Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball, Epplin - B

        Eleven weeks after Jackie Robinson started for the Dodgers in April 1947, a young Black man, Larry Doby, joined the Cleveland Indians. The following season, the ageless Satchel Paige was brought on to bolster a pitching staff led by Bob Feller.  The man who put together the team that would win it all in 1948 was Bill Veeck, the Indians thirty-two year old owner. This is their story.

        Feller broke into the bigs as a seventeen year old wonder in 1936. He struck out 15 in his first start and 17 a few weeks later, both records. That fall, he played in a barnstorming game against the best pitcher in the Negro leagues, Leroy Paige, known to all as Satchel. Prior to WW2, both men dominated their respective leagues and reached legendary status. Indeed, whether Paige pitched in a regular season game or in a barnstormer, the attendance usually doubled. In New Jersey, a young four sport athlete began to play for the Newark Eagles, under an assumed name.  Doby simultaneously began to play basketball at LIU on a full scholarship. In Milwaukee, the son of the former president of the Cubs purchased the flailing minor league Brewers. The flamboyant Veeck soon had them pulling in fans and competing on the diamond.

         Feller joined the Navy the week after Pearl Harbor. Doby was drafted the following year. Veeck enlisted in the Marine Corps. All three were in the South Pacific, where Veeck suffered a leg wound that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Feller called the Secretary of the Navy in order to facilitate his exit and pitched five games in September 1945.  As integration appeared on baseball's horizon, the almost forty year old Paige was not being considered. Doby gave up basketball to focus on baseball for the Eagles in 1946. Veeck had sold the Brewers, tried quasi-retirement and then sought to buy a club. He led a syndicate that purchased the Indians in June 1946.  He packed the stands with endless promotions and his own boundless enthusiasm. 

       That November, surgeons amputated Veeck's right foot. The following summer, hopeful of upgrading the Indians, he signed Lary Doby to the club. Unlike the approach Branch Rickey pursued with the Dodgers, grooming his Black players and bringing them along slowly, Veeck signed Doby on a Saturday and inserted him the lineup on a Sunday. It didn't work. Alone, miserable and not ready for it all, Doby had an unremarkable summer. Veeck had had another operation and wasn't around to help smooth things over. Feller, who barnstormed annually against Black players, had the best numbers in the AL again, and continued to tell the press that the Blacks weren't ready for the bigs. 

      For the new season, Doby, a second baseman, was put in the outfield and everyone expected him to fail. Instead, he came out of spring training as the starting rightfielder. He eventually blossomed in center. The Indians began the season strongly, and were in first place in June, but Veeck was worried. The bulwark of the pitching staff, Bob Feller, was not on his game. He signed Paige, who casually strode from the bullpen and made an immediate impact for Cleveland. On occasion, player-manager Lou Boudreau would have Satchel start a game, leading to record crowds. At Comiskey Field, fans stormed the gates. At Municipal Stadium, many games saw over 70,000 in attendance. The Tribe drew 2.6 million fans in 1948. Down the stretch, Paige stumbled, but Doby, Feller and Boudreau, who would be MVP, played well and they finished the season tied with the Red Sox. They traveled to Boston. An 8-3 victory set them up to play the Boston Braves. Feller gave up two hits to lose the first game 1-0. Cleveland won game 2 and headed home. They won the next two, and a picture of Doby and Tribe pitcher Steve Gromek in an enthusiastic embrace appeared in papers around the country. Feller took the mound in game 5 in front of 86,000 fans. Boudreau yanked him in the 6th inning of a tie game. By the time Paige came in to retire the side, the Indians were being blown out. The Indians closed out Boston 4-3 in game 6. Paige was never called on. Doby had the best batting average, .318, in the Series. Cleveland welcomed them home the next day with a parade.

      Doby would be a seven time all-star, and would twice lead the AL in homers, but spent the rest of his 13 year career fighting prejudice in the locker room, on the field and on the road. Feller's career wound down and he retired in 1956. Veeck sold the team after 1949, and Paige found himself on the outside again. Veeck purchased the St. Louis Browns and brought Paige back for three more seasons. At age 47, he made an all-star team. Twelve years later, Charlie Finley brought him back as a gimmick for three innings. The 59 year old shut out the Red Sox. Cleveland began its long slide from the 7th largest city in the US into obscurity. The Indians needed forty years and a move to a new park to exceed the 1948 attendance record.

     This is a fun read for anyone with an affection for the national pasttime and a memory of baseball before expansion. As for the way Doby and Paige were treated, it's just flat out painful to read.