Dodgers Pitcher Don Newcombe, Who Helped to Break Baseball's Color Barrier, Dies at 92
Legendary Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe, who was one of the first Black players to join the major leagues, died on Tuesday morning at age 92 of a lengthy illness, the team announced.
Before joining the Dodgers in 1949, Newcombe — born in Madison, New Jersey, on June 14, 1926 — played a season in the Negro National League, one of several leagues created for Black players when professional baseball was segregated.
Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey would sign Newcombe the following year, placing him on the same team as Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color barrier just two years earlier.
Newcombe spent his first two seasons with the team before missing the next two to serve in the military during the Korean War. He would rejoin the Dodgers in 1954.
Newcombe helped the team win the 1955 World Series against the New York Yankees, and would become the first player to win the Cy Young, Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year awards the coming year. The accomplishment would not be achieved again until Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers earned the distinction in 2011.
“[He was] one of the greatest pitchers in Dodger history and one of the franchise’s final links to Brooklyn and the days of Roy Campanella and Jackie Robinson,” the Dodgers said of Newcombe in a statement posted to social media.
According to ESPN, Newcombe, Robinson and their teammate, Roy Campanella, became the first three of four African-Americans to appear in the MLB All-Star Game.
“Don Newcombe’s presence and life established him as a role model for major leaguers across the country,” team president Stan Kasten said in their statement. “He was a constant presence at Dodger Stadium and players always gravitated toward him for his endless advice and friendship. The Dodgers meant everything to him and we are all fortunate he was a part of our lives.”
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Newcombe would spend eight seasons with the team before he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 1958. His contract was later sold to the Cleveland Indians in 1960, the same year he retired from baseball.
In a 2010 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Newcombe said alcoholism contributed to his decline in baseball. He would later help other baseball players with their substance abuse problems.
“What I have done after my baseball career and being able to help people with their lives and getting their lives back on track and they become human beings again means more to me than all the things I did in baseball,” he said.
According to NBC News, Newcombe met with then-President Barack Obama in 2010, and the two shared a touching moment.
“[I] just had the honor of meeting him and taking a picture with him,” Obama said of Newcombe. “He was very gracious in saying, ‘You know, Jackie would be proud.’ And I said, ‘Well, I would not be here if it were not for Jackie and it were not for Don Newcombe.’ “
