Peter Dreier / Research & Analysis / Players
Joe
Black
by Peter
Dreier
Society
for American Baseball Research,
biography project,
March 2021 https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/joe-black/
Joe
Black helped lead the
Brooklyn Dodgers to the 1952 pennant, going 15-4 with 15 saves, and a
2.15 ERA.
He won the NL’s Rookie of the Year Award and became the first African
American
pitcher to win a World Series game. “Let’s put it this way,” Dodgers
manager Chuck
Dressen told
reporters, “Where would we be without him?”1 Teammate Carl
Erskine said,
“He put us in the World Series. He was the main
cause to get us there.”2
During
the middle of the
20th century, Black, along with Joe
Page, Jim
Konstanty,
and Hoyt
Wilhelm,
helped define the importance of relief pitching as a specialty.
Managers and fans began to recognize relievers’ value to teams rather
than view
them as failed starting pitchers.
Black
was born on
February 8, 1924 in Plainfield, New Jersey, an industrial and
residential city
of 30,000 people, 13 miles from Newark. He grew up in a racially mixed
working
class neighborhood with white friends in school and in the community,
including
in his athletic activities. He was the third of six children born to
Joseph
Black and Martha Watkins Black.
His
father, a skilled
mechanic, had to resort to menial part-time jobs until he found a job
in 1937
with the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration. His mother took in
laundry
and worked as a cook and housekeeper for white families. Starting at
nine years
old, Joe took odd jobs to help the family. He and his siblings wore
hand-me-down clothes, but were never hungry. His parents were
religious, strict
and demanded respectful behavior. Joe’s mother never got past third
grade and
could barely read or write, but insisted that her children do well in
school.
“Ain’t nobody better than you,” she asserted. Black and other
low-income
students “made a determination to prove that we were not dumb despite
the fact
that we were poor.”3
Some
Plainfield police
officers provided Black and his friends with equipment and uniforms and
taught
them how to play team baseball.4 By
the time he reached Plainfield High School (PHS), Black was an
outstanding
athlete and excellent student. He played on the football and basketball
teams
and played first base, third base, left field, and catcher for the
baseball
team, but did not pitch.5 He
was named PHS’s outstanding athlete for the 1941-42 school year.6
Black
was fortunate that Plainfield had many amateur and semi-pro sports
leagues that
supplemented his high school athletic activities on weekends and during
summers. Some of these team rosters included former and current minor
league,
college, and Negro League players. He pitched and played catcher,
infield, and
outfield — often playing multiple positions in one game.
As
he
was nearing his high school graduation in 1942, his dream of playing in
the
majors was shattered.
“I
was batting .400 when
I was a senior in high school. The scouts were talking to other people,
but
they didn’t speak to me. I said, ‘Hey, I am the captain of the team. I
out-hit
them all — why don’t you sign me?’ A scout said, ‘Because you are
colored, and
they don’t play baseball in the big leagues.’” As Black recalled, “I
got mad
and hateful. I had a scrapbook of ballplayers, and I tore up all of
their
pictures — they were all white. The one picture that I didn’t tear
was Hank
Greenberg,
my idol. He was big and hit home runs, and that’s what I
wanted to do. My mother said, ‘Son, you can’t be mad.’ I said, ‘But
mama, white
people won’t let me play!’”7
During
the summer after
his 1942 high school graduation, Black kept up his frenetic pace. He
played on
several teams in different local leagues, including the Plainfield
Black
Yankees, for whom he pitched and played in the infield.8 Simultaneously,
he worked nights in a factory.9 In
a game on May 31, Black played second base and hit two home runs.10 Two weeks later, Black
pitched,
played second base, had two hits, and scored three runs.11 A week later, the Plainfield Courier-News reported
that “Big Joe Black, pitcher, infield, outfielder, and catcher,
depending on
the needs of his team, took a turn on the mound Sunday afternoon and
entered
baseball’s mythical hall of fame by hanging up a no-hit, no-run game at
the expense
of the Bound Brook Indians, 12-0, at Cedarbrook Park.”12 That summer he also
pitched for the
Abbond-Royal team, a business-sponsored club in the Plainfield area
Twilight
League.
Black
received a partial football scholarship at Morgan State College [now
University], a historically black institution in Baltimore, beginning
in
September 1942. Growing up in Plainfield, Black had felt the stings of
prejudice and discrimination, but moving to Baltimore, a legally
segregated
city, was a different experience.
As
he recalled, “You
would go into a store to try on a pair of shoes, and you couldn’t try
them on.
You couldn’t try a coat on. You bought stuff, but you couldn’t bring it
back—whether it fits or not.”13
In
college, he learned
about Black history; that gave him a new-found pride in his race.14 He joined Omega Psi
Phi fraternity
and made lasting friendships.
Although
Morgan State did not have a baseball team, Black was still a
three-sport
athlete in college — playing end and defensive back for the football
team,
center on the basketball team, and competing in the high jump and
hurdles on
the track team.
In
the summer of 1943,
after his freshman year, Black and his college friend Cal Irvin
(brother of
future New York Giants star Monte
Irvin)
went to a Negro League game between the Baltimore Elite Giants
and the Newark Eagles at Bugle Field. Vernon Green, the Elite Giants’
business
manager, overheard Black boasting that he was as good or better than
some of
the players on the field. Green arranged for Black to try out for the
team. He
played several games at shortstop, hit poorly, and asked the manager to
give
him a chance to pitch.15 The official Negro
League record
book lists Black as having pitched in two games for the Elite Giants
that
season.16
Black
joined the Army
Medical Corps on August 17, 1943.17 He served for 2 ½
years in the Army
during World War 2, until March 1946.18 “Sixteen months after
I was drafted
before I touched a rifle. I pitched a lot,” he told Roger Kahn.19
At
the Veterans
Administration Hospital at Stewart Field air force base on Long Island,
he was
assigned to an all-black unit in the Physiotherapy Department, trained
to work
with shell-shocked soldiers suffering from various mental disorders.20 While stationed in
Long Island
during football season, he played with the Carters football team in
Plainfield’s semi-pro league on weekends.21 During baseball
season, he played
for the Elite Giants during weekend passes and furloughs, pitching nine
games
in 1944 (3-3) and one game in 1945 (0-1). In 1945, after a seven month
stint at
Camp Barkeley in Texas, his battalion was moved to Missouri’s Camp
Crowder.22 The Stewart Field
Panthers were
racially integrated but Camp Crowder was segregated. However, the
military
brass made an exception for Black, allowing him to pitch for the
otherwise
all-white baseball team.23 The coach, Tommy
Bridges,
an All-Star pitcher with the Detroit Tigers, helped Black
improve this pitching.24 When the team went on
road trips to
play other military teams or college teams, Black had to stay in the
bus while
his white teammates ate at Southern segregated restaurants. When Camp
Crowder’s
basketball season came around, however, Black was back on an all-black
team.25
Black
was 21 years old
and still in the Army, when, in October 1945, Branch
Rickey signed Jackie
Robinson.
”I started dreaming,” Black recalled. “And that’s what
happened to most of the guys in the Negro Leagues. You forgot your age.
You
said, ‘If Jackie makes it, I can make it.”’26
A
month after his Army
discharge in March 1946, Black was back with the Elite Giants for whom
he
played that season. He returned to Morgan State for his sophomore year
(playing
football and basketball) and returned to the Elite Giants during the
summer of
1947. That fall, a few months into his junior year, Black left Morgan
State to
accept an $800 month offer to pitch in the Venezuela winter league for
the
Magallanes team.27 He started 10 games,
finished six,
relieved in seven more, pitched 94 innings, won four games, and lost
seven.28 Black spent several
winters playing
in winter leagues in Mexico, Venezuela, and Cuba.
In
March 1948, he
rejoined the Elite Giants and played with them each spring and summer
until
1950, winning 45 games and losing 37. In 1946 and 1947 he led the Negro
National League in games pitched (20 and 26, respectively), but his
best years
were 1948 through 1950, when he was 10-5, 11-7 and 8-3, as a starting
pitcher.
He pitched in the 1947, 1948, and 1950 All-Star East-West games at
the Polo
Grounds,
Yankee Stadium, and Comiskey
Park,
respectively, and helped the Elite Giants win the 1949 Negro League
National
Championship.29
During
the 1949-50
off-season, he returned to Morgan State to take courses toward his
degree in
psychology and physical education. After graduating in 1950, at 26,
Black
pitched for the Elite Giants during the summer, then joined a
barnstorming team
of Black players led by Luke
Easter.
In the fall, Black joined the Cienfuegos Elefantes in the
integrated Cuban winter leagues.
While
in Cuba in 1950,
Black met Fidel Castro, then a young lawyer and budding politician.
Castro
often attended winter league games. In addition, Black played a
one-on-one
basketball game with the future “jefe.” Castro corresponded with Black
when
Black was with the Dodgers in 1952.30
In
1951, the Dodgers
purchased his and Jim
Gilliam’s
contracts from the Elite Giants for $11,000.31
The
Dodgers sent Black to
their Triple-A teams in Montreal and St. Paul, where he posted a
combined 11-12
record with a 3.28 ERA.32
During
the winter he
returned to Cuba to play for the Cienfuegos team. Ray
Noble (a
Cuban catcher for the New York Giants), and Cienfuegos
manager Billy
Herman helped
Black improve his control and set batters up. “It was there,” Black
recalled,
“that I truly learned to combine the mental and physical aspects of
pitching.”33
In
Cuba, Black pitched
163 innings in 27 games, leading the league in ERA (2.42) and games won
(15),
while losing six games.34
Black’s
time in Cuba
opened his eyes “to recognize that all societies don’t use skin
pigmentation as
an evaluation tool.”35 Even in Montreal and
St. Paul — far
from the American South — Black confronted racism, including the N-word
and
other slurs, much more from opposing teams’ players than from the fans.36
Black
pitched 170 innings
in the minors and another 163 innings in Cuba, so his arm was sore when
he
showed up at the Dodgers’ Vero Beach spring training camp in 1952.37 He didn’t tell anyone.
He had
neither a contract nor a place on the roster.
The
team’s spring
training facility, Dodgertown, was integrated. Black and white players
slept,
ate, and practiced together in the compound. It had its own swimming
pool,
basketball court, pool tables, and occasional movie nights. But the
world
immediately outside Dodgertown was segregated. Blacks couldn’t eat in
the
restaurants or get a haircut and were banned from Vero Beach’s beaches,
movie
theaters, and golf courses. Laundries wouldn’t take their clothing.
When the
Dodgers traveled to play exhibition games, black and white players had
to stay
in separate hotels.38
The
Dodgers assigned
Black to room with Robinson. When Robinson walked into the room they
were
sharing in Vero Beach, he asked Black, “Can you fight?” “Yeah,” Black
responded. “But we’re not going to fight,” Robinson said. He explained,
“We
can’t allow those crazy sons of bitches to bother us. We have the
ability to
play, and we’re going to show them that we’re in baseball to stay.”39 Robinson took the time
to “impress
upon me the psychological changes that must be endured by the black
ballplayers,” Black recalled.40 Robinson had endured
racial slurs
from fans and opposing players, even years after he’d established
himself as a
star ballplayer. “I couldn’t have done it,” Black said.41
Rooming
with Robinson
helped give Black the perspective he needed to channel his anger on the
mound.
Several white Dodgers extended their hand in friendship to Black,
including
Preacher Roe, who was the first player to greet him when he arrived at
the Vero
Beach clubhouse. Roe was an outstanding pitcher who grew up in rural
Arkansas,
and who, like Black, was one of the few players to have graduated from
college.42 Other players helped
him adjust to
pitching in the majors. Catcher Roy
Campanella taught
Black not to tax himself too much while warming up
before games. He observed that he was “throwing your best pitches
before the
game.”43
The
Dodger rookie would become the 25th person of color to play in the
major
leagues in the 20th century. He was only the fifth Black pitcher. He
was the
fifth Black player to wear Dodger Blue.
Manager
Chuck Dressen
first put Black into a game on May 1 when he started the seventh inning
against
the Cubs at Wrigley Field. He struck out slugger Hank
Sauer (that
year’s NL MVP), struck out third baseman Randy
Jackson,
and got catcher Toby
Atwell (who
was leading the NL in batting) to ground out to
second base.44 The game put the
Dodgers in first
place, ahead of the Giants, where they would remain for the rest of the
season.
After
his first seven
appearances (14 innings), Black’s ERA stood at 0.00. At the All-Star
break,
Black was 3-0 with five saves in 38 2/3 innings, with a 1.63 ERA.
Dressen
relied on him more during the second half of the season. Black lifted
up the
Dodgers to help compensate for the loss of Don
Newcombe (who
was in the army) and for the injuries to the other pitching
mainstays, including Preacher
Roe, Carl
Erskine,
and Ralph
Branca.
Dressen used Black as a utility reliever. In his 54 relief
appearances, he pitched less than two innings 22 times, two innings 17
times,
three innings four times, four innings four times, five innings three
times,
six innings twice, seven innings once, and eight innings once. Eight of
his 11
stints pitching four innings or more occurred down the stretch in
August and
September.45
By
the
end of the season, he had appeared in 56 games with a 15-4 record and
15 saves.
In 142 innings, he struck out 85 batters, walked only 41, and gave up
just nine
home runs. Black’s 2.15 ERA was the NL’s lowest, but he was eight
innings short
of the threshold for the title. The winner was another rookie reliever,
the
Giants’ Hoyt Wilhelm, with a 2.43 ERA in 159 innings.
Black,
who stood 6’2” and
220 pounds, with broad shoulders, long arms, and big hands, had only
two
pitches — a powerful fastball and a “nickel curve,” which broke like a
slider.
He made up for his limited repertoire by having pinpoint control.46
Toward
the end of the
season, Black received a letter that included a death threat from
someone
claiming to be a Giants fan. Black had to endure a police escort to and
from
the ballpark.47
Throughout
the season,
Black faced racist catcalls from fans and opposing players. When that
happened,
Robinson would typically walk to the mound to calm Black down. “Forget
it,” he
said. “Just pitch.”48 One night after a game
with the
Cardinals, Stan
Musial apologized
for his teammates’ racist remarks. “I’m sorry that happened,” Musial
said, “but
don’t let things like that bother you. You’re a good pitcher.”49 At that time, the
Cardinals did not
have a single person of color in their entire organization.
Black
could intimidate
opposing hitters by knocking them down with his fastball. “We’re
professionals,” he explained. “If I send a guy into the dirt, it isn’t
personal.” But at times he used the knock-down pitch as a weapon
against
racism. In one game, players on the all-white Cincinnati Reds (they did
not
integrate until 1954) began singing “Old Black Joe” from the opposing
team’s
dugout, trying to rattle Black on the mound. “I was seething,” Black
recalled.
He quickly knocked down several Reds hitters. After that, Black
recalled, “The
singing came to a halt.”50
Dressen
started Black in his two final games of the season, thinking that he
might have
to use him as a starter in the World Series.
The
World Series was between two New York City teams. They were scheduled
to play
seven games in seven days, with no travel days in between. That shaped
Dressen’s decision to start Black in the first game, anticipating that
he would
pitch the fourth game and, if necessary, the seventh game.
Wrote
AP sportswriter
Gayle Talbot, “Never before in big league history has a champion of
either
circuit been forced to undertake such as desperate gamble.”51 New York Times writer
John Debringer wrote that Black “found himself cast in as difficult a
role as
ever was assigned to a rookie.”52
In
the opening game,
Black threw a six-hitter to beat Allie
Reynolds 4-2,
making him the first African American pitcher to win
a World Series game. 53 Three days later,
Black faced
Reynolds again in the fourth game at Yankee Stadium. Black gave up only
three
hits and one run in seven innings. But Reynolds pitched a shutout and
defeated
the Dodgers 2-0. (Dodgers reliever John Rutherford gave up another run
in the
eighth inning).54 Strapped for pitching,
Dressen
called on Black to start the seventh game at Ebbets Field. “Brooklyn’s
Hopes
for Series Honors Ride on Trusty Arm of Joe Black Today,” read the New York Times headline
that morning.55 Black pitched well for
three
innings, giving up no hits and no runs, but then, in his third start in
seven
days, he ran out of gas. In both the fourth and fifth innings he
surrendered
two hits and one run, including a homer by Gene
Woodling.
In the sixth inning, Black gave up a home run to Mickey
Mantle and
a single to Johnny
Mize.
Dressen brought in Roe to relieve Black. Four Yankee pitchers
held the Dodgers to two runs for a 4-2 victory and the World Series
championship.
Although
Black was
aggressive on the mound, he had an easy-going personality. He got along
well
with reporters. The press liked Black because he was smart, articulate,
and
straightforward with them. New York Times sports
columnist Arthur Daley wrote that Black is “far more intelligent than
the
average ball player, better educated (he’s a graduate of Morgan State
College)
and has a sharper sense of humor.” Black, he wrote, was “just bursting
with
class.”56
For
the most part,
reporters treated him well in their stories. At the end of the pennant
race,
and after the Sporting News had
named him
Rookie of the Year, Black sent a bottle of scotch to the scribes who
traveled
with the Dodgers during the season as a “small token of gratitude for
having
written so many nice things about me this season.”57
Toward
the end of the
season, sportswriters debated whether Black or Wilhelm would win the
NL’s
Rookie of the Year award, selected by the Baseball Writers Association
of
America. Wilhelm had a better W-L record (15-3 vs. 15-4), pitched in
more games
(71 vs. 56), and hurled more innings (159 vs. 141). Black had a better
ERA
(2.15 to 2.43) and his team won the pennant. Wilhelm’s Giants finished
second.
Nineteen writers voted for Black; only three voted for Wilhelm.58
Most
baseball experts
expected the NL MVP award to go either to Black or Robin
Roberts.
The righty Roberts was 28-7 with 30 complete games with the
fourth-place Philadelphia Phillies. 59
But
when the BWAA made the announcement on November 21, Hank Sauer, the
slugging
outfielder for the fifth-place Chicago Cubs, was declared the winner.
Sauer
tied for the NL lead in homers (37), led the league in RBIs (121), and
batted
.270.
The
selection of Sauer
was controversial among sportswriters and fans.60 United Press
sportswriter Oscar
Fraley observed that “anybody who knows the difference between a bunt
and a
punt must be completely flabbergasted” by Sauer’s selection.61
Twenty-four
baseball
writers, three from each National League city, cast ballots.62 Sauer received 226
votes, Roberts
211, and Black 206, followed by Wilhelm (133 votes) and Musial (127
votes).
Sauer and Black each got eight first-place votes, followed by Roberts’
seven
first-place tallies. (The Dodgers’ Duke
Snider earned
the one other first-place vote).63
Some
writers may have
believed that an everyday player, not a pitcher, should get the MVP
award.64 Between 1911 (when the
award was
first bestowed) and 1951, only 12 pitchers, and one reliever (the
Phillies’ Jim
Konstanty in 1950), had won that prize. Sauer may have prevailed
because
writers divided their votes between three pitchers — Black, Roberts,
and
Wilhelm — which allowed Sauer to win the award.65
According
to United
Press’ Fraley, three of the 24 writers left Black’s name off their
ballots
entirely and one gave Black a tenth-place vote. Jackie Robinson
approached one
of those writers and accused him of racism.66
This
controversy over whether pitchers should get the MVP over everyday
position
players led eventually to creation of the Cy Young award for best
pitchers in
1956.
Despite
starting three
World Series games and winning the Rookie of the Year award, Black
accepted a
contract for only $12,500 for the next season.67
Black
players had fewer opportunities
to earn extra money from endorsements than their white counterparts.
But after
his rookie season, Black — a genuine star and photogenic — made money
doing ads
for Lucky Strike cigarettes (even though he didn’t smoke) and writing a
column,
sponsored by Lucky Strikes, which ran in black newspapers. In one June
1953
column, Black described how teammates Pee
Wee Reese and
Robinson approach base stealing, concluding, “Yessir,
base stealing adds a lot of enjoyment to a ballgame. Just like Luckies
will add
a lot of enjoyment to your smoking hours once you’ve made them your
steady
smoke.”68
Near
the end of the
baseball season, Dressen told Black that he might need him to become a
starting
pitcher and that he should add a new pitch to his repertoire. While
pitching
for Roy Campanella’s all-Black post-season barnstorming team, Black
experimented trying to throw a knuckleball, without success. When Black
got to
Vero Beach for spring training, he tried to learn to pitch a forkball,
a
change-up, and a sinker, but he couldn’t grip the ball properly because
of a
deformity he had on his index finger. The Dodger coaches worked with
Black to
experiment on his stride on the mound, at times urging him to lengthen
it and
at other times to shorten it. Nothing worked, so Dressen told Black to
go back
to his former pitching style. But by then Black had forgotten what he’d
done to
achieve so much success in his rookie year. He couldn’t get his old
form back,
and each time he took the mound — during spring training and after the
season
started — he had lost his form and, with it, his confidence.69
In
his second season,
Black was no longer the domineering pitcher he had been in 1952. He
could still
throw hard, but his control, timing, and pitching mechanics suffered.
His
teammates and even players on opposing teams offered advice, but it
didn’t
help. By July, Dressen no longer trusted Black as the closer. Black
pitched in
fewer games and clutch situations. Black recalled that “I was not a
pitcher. I
was a thrower, without control or confidence.”70 The Dodgers won the
pennant, but
Black’s contribution was nothing like his previous year’s record. He
pitched in
34 games and only 71 innings. His W-L record was 6-3, but his ERA
skyrocketed
to 5.33. He had only five saves. He pitched only one inning during the
Yankees-Dodgers six game World Series.
In
1954, the Dodgers’ new
manager, Walter
Alston,
used
Black sparingly. By May 26 he had pitched in five games and given up 11
hits,
including three homers in seven innings, walked five batters, and
struck out
three, with a 11.57 ERA.71
On
May
30 the Dodgers demoted him to their Montreal AAA team. Soon after
arriving in
Montreal, the team doctor discovered that Black had torn muscles in his
right
shoulder. This helped account for the loss of speed on his fastball.
For the
rest of the season, a doctor gave him weekly cortisone shots to ease
the pain.
His performance improved. He started 24 games and relieved in seven
more. In
185 innings, he struck out 94 batters and walked 61, but allowed 181
hits. He
won 12 games, lost 10 games, and finished with a 3.60 ERA.
Black
spent the fall
barnstorming again with Campanella’s all-stars, showing signs of
recovering his
rookie year brilliance.72 He pitched 15 innings
with a 2.93
ERA, but it didn’t satisfy the Dodger brass. On June 9, they traded him
to the
Cincinnati Reds for outfielder Bob
Borkowski.
That year the Dodgers would win their first World Series, but
Black was no longer on the team.
The
Reds used him in as both a starter (11 games) and reliever (21 games).
He
pitched 102 innings, went 5-2, with a 4.22 ERA.
In
1956, manager Birdie
Tebbetts used
Black exclusively in relief. He accumulated a 3-2
record and 4.52 ERA in 32 outings, but his performance was uneven. He
won his
last major league game on June 24, going five and two-thirds innings
without
giving up a hit to beat the Dodgers in relief.
In
January 1957, the
Redlegs sold Black to the Seattle Raniers in the Pacific Coast League.
During
the Raniers’ spring training in San Bernardino, Black’s arm began
hurting. A
doctor at the local VA hospital did X-rays. They revealed bone chips in
his
right elbow and a small crack developing in his humerus, the bone from
the shoulder
to the elbow. Afraid of being let go, he didn’t tell anyone.
Manager Lefty
O’Doul used
Black as both a starter and reliever. In 23 2/3
innings he gave up 34 hits and 17 runs.73
On
May 25, after going
1-1, with a 4.94 ERA, Black was sold to the Tulsa Oilers, a Phillies
franchise
in the AA Texas League.74 He made his first
start on June 4
against Oklahoma City. Black pitched nine innings and left with the
score tied
5 to 5. At the end of June, he was put on the disabled list with a sore
arm.
After a few more so-so outings, Tulsa released him on July 16. By then,
he
could barely lift his arm.
At
the end of July, after
serving as a part-time batting practice pitcher with the Dodgers,75 Black contacted
Washington Senators
manager Cookie
Lavagetto,
a
former Dodger infielder, to ask for a chance. The Senators signed him
as a free
agent on August 1, making him the team’s first American-born black
player.76 (The team had three
black Cubans
and one black Panamanian before hiring Black).77
Black
had lost the
velocity on his fastball, and lost his confidence, and players teed off
on him.
He pitched seven games and 12 2/3 innings for the Senators, giving up
22 hits,
losing one game, and ending the season with a 7.11 ERA. His last major
league
outing was on September 11, 1957 against the Tigers.78 At season’s end,
despite his sore
arm, he joined barnstorming teams in Panama, the Dominican Republic,
Mexico,
Texas, and the West Coast. In Waco, Black and his black teammates went
to a
segregated movie theater. To demonstrate the irrationality of racism,
Black,
speaking Spanish, convinced the theater manager he was Cuban and was
allowed to
sit in the all-white seating section.79
When
he returned his
Senators contract unsigned, the team gave him his unconditional release
on
November 25, 1957. He could not endure more cortisone shots to relieve
his
pain, but he was unwilling to undergo an operation.80 At 33, his
professional baseball
career was over.
For
the
next six years — from 1957 through 1963 — Black taught physical
education and
coached baseball at the junior high school and high school levels in
Plainfield,
his hometown. Black’s students were a roughly equal mix of black and
white
young people, although he was one of the few black teachers in the
school
district. Black was a popular teacher and a stern disciplinarian, well
known
for his after-school “happy hour” sessions of tough conditioning
exercises and
calisthenics for students who did not take his gym classes seriously.
While
teaching, he took
graduate classes in education at Rutgers University and Seton Hall
University,
but didn’t complete his master’s degree, as he had hoped to do.81 As a teacher, Black
earned about
$4200 a year. To make extra money, he worked part-time in a local
department
store and sold encyclopedias. He occasionally pitched for several local
semipro
teams and sometimes pitched batting practice for major-league clubs. He
organized an integrated barnstorming team, Joe Black’s All-Stars, that
played
in towns across New Jersey and Pennsylvania.82 He also ran
Plainfield’s Optimist
Baseball League for 13 to 15 year old boys, insisting that every
player,
regardless of talent level, play at least two innings each game.83
Black
enjoyed teaching, but he had alimony and child support to pay and he
was not
earning enough to provide for himself and his family. Greyhound threw
him a
lifeline. He worked for the company from 1963 to 1987, much longer than
he
played professional baseball.
In
1961, six years after the Montgomery bus boycott, Americans watching
television
saw black and white civil rights activists being pummeled by white
racist thugs
as they exited from buses they sought to integrate as part of the
Freedom
Rides.
As
the nation’s
best-known bus line, Greyhound became associated with segregation in
the eyes
of the black community. To address this image problem, Greyhound began
a
recruitment effort to hire more African American employees, including
drivers
and sales executives. It also began a series of advertisements showing
black
and white passengers sitting in the same sections of buses.84
In
1962, Greyhound recruited Black to represent the company to black
communities
and let them know that Greyhound did not condone racist violence or
segregation, or discriminate in hiring black employees.
In
September 1963, Black moved to Chicago, home of Greyhound’s
headquarters, to
become director of special markets. By 1967, he was promoted to vice
president
of special markets for the parent company, Greyhound Corporation. When
Greyhound moved its headquarters to Phoenix in 1971, Black moved there
as well.
Black
did a great deal of traveling, speaking to community groups, churches,
schools,
colleges, corporate seminars, and other organizations around the
country.
Although
his implicit message was that Greyhound was a good corporate citizen,
his
explicit message was to encourage parents to push their children to do
well in
school and to tell young people that education and hard work was the
path out
of poverty and into the middle class.
On
behalf of Greyhound,
Black developed local Woman of the Year and Father of the Year awards,
given to
people who helped improve their communities. Black would arrive to
deliver a
speech and give out the awards. Black also invited black professionals
to talk
to local young people about their educational and career trajectories.
He
organized seminars for young people about drug and alcohol abuse. He
also
helped black people get jobs with Greyhound. He got Greyhound to donate
to
black colleges and establish college scholarships, purchase goods from
minority-owned businesses, and open accounts with local black-owned
banks.85 To keep his hand in
baseball, he
persuaded Greyhound to sponsor an award for the players who led each
league in
stolen bases. Black presented the award every year.
Black
acknowledged that
for many years, “I accepted the rewards of the [civil rights] Movement
passively, which wasn’t exactly paying one’s dues.” After meeting
Martin Luther
King he learned “how much greater the Movement is than the individual.”
He committed
himself “to extend my hand, to help black people understand our
responsibilities, within our community, during our quest for equality
of
opportunity — and to help de-emphasize hate.”86 Black was one of many
athletes and
entertainers who attended the 1963 March on Washington, and three years
later,
at the invitation of Rev. Jesse Jackson, he joined pickets in front of
Chicago
stores that refused to hire or promote black employees. When King was
murdered
in 1968, Black flew to Atlanta and served as an usher at the funeral at
Ebenezer Baptist Church.87
In
1972, after Jackie
Robinson had become partly blind and close to death from diabetes,
Black
pressured Commissioner Bowie Kuhn to honor Robinson for breaking
baseball’s
color barrier 25 years earlier. Kuhn invited Robinson to throw out the
first
ball before the second game of the World Series in Cincinnati on
October 15. Robinson
used the occasion to criticize baseball for its slow racial progress.88 After Robinson died
nine days
later, Black was one of the six pallbearers at his funeral.89
Between
1969 and 1985,
Black wrote a syndicated column, “By the Way,” that was published
in Ebony and Jet magazines
and about 40 black newspapers, including the Chicago Defender and Pittsburgh
Courier. Each column included his
photograph and was always signed “Joe Black, Vice President, The
Greyhound
Corporation.” He also recorded his columns for broadcast on over 50
radio
stations serving black listeners.90
In
his
speeches and columns, Black acknowledged the harsh realities of racism,
and
expressed support for the civil rights movement in overturning
barriers, but he
also put much of the onus on the black community.
In
1979, he told a
newspaper columnist that his message to black audiences was that “the
social
revolution is over. We accomplished what we set out to do. Now we must
take
advantage of each new opportunity that is presented.”91
Black
was like a stern parent. He stressed the importance of education, hard
work,
ambition, respect for women, the responsibilities of black fathers, the
problem
of street crime and violence within black communities, the need for
more
black-owned businesses, the centrality of religious faith, the
necessity for
black Americans to participate in civic and community life, the need
for
graduates of black colleges to donate to their alma maters to help them
thrive,
and to take full advantage of the new voting rights laws.
In
one
column, Black wrote, “Yelling words and mouthing phrases like ‘Black
Power,’
‘Soul,’ or ‘black is beautiful’ can’t erase the problems in the ghetto.
What
can erase them are the things we can do to help our young people
understand the
true meaning of ‘intellectual power.’ If they learn, they’ll have a
better
chance to earn.” He encouraged parents to visit their kids’ schools,
talk with
the teachers, get involved with the PTA, and participate in
neighborhood
activities.
As
he explained in his
autobiography, “The ‘system’ is designed to allow some Black people to
‘escape’
from their socio-economic deprivation. And for reasons, not known to
me, I was
designated as one of the chosen few.”92 Black’s main message —
which both
reflected his personal feelings and was in line with the ideology of
big
corporations like Greyhound — focused on black self-help. He emphasized
the
importance of “educational preparation, pride, initiative, loyalty, and
respect.”93
These
values may have reflected mainstream attitudes in the black community,
but some
black activists believed that Black was “blaming the victim.” He was
occasionally labeled an “Uncle Tom” or an “Oreo” (black on the outside,
white
on the inside).
Black’s
educational
background, hard work, and high salary didn’t immunize him from the
reality of
racism. When he interviewed Black for The Boys of Summer,
Roger Kahn asked him why he lived on Chicago’s far south side, a
predominantly
black neighborhood a long way from his job at Greyhound’s downtown
headquarters, when he could afford a more fashionable neighborhood.
Black
explained that he and his wife had once sought to buy a home in a
development
in the Chicago suburb of Lombard that included a pool, tennis courts,
and a
community social hall.
The
sales manager asked Black where he worked. “The Greyhound Company,”
Black
answered. “What are you? A driver?” the sales manager asked. After
Black handed
him a card showing that he was a vice president, the sales manager
asked, “What
do you make?” Black said he, “Put down in excess of thirty five
thousand
dollars a year.” The amount put him at the upper end of the middle
class. The
sales manager asked Black if his job required him to do a lot of
traveling and
Black explained that he was often on the road. The sales manager said,
“Well,
you certainly earn enough, but if you travel, I can’t encourage you to
buy. We
don’t let anyone use the recreation room until they’re eighteen, and
some of
these seventeen-year olds, pretty husky fellers by the way, are kicking
up a
fuss. Rebelling. Throwing stones. Acting up. Now, Mr. Black, it
certainly would
be a terrible thing if these white seventeen-year-olds threw rocks
through the
window of your thirty-two-thousand dollar house, possibly injuring your
wife
while you were traveling and not here to protect her.”
Black’s
white friends offered to buy one of the houses and then sell it to him
— a
tactic that was often used by civil rights groups seeking to integrate
housing
developments. Black refused. “Like hell. Something like that happens to
you
every day in your life if you’re black.”
As
Black told Kahn,
“There are plenty of places where, if a black man wants to live there,
he has
to fight a war.” Black didn’t want to fight a war. As Kahn wrote, “he
has
adjusted to bigotry, without accepting it.”94
Black
had a wide network
of friends among celebrities in show business, sports, politics, and
business.
One was Bill Cosby. In 1991, Cosby invited Black and Frank
Robinson to
appear on an episode of The Cosby
Show, portraying former Negro League players
reminiscing about
their former teammates and rivals.95
As
an expression of their
common support for education as a means of upward mobility, Cosby
headed a
fundraising event in 2006 at Morgan State to raise money for the Joe
Black
Endowed Scholarship for Aspiring Teachers.96
Black
retired from Greyhound in 1987, at age 63, after his daughter Martha Jo
graduated from high school.
In
1989, soon after he
became Baseball Commissioner, Bart Giamatti hired Black to talk with
players
about their futures. Black played at a time before the players union
had freed
players from the reserve clause. This gave rise to sports agents and
huge
salaries. By 1990, the minimum MLB salary was $100,000; the average was
$597,537. The harsh reality was that the average player spent only five
years
in the big leagues, but few gave much thought to managing their money
and
planning for life after their playing days were over. Black visited
players to
discuss these matters, urging them to meet with financial planners to
help
invest their earnings wisely, and to go back to school in the
off-season to
complete their educations. But he quickly became discouraged because
players
showed little interest. “Ninety percent of them don’t think about that.
They
all think, ‘I’m going to play until the day I die.’”97
If
Black couldn’t help
contemporary players plan for their futures, he could help former
players who
were down on their luck. In 1986, a group of former major league
players (led
by Joe
Garagiola and
Ralph Branca) created the Baseball Alumni Team (later renamed the
Baseball
Assistance Team) to identify and help former players who couldn’t pay
their
rent or mortgage, utility bills, medical bills, or for a proper funeral
for a
spouse. Black, who became one of BAT’s vice presidents, would hear
about an
indigent ex-player or his widow and often make a personal visit to
assess their
situation and offer support. Some of them were players (or their
widows) that
Black had played with or against. Black drew on his network of retired
players,
and traveled to spring training camps to raise money for the BAT fund
among
current players. Some made significant contributions but he was
saddened that
others with multi-million salaries refused to help.
In
1992, Black urged
Commissioner Fay Vincent to compensate living Negro Leaguers, most of
whom
never got the opportunity to play in the majors. Some also faced hard
times.
“These men don’t want charity, but they should be included in the
Players
Association medical plan,” Black said.98 Vincent asked Black
and Len Coleman
(a former football star at Princeton and former commissioner of New
Jersey’s
Department of Community Affairs) to recommend a plan. They suggested
that those
who played in the Negro Leagues before Robinson joined the Dodgers in
1947
should be eligible. In 1993, MLB gave 39 Negro League veterans and
their
spouses lifetime health insurance.
But
it took a lawsuit by
former Negro League and Boston Braves star Sam
Jethroe to
force MLB to deal with the problem that most former
Negro League players lacked the full four years in the majors required
to be eligible
for a pension. A federal judge dismissed the suit because the statute
of
limitations had expired. But Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf
convinced other owners to set up a special fund to provide annual
payments of
$7,500 to $10,000 to 85 former Negro League players who had also played
at
least one day in the majors. Coleman, by then NL president, appointed
Black to
chair the committee administering the pension plan, which began in
1997. In
2004, two years after Black died, Commissioner Bud
Selig expanded
eligibility for the program to 27 other players who
spent at least four years in the Negro Leagues but who never played in
the
majors.99
Black
became a well-known figure in Phoenix. He did a lot of charity work in
the
area, serving on the boards of the local Big Brothers organization, the
Salvation Army, the National Minority Junior Golf Scholarship
Association, and
a member of the local Kiwanis Club. He was also in demand as public
speaker.
In
1993, soon after MLB awarded Phoenix a new franchise, the new team —
the
Arizona Diamondbacks — hired Black to serve as its community affairs
representative. He was a regular in the Diamondbacks’ dugout during
batting
practice and in the press box and regularly attended major leagues
games around
the country.
Black
was sitting near
the Marlins dugout during seventh game of the 1997 World Series. With
the
Indians ahead 2-0 in the seventh inning, the Marlins’ Bobby
Bonilla was
in the on-deck circle, waiting to bat against
Cleveland’s rookie pitcher Jaret
Wright.
The youngster was pitching a one-hitter. Black called Bonilla
over and told him about pitching to Mickey Mantle in the seventh game
of the
1952 World Series. Black got Mantle out twice by pitching him inside
but when
Mantle came to bat for the third time in the sixth inning, he adjusted
his
batting stance by stepping back in the batter’s box. Black didn’t
notice and
Mantle smashed a home run. Forty-five years later, Black urged Bonilla
(4 for
26 in the series), to learn from Mantle’s example. Bonilla followed his
advice,
stepped back in the batter’s box, and hit a homer. Bonilla glanced over
at
Black as he rounded third base. The Marlins eventually won the game
(and the
World Series) in the 11th inning. 100
Many
people recounted
Black’s generosity. During spring training in 1955, when Black was
struggling
to maintain his place on the Dodgers’ roster, he befriended Sandy
Koufax,
then a rookie. Many Dodgers resented Koufax because, as a
“bonus baby,” he was guaranteed a place on the roster irrespective of
his
experience or talent. The fact that he was Jewish compounded their
hostility.
“I was shunned by every player on the team except one. Joe Black came
over to
me, put his arm around me, and said, ‘Come on, kid, I’ll show you the
ropes.’
We became great friends for life even though Joe was traded to
Cincinnati in
the middle of the season. He was there for me in my time of need.”101 According to his
biographer,
“Koufax never forgot Joe Black’s kindness.”102
Deeply
religious and a
regular church goer, Black didn’t smoke or drink, but when his playing
days
ended he ate to excess and by his 60s had ballooned to close to 300
pounds.
Although he was a public figure with many friends, he described himself
as a
“homebody” with little appetite for parties and the social whirl.103 Despite his strong
belief in
family, Black was a failure as a husband. He was married seven times.
“My
marriages didn’t work because neither party worked hard enough for them
to
work,” he explained in his autobiography.104
Black
had two children —
Joe Frank Black (known as Chico), born May 26, 1952, and Martha Jo,
born July
5, 1969. He took parenting responsibilities seriously and was a devoted
father.
When he and Martha Jo’s mother divorced, Black fought for and won
custody of
his five-year old daughter at a time, 1975, when courts rarely granted
custody
to fathers. As his daughter wrote in her memoir, Joe Black: More Than A Dodger,
Black “went to every PTA meeting. He’d tell my teachers, ‘Hi, I’m Joe
Black,
I’m Martha Jo’s father. If there’s any problem, you call me.’ My dad
was very
instrumental in everything that I did. I loved my mother, but my father
was a
great parent.”105 She recalled, “The
best part of my
dad was that he raised me as a single parent in Paradise Valley,
Arizona.”106 Martha Jo works in
marketing for
the Chicago White Sox. Joe (Chico) Black works for MAAX Industries in
Arizona.
Black
was inducted into
Morgan State’s Sports Hall of Fame. He received honorary degrees from
Shaw
College in Detroit (1974), 107 Central States
University (1977),108 and Morgan State
(1983). 109 In 1981, Black
received the
Distinguished Broadcaster Award from the Academy of Professional
Broadcasters
for “influence on the minds and lives of young Black Americans” through
the
radio broadcasts of his “By the Way” columns.110 In 1987, Coretta Scott
King
bestowed Black with the Martin Luther King Distinguished Service Award
at a
ceremony in Atlanta.111 That same year, he was
honored by
the National Association for Sickle Cell Disease for his work as a
board member
and for educating the public about the disease.112 In 1991, he delivered
the
commencement address at Miles College, an historically black
institution in
Birmingham.113 In 2001, he was
inducted into the
New Jersey Sports Hall of Fame.
Black
died of prostate
cancer on May 17, 2002 at age 78 at the Life Care Center in Scottsdale,
Arizona. Memorial services were held in Phoenix and Plainfield,
attended by
hundreds of friends, family, and former teammates and students. In
Plainfield, Barbara
Hill sang one of Black’s favorite songs, “If I Can Help Somebody.”114 He wanted his ashes
spread on the
Plainfield High School baseball field. City officials refused to allow
it, but
his son Chico visited the diamond and scattered them there anyway.115
The
honors continued
after he died. Morgan State created the Joe Black Endowed Scholarship
for
Aspiring Teachers. In 2010, the Washington Nationals created an annual
Joe
Black Award given to a person or group that promotes baseball in
Washington’s
inner city. In 2002, the Arizona Fall League, where major league
prospects hone
their skills, named its annual MVP trophy for Black.116 The Arizona
Diamondbacks named a
room at Chase Field in his honor. In 2010, the Plainfield school board
named
the Plainfield High School baseball complex the Joe Black Baseball
Field.117
Many
writers describe
Black as having risen “out of nowhere” to lead the Dodgers to the 1952
pennant.
This is misleading. As Black told Roger Kahn, “I couldn’t go into
organized
ball until Jackie made it and the quotas let me, and if we want to get
sad, we
can think that I pitched my greatest games in miserable ball parks, in
the
colored league, with nobody watching.”118
But
Black was not resentful. Throughout his life, he expressed appreciation
for the
opportunities he had to play MLB and to use that experience, plus his
college
education and hard work, as a springboard for his career as a teacher,
in
corporate America, and as part of the civil rights movement.
Black
touched many lives
in many ways. “Baseball was the least of what he did,” said his friend
Jerry
Reinsdorf.119 “He was a
psychologist, a
humanist, a businessman and, across his 78 years, a magnificent
advertisement
for America,” wrote Roger Kahn.120
Acknowledgments
Thanks
to Cassidy Lent at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Giamatti Library
and
Research Center; Martha Jo Black; Larry Treadwell, Lucera Parker, David
Alexander, and Paul Baker at Shaw University; Erika Gorder, Dory
Devlin, Daniel
Villanueva, Betsy Feliciano-Berrios, and Carissa Sestito at Rutgers
University;
Laurie Pine at Seton Hall University; Gary Fink; E.J. Krieger; Mike
Long; Bill
Nowlin; Jacob Pomrenke; and Alan Cohen.
This
biography was reviewed by Donna Halper and Bruce Harris and
fact-checked by
Paul Proia.
Sources
In
addition to the sources shown in the notes, the author used
Baseball-Reference.com and Seamheads.com.
Notes
1 Carl
Lundquist, “Dodgers Break Even With Giants on Joe Black’s
Pitching,” Knoxville (Tenn.)
News- Sentinel, September 9, 1952:
12.
2 Martha
Jo Black and Chuck Schoffner, Joe Black: More
Than A Dodger
(Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2015), 4.
3 Joe
Black, Ain’t
Nobody Better than You (Scottsdale, Arizona: Ironwood
Lithographers, 1983), 21.
4 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
28.
5 “Achievement
Records Set in PHS Gym,” Plainfield (NJ)
Courier News,
March 15, 1941: 15.
6 Hugh
Delano, “The Inside Track,” Plainfield Courier
News,
June 17, 1960: 30.
7 Richard
Goldstein, “Joe Black, Pitching Pioneer for the Dodgers, Dies at
78,” New
York Times, May 18, 2002: A13, https://www.NYTimes.com/2002/05/18/sports/joe-black-pitching-pioneer-for-the-dodgers-dies-at-78.html; Milton
Brown, “Gentleman Joe,” The Oracle,
Fall
2017: 20, https://oppf12d.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Oracle-Fall-2017.pdf.
This
article is based on an interview Black did with Brown in 2000.
8 The
team took the same name as a team in the Negro Leagues, but it was a
different
entity.
9 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
29-30.
10 “Black
Yankees Trounce Marinos,” Plainfield (NJ)
Courier-News, June 1, 1942: 12.
11 “Black
Yanks Beat Brunswick Nine,” Plainfield (NJ)
Courier-News,
July 6, 1942: 13.
12 “Black
Pitches No-Hit Game for the Yankees,” Plainfield (NJ)
Courier-News,
July 13, 1942: 12.
13 Brown,
“Gentleman Joe,” 21.
14 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
34-37.
15 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
61-64.
16 Dick
Clark and Larry Lester, editors, The Negro Leagues
Book (Cleveland:
Society for American Baseball Research, 1994); and http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=black01joe; Because
Morgan State didn’t have a baseball team, Black did not jeopardize his
amateur
status, according to the rules of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic
Association, the athletic conference of historically black colleges.
17 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
39; “Joe Black, PHS Great, Stars with
Army Nine,” Plainfield Courier
News, August 22,
1944: 11.
18 Black
and Schoffner, Joe Black,
145.
19 Roger
Kahn, The
Boys of Summer (New York: Harper and Row,
1971), 278.
20 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
41-42.
21 “Saracens
to Face Carters A.C. For City Independent Grid Title Thursday at Green
Brook,” Plainfield
(NJ) Courier-News, November 24, 1943:
13.
22 “Joe
Black, PHS Great, Stars with Army Nine,” 11; “Topeka Ball Club at Camp
Crowder
Sunday,” Neosho (Missouri) Daily Democrat,
May
19, 1945: 3.
23 “Joe
Black, PHS Great, Stars With Army Nine,” 11.
24 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
71-73.
25 “Star
Quintets Play in Crowder Tourney,” Joplin (Missouri) Globe,
January 10, 1946: 8A.
26 Goldstein,
“Joe Black, Pitching Pioneer”: A13.
27 “Seeks
Pro Career,” Plainfield Courier
News, November
14, 1947: 23.
28 “Former
PHS Star on S. American Nine,” Plainfield Courier
News,
November 13, 1947: 24.
29 Dick
Clark and Larry Lester, 314; Larry Lester, Black Baseball’s
National Showcase:
The East-West All-Star Game (Lincoln, Nebraska:
University of
Nebraska Press, 2001), 348-349 and 440.
30 Black, Ain’t Nobody, 75-76;
Black and Schoffner, Joe Black,
166.
31 Buzzy
Bavasi, “The Real Secret of Trading,” Sports Illustrated,
June 5, 1967, https://vault.si.com/vault/1967/06/05/the-real-secret-of-trading; https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B/Pblacj103.htm.
32 https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=black-001jos.
33 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
81.
34 Black
and Schoffner, Joe Black,
172.
35 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
82.
36 Black, Ain’t Nobody, 76-79.
37 Black
and Schoffner, Joe Black,
77.
38 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
85; Black and Schoffner, Joe Black, 38.
39 Arnold
Rampersad, Jackie Robinson: A
Biography (New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), 245.
40 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
85; Black and Schoffner, Joe Black,
86.
41 Harold
Parrott, “Inside Jackie Robinson,” The Sporting News,
February 3, 1973: 31-32.
42 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
88-89; Black and Schoffner, Joe Black,
41.
43 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
94.
44 Harold
Burr, “Dressen Orders Hit Drills For Rusty Flock,” Brooklyn Daily
Eagle, May 2, 1952: 16, https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1952/B05010CHN1952.htm.
45 https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1952/Kblacj1030011952.htm.
46 Neil
Lanctot, Campy: The Two
Lives of Roy Campanella (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 2011), 183; Gayle Talbot, “Joe Black Key to
Dodger Hopes
As Series Starts,” Nashville Banner,
October 1, 1952: 20.
47 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
114; Black, More Than,
198-202; “Black’s Life Threatened: Dodger
Ace Ordered to Stay Away From Polo Grounds,” New York Times,
September 5, 1952: 20.
48 Black, More Than,
123.
49 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
104.
50 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
102; Roger Kahn, Into My Own: The
Remarkable People and Events That Shaped a Life (New
York: St. Martin’s, 2007), 281; Peter Golenbock, Bums: An Oral
History of the Brooklyn Dodgers (New
York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1984), 319. In Kahn’s version, Black knocked
down two
Reds hitters; in Golenbeck’s version, he knocked down seven of them.
Black’s
daughter Martha Jo discusses Black’s use of the brushback pitch in her
biography, Joe Black: More
Than a Dodger, on
page 154. Black also mentions it in his autobiography, Ain’t Nobody Better
Than You on page 102. He is
clear that he used the brushback pitch as a weapon. The author has, in
the
text, quoted Black directly: “The singing came to a halt.”
51 Gayle
Tablot, “Rookie Hurler Carries Brooklyn Hopes,” Deseret
News and Telegram (Salt Lake City), September
30,
1952: 17.
52 John
Drebinger, “Three Dodger Homers Beat Yanks in Series Opener, 4-2,” New York Times,
October 2, 1952: 1.
53 https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1952/B10010BRO1952.htm.
54 https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1952/B10040NYA1952.htm.
55 Roscoe
McGowen, “Brooklyn’s Hopes for Series Honors Ride on Trusty Arm of Joe
Black
Today,” New
York Times, October 7, 1952: 36.
56 Arthur
Daley, “Most Valuable Player?” New York Times,
September 14, 1952: 2S.
57 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
135; Roscoe McGowen, “Roberts of Phils
Takes 27th Game By Turning Back Dodgers, 9 to 7,” New York Times,
September 25, 1952: 39.
58 John
Drebinger, “Black of Dodgers and Byrd of Athletics Capture Awards as
Rookies of
Year,” New
York Times, November 22, 1952: 18.
59 Arthur
Daley, “Most Valuable Player?” New York Times,
September 14, 1952: 2S.
60 Roscoe
McGowan, “Dodgers 4-Year Run Paced by Jackie, Peewee,” The Sporting News,
December 3, 1952: 15; John Drebinger, “Sauer Chosen Over Roberts and
Black As
Most Valuable in National League,” New York Times,
November 21, 1952: 30; Arthur Daley, “A Question of Value,” New York Times,
November 26, 1952: 30; Gayle Talbot,
“Eastern Writers Fuming Over West’s Alleged Bloc for Sauer,” Herald News (Passaic,
New Jersey), November 21,
1952:14.
61 Oscar
Fraley, “‘Halt and Blind’ Picked MVP Awards,” Tucson Daily Citizen,
November 22, 1952: 9.
62 https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/1952_National_League_Most_Valuable_Player_Award.
63 Black
and Schoffner, Joe Black,
275.
64 In
1952, the Cy Young Award for best pitcher did not yet exist. It began
in 1956.
65 In
the AL, Bobby Shantz (24-7, 2.48), the ace of the fourth-place
Philadelphia
Athletics, captured the MVP. It was the first time since 1938 that both
MVP
awards went to players whose teams didn’t win the pennant. John
Drebinger,
“Sauer Chosen Over Roberts and Black as Most Valuable in National
League,”
30, https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1952.shtml#NL_ROY_voting_link.
66 Oscar
Fraley, “Fraley Sour on Sauer’s Choice as Most Valuable,” Herald-News (Passaic,
New Jersey), November 21,
1952: 16; Joe Black, Ain’t Nobody,
118.
67 Kahn, The Boys, 255.
68 Black
and Schoffner, Joe Black,
155-56; here’s an
example of Black’s Lucky Strikes column in 1953, http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lcPCN/sn83045120/1953-07-11/ed-1/seq-5.pdf.
69 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
120-121. Black discussed how he lost
confidence after he changed his pitching style in this 2002 videotaped
interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwcKjumM8ac.
70 Black, More Than,
296.
71 https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1954/Kblacj1030031954.htm; https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/blackjo02.shtml.
72 Roscoe
McGowen, “Black and Roebuck of Dodgers Accept Terms for Next
Season,” New York Times,
January 6, 1955: 32.
73 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
128.
74 “Kretlow,
Black Sold By Raniers,” Longview (Washington) Daily News,
May 25,
1957: 3; Bruce Brown, “From the Sidelines,” San Bernardino Sun,
May 31, 1957: 25.
75 “Joe
Black Returns to the Dodgers,” Hartford Courant,
June 22, 1957: 13.
76 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
130-131.
77 Rick
Swaine, The
Integration of Major League Baseball: A Team by Team History (Jefferson,
North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009), 166-176.
78 https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1957/B09112WS11957.htm.
79 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
133.
80 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
139. From his early youth, after a friend
died in the hospital, Black was fearful of doctors and hospitals. He
refused to
undergo an operation on his pitching arm which might have helped
restore his fastball.
He failed to get a check-up that might have diagnosed his prostate
cancer
before it spread too far and eventually killed him.
81 In
1958, Black took a graduate course in Health Education for Teachers at
Rutgers
University, according to a July 22, 2020 email from Carissa Sestito at
Rutgers
University. Black took two graduate courses — Educational and
Vocational
Guidance and Study of the Individual in Personnel and Guidance — at
Seton Hall
University during the summer of 1960, according to a July 1, 2020 email
from
Laurie Pine at Seton Hall University.
82 “Black’s
Stars Play Tomorrow,” Plainfield Courier
News,
August 22, 1959: 11; “Joe Black Sparkles for All Star Team,” Plainfield Courier
News, May 9, 1960: 24; Hugh Delano,
“The Inside Track,” Plainfield Courier
News,
June 17, 1960: 30.
83 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
152; Jim Peoples, “Black is Still An
Optimist in Baseball League and Work,” Plainfield Courier
News,
June 9, 1960: 32.
84 Edward
Reilly, The
1960s: American Popular Culture Through History (Westport,
Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2003), 49.
85 Black
and Schoffner, Joe Black,
261.
86 https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=INR19740504-01.1.2&e=
— — — -en-20 — 1 — txt-txIN — — — –.
87 Black, Ain’t Nobody, 185
and 192.
88 Arnold
Rampersad, Jackie Robinson: A
Biography (New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), 459.
89 Arnold
Rampersad, Jackie Robinson: A
Biography, 460.
90 Source:
Biography of Joe Black on the program for his memorial service in
Phoenix in
2002.
91 Bob
Quincy, “Fame and Fastball Faded by Message Remains,” Charlotte
(N.C.) Observer,
November 16, 1979: 12.
92 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
227.
93 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
241.
94 Kahn, The Boys, 265-266.
95 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0547111/.
96 https://vdocuments.mx/alumni-news-fall-2006.html.
97 Black
and Schoffner, Joe Black,
307.
98 Dave
Anderson, “Sports of the Times: Here’s a Soda for Buck Leonard,” New York Times,
June 1, 1992: C5, https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/01/sports/sports-of-the-times-here-s-a-soda-for-buck-leonard.html.
99 Bill
Nowlin, “Sam Jethroe,” SABR biography project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/5f1c7cf9;
N.
Jeremi Duru, “Sam Jethroe’s Last Hit,” in Ron Briley, ed., The Politics of
Baseball (Jefferson, North
Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2010); N. Jeremi Duru, “Exploring
Jethroe’s
Injustice: The Impact of an Ex-Ballplayer’s Legal Quest for a Pension
on the
Movement for Restorative Racial Justice,” University of
Cincinnati Law
Review, Vol. 76, Spring 2008, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1114209;
Larry
Moffi and Jonathan Kronstadt, Crossing the Line:
Black Major
Leaguers, 1947-1959 (Iowa City: University of Iowa
Press,
1994); Howard Bryant, Shut Out: A Story
of Race and
Baseball in Boston (New York: Routledge, 2002);
Anderson, “Here’s a Soda;” Brad Snyder, “Jethroe seeks legal victory in
bid for
baseball pension,” Baltimore Sun,
April
22, 1995, https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1995-04-22-1995112081-story.html;
“Lawsuit Dismissed,” New York
Times, October
6, 1996: Section 8: 13, https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/06/sports/lawsuit-dismissed.html;
Murray Chass, “Pioneer Black Players To Be Granted Pensions,” New York Times,
January 20, 1997: C9, https://www.NYTimes.com/1997/01/20/sports/pioneer-black-players-to-be-granted-pensions.html;
Ronald Blum, “Negro League Players Gain Pension Eligibility,” Indiana (Pennsylvania) Gazette,
January 20, 1997: 17; Philip Dine, “Negro Leaguers Who Played in the
Majors
Finally Win Pensions,” St. Louis Post
Dispatch,
January 24, 1997: 31; Jim Auchmutey, “‘He’s Our Jackie’: Sam Jethroe,
The First
Black Braves Play, at 79 Fights Barriers to a Baseball Pension,” Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, June 22, 1997: 85;
Richard Goldstein, “Sam Jethroe is Dead at 83; Was Oldest Rookie of the
Year,” New
York Times, June 19, 2001: A21, https://www.NYTimes.com/2001/06/19/sports/sam-jethroe-is-dead-at-83-was-oldest-rookie-of-the-year.html;
Stan
Grossfield, “He’s Still Game: At 80, Ex Negro Leaguer Is Raising Five
Children
and Hoping for a Pension,” Boston Globe,
March
31, 2004: 67; Brady Dennis, “Pay is for Player of Bygone Era,” Tampa Bay Times,
May 18, 2004: 9; Gregory Lewis, “Negro
Leaguers To Get Their Share,” South Florida Sun
Sentinel,
May 18, 2004: 40; Doug Gladstone, “MLB Isn’t Paying Pensions to Herb
Washington
and Other Persons of Color,” Bleacher Report,
July 17, 2012, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1261542-mlb-isnt-paying-pensions-to-herb-washington-and-other-persons-of-color.
100 https://sabr.org/latest/neyer-joe-black-bobby-bonilla-and-a-little-adjustment/; https://tht.fangraphs.com/winner-takes-all-which-was-the-best-world-series-game-seven/; https://medium.com/the-christian-counterculture/paying-forward-our-mistakes-a5589a1df3a2.
101 Steven
Michael Selzer, Meet the Real Joe
Black (New
York: Universe, Inc., 2010), 152; Jane Leavy, Sandy Koufax: A
Lefty’s Legacy (New
York: HarperCollins, 2002), 66-67, 69-70.
102 Leavy, Sandy Koufax,
76.
103 Black, Ain’t Nobody, 231.
104 Black, Ain’t Nobody,
232
105 Black
and Schoffner, Joe Black,
220.
106 Personal
email from Martha Jo Black to Peter Dreier, June 1, 2020.
107 “Shaw
College to Award Honors to 4,” Detroit Free Press,
May 9, 1974: 37. Many articles and profiles of Black say that he
received an
honorary doctorate from Shaw University, a well-known historically
black
institution in North Carolina. At my request, Larry Treadwell IV (Shaw
University’s Director of Library Services) and Paul Baker (the
university
archivist) searched but did not find evidence that Black was honored by
that
institution. Source: Email from Larry Treadwell, August 7, 2020, and
phone call
with Paul Baker, August 6, 2020.
108 “On
Campus,” Pittsburgh Courier,
July 16, 1977: 11.
109 https://commencement.morgan.edu/honorary-degrees/.
110 “Joe
Black to Receive The Distinguished Broadcaster Award,” Carolina Times,
April 18, 1981: 9, https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn83045120/1981-04-18/ed-1/seq-9/.
111 “Greyhound
Executive Picked for King Award,” Arizona Republic,
December 14, 1986: 53.
112 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1987-pt22/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1987-pt22-1-3.pdf.
113 “Cosby
Tells Graduates to Advance Civil Rights,” Alabama Journal,
May
13, 1991: 2.
114 Kara
Richardson, “Mourners in Plainfield Recall Baseball Hero,” Bridgewater Courier
News, June 2, 2002: A1; Harry
Frezza, “Extraordinary Gathering Bids Farewell to Black,” Bridgewater Courier
News, June 2, 2002: E1.
115 Black
and Schoffner, Joe Black,
352.
116 Black
and Schoffner, Joe Black,
352.
117 Jeremy
Walsh, “Plainfield To Name Baseball Field After Joe Black, The First
Black
Pitcher to Win a World Series,” (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger,
July 15, 2020, https://www.nj.com/news/local/2010/07/plainfield_to_honor_pioneering.html;
Jeff
Grant, “Plainfield Renames Field for Joe Black,” BCN, September
26, 2010; “Joe Black Ballfield
Dedication Tomorrow,” Plainfield Today,
September 24,
2010, http://ptoday.blogspot.com/2010/09/joe-black-ballfield-dedication-tomorrow.html.
118 Kahn, The Boys of Summer,
264.
119 Scott
Merkin, “Black Was a Giant On and Off the Field,” MLB.Com,
February 10, 2011.
120 Roger
Kahn, “Hard Thrower, Soft Heart,” Los Angeles Times,
May 18, 2002: 90, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-may-18-sp-kahn18-story.html.