Anniversaries

According to today’s paper, on this date in 1947, the Cleveland Indians bought the contract of Larry Doby from the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League.  Two days later,  Doby would break the color line in the American League when he pinch-hit against the White Sox at Comiskey Park.  Yesterday, Clare and I got to talking about a woman being the first, after I told her the Sonoma Stompers, an independent-league team in California with some kind of connection to movie director Francis Ford Coppola, signed two women players, both of whom pitch and play other positions.

Clare made an interesting point (and I hate it when other people do that) saying, “You have no idea about the sense of camaraderie softball players have with one another.  It’s not like baseball makes an effort.  There’s no place for girls in the locker room.  And do you know what it’s like to be the only girl on a high school baseball team?”  After spending the last few weeks supervising a baseball field inhabited by teenaged boys, my daughter is a little down on certain aspects of the national pastime.

For what it’s worth, not many players on the Indians wanted to shake Doby’s hand when he arrived in the visitors’ clubhouse July 5, 1947.  The Negro Leagues were home, but the future lay elsewhere.  I wonder if that includes Sonoma.