on December 9, 1965.

72.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 74.

73.
Rachel Robinson quoted in John Manasso, “Racial Issues Tarnish Tribute to Jackie Robinson,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, April 6, 2007.

74.
Westcott and Bilovsky,
Phillies Encyclopedia
, 89.

75.
Interview of Andy Seminick, West Chester
PA
, April 14, 2000.

76.
Parrott,
Lords of Baseball
, 192.

77.
Chapman quoted in Wayne Martin, “‘Sure, We Rode Jackie,’ Says Chapman,”
Sporting News
, March 24, 1973.

78.
Rowan and Robinson,
Wait till Next Year
, 184.

79.
Interview of Harry Walker, Leeds
AL
, May 20, 1997.

80.
Interview of Ken Raffensberger, York
PA
, April 25, 2000.

81.
Interview of Howie Schultz, West Stillwater
MN
, April 26, 2000.

82.
Glenn interview.

83.
Interview of Bill “Ready” Cash, Philadelphia, April 18, 1999; interview of Mahlon Duckett, West Chester
PA
, May 12, 1999; Harris interview.

84.
Philadelphia Inquirer
, May 9, 10, 1947;
Philadelphia Daily News
, May 9, 10, 1947.

85.
Ben Chapman quoted in
Pittsburgh Courier
, May 10, 1947.

86.
Chapman quoted in Martin, “Sure, We Rode Jackie.”

87.
Interview of Clyde King, Goldsboro
NC
, February 1, 2009.

88.
Interview of Gene Hermanski, Homosassa
FL
, August 19, 2007; Snider,
The Duke of Flatbush
, 24.

89.
Reese, “What Robinson Meant to an Old Friend.”

90.
Marzano,
Brooklyn Dodgers in 1940s
, 138; Erskine and Rocks,
What I Learned from Jackie Robinson
, 62. Reese originally made this sympathetic gesture to Robinson during an away game against the Boston Braves, and repeated it later in the season at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field.

91.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 76–77.

92.
Snider and Pepe,
Few and Chosen
, 34.

93.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 78; Peter Golenbock, “Men of Conscience,” in Dorinson and Warmund,
Jackie
Robinson
, 18.

94.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 76.

95.
Rachel Robinson quoted in
Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers
.

96.
Robinson and Duckett,
I Never Had It Made
, 78–79; Jack Spector, “A Brooklyn Boy Remembers,”
School Bank News
, April 1973, 3.

97.
Rachel Robinson quoted in Eddings, “Special Report on Race,” 54.