Roy Campanella (19 November 1921 - June 26, 1993), dubbed " Campy ", is an American baseball player, primarily a catcher. The Philadelphia native played for the Negro League and Mexican League for several seasons before entering the minor league in 1946. He made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 1948. His career ended when he was paralyzed in a car accident in January 1958.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in game history, Campanella played for Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s and 1950s. After he retired as a player as a result of the accident, Campanella held a position in scouting and public relations with Dodgers. He was sworn in to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.
Video Roy Campanella
Play career
Negro league
Campanella's father, John, is the son of a Sicilian immigrant. His mother Ida is African American. Therefore, he was effectively banned from playing MLB before 1947, a season when black players were accepted in the premier league for the first time since the 19th century. Campanella began playing the Negro League baseball for the Washington Elite Giants in 1937 after dropping out of school on his sixteenth birthday. The Elite Giants moved to Baltimore the following year, and Campanella became a star player alongside the team.
Mexican League
In 1942 and 1943, Campanella played in the Mexican League with the sultans of Monterrey. LÃÆ'¡zaro Salazar, team manager, told Campanella that one day he will play at the top league level.
Little League
Campanella moved to the Brooklyn Dodgers' small league system in 1946 as the Dodger organization began preparations to break the MLB barrier with Jackie Robinson. For the 1946 season, Robinson was assigned to the Montreal Royals, an affiliate of Dodgers in the AAA International League Class. Meanwhile, the team is looking to set Campanella into a Class B league. After general manager Danville Dodgers of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League reported that he does not feel the league is ready for racial integration, the organization sent Campanella and pitcher Don Newcombe to Nashua Dodgers from Class B League New England, where Dodgers feels the climate will be more tolerant. The Nashua team became the first professional baseball team in the 20th century to form a racially integrated lineup in the United States.
1946 season Campanella runs largely without a racist incident, and in one match Campanella assumes managerial duties after manager Walter Alston is issued. This makes Campanella the first African-American to manage Caucasian players from an organized professional baseball team. Nashua ran three times when Campanella took over. They returned to win, partly because of Campanella's decision to use Newcombe as a pinch batter during the seventh inning; Newcombe hit a two-match home run.
Major League Baseball
Jackie Robinson's first season in the major leagues came in 1947, and Campanella started his MLB career with Brooklyn Dodgers the following season, playing his first game on April 20, 1948. He played for Dodgers from 1948 to 1957 as their regular catcher. In 1948, he had three different uniform numbers (33, 39, and 56) before settling in 39 for the rest of his career.
Campanella played in the All-Star Game every year from 1949 to 1956. The 1949 All-Star election made it one of the first four African-Americans to be so respected. (Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe, and Larry Doby also All-Stars in 1949). He made a home run in five straight games in 1950; the only other Dodgers to homer in five games in a row are Shawn Green (2001), Matt Kemp (2010), Adrian Gonzalez (2014-15), and Joc Pederson (2015).
Campanella received the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award in the National League three times: in 1951, 1953, and 1955. In each of his MVP seasons he fought more than 300, hit more than 30 home runs and had more than 100 run battled in. His 142 RBI during 1953 exceeded the 130 record franchise, which had been held by Jack Fournier (1925) and Babe Herman (1930). Today is the second in franchise history, Tommy Davis broke it with 153 RBI in 1962. That same year, Campanella hit 40 home runs in the game where he appeared as a catcher, a record that lasted until 1996, when it was exceeded by Todd Hundley. During his career, he dumped 57% of base runners trying to steal bases, the highest by catchers in major league history.
In 1955 (Campanella's last MVP season), he helped Brooklyn win his first World Series championship. After Dodgers lost the first two games of the series to the Yankees, Campanella started his Brooklyn comeback by hitting a two-out home run, two runs in the first inning of Game 3. The Dodgers won the game, earning another home run from Campanella in a Game 4 series- , then went on to claim the series in seven games when Johnny Podres closed the Yankees 2-0 in Game 7.
Campanella captured three no-hitters during his career: Carl Erskine two on June 19, 1952 and May 12, 1956 and Sal Maglie on 25 September 1956.
After the 1957 season, Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and became a Los Angeles Dodgers, but Campanella's playing career ended up as a result of a car accident. He never played a game for Los Angeles.
Maps Roy Campanella
Car crash
Campanella lives in Glen Cove, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island; he operates a liquor store in Harlem between regular season games and during lonely seasons. After closing the shop for the night of January 28, 1958, he began his journey home to Glen Cove. When he traveled about 30 mph (48 km/h), his rented Chevrolet sedan in 1957 crashed into a patch of ice on a S-curve at Dosoris Lane near Apple Tree Lane in Glen Cove, slipped into a telephone pole, and overturned, breaking Campanella's neck. He cracked the fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae and suppressed the spinal cord. The accident caused Campanella paralyzed from the shoulders to the bottom. With physical therapy, he can finally regain the use of his hands and hands substantially. She was able to feed herself, shake hands, and gesture while talking, but she needed a wheelchair for mobility for the rest of her life.
Post-roller career
After his playing career, Campanella remains involved with Dodgers. In January 1959 Dodgers named him a scouting assistant assistant for the eastern part of the United States and a special coach at the team's annual spring training camp in Vero Beach, Florida, serving annually as a mentor and coach for young catchers at the Dodger organization. In 1978, he moved to California and accepted a job as assistant director of public relations Dodgers, a former teammate of Campanella and an old friend Don Newcombe.
On May 7, 1959, Dodgers, then playing their second season in Los Angeles, honored Campanella with Roy Campanella Night at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The New York Yankees agreed to make a special visit to Los Angeles to play an exhibition match against Dodgers on the occasion. The Yankees win the game, 6-2. The attendance at the match was 93,103, setting a record at that time for the biggest crowd to attend the Major League Baseball game. The outcome of the game went to finance Campanella's medical bills. During 1969, Campanella was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, a second-respected black heritage player, after Jackie Robinson. That same year, he received a Bronze Medal from New York City.
Campanella was elected to the Mexican Baseball Hall Of Fame Professional in 1971. On June 4, 1972, Dodgers retired the number 39 Campanella union along with number 42 Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax number 32.
Personal life
Campanella was interviewed by Edward R. Murrow on the CBS Person to Person program on October 2, 1953 and again on January 2, 1959. Campanella also appeared as a Mystery Guest at What's My Line? episode 171 on September 6, 1953 and as guest celebrity on The Name's Same (ABC-TV) on July 27, 1954. Campanella is also mentioned in the lyrics of the song "Do You See Jackie Robinson Hitting the Ball ? ", Written and recorded by Buddy Johnson in 1949 (and covered by Count Basie and his Orchestra in the same year) and in the lyrics of" We Did not Start the Fire "by Billy Joel. Campanella was also honored at the famous Ralph Edwards event This Is Your Life . Campanella appeared as herself in Lassie's "The Mascot" episode, first broadcasted on September 27, 1959, in a story where she trained "Boys' League team Timmy Martin.
Roy Campanella's father is Italian and his mother is black (Jackie & Campy by William C. Kashatus, pp.Ã, 44) Roy is one of five children born to the couple. He grew up in a part of Philadelphia that generally has better race relationships than most cities. Her relaxed personality and strong work ethic are credited with her ability to move successfully among the various races. Although Branch Rickey considered hiring Campanella to break the bottleneck of baseball, Rickey finally decided on Jackie Robinson. Robinson and his wife stayed with the Campanella family for a couple of ballgames because the hotel is adequate for blacks not to be found in town. (Jackie & Campy by William C Kashatus, pp. 65-68 & amp; 75)
Campanella married three times. His first marriage, Bernice Ray on January 3, 1939, ended in a divorce. They have two daughters together. On April 30, 1945, he married Ruthe Willis and had three children with him (including a son, television director Roy Campanella II). Their marriage worsened after the accident and never the same; they parted ways in 1960 and Ruthe died during January 1963. Campanella's adopted son, David, had a rather troubled life; he was arrested several times, developed a problem with drugs and died at the age of 41 years. On May 5, 1964, Campanella married Roxie Doles, who survived on her.
Death
Campanella died of heart failure at the age of 71 on June 26, 1993, at his home in Woodland Hills, California. He was cremated in Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Legacy
In 1999, Campanella ranked 50th in the list of The Sporting News of 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and became the nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
Carl Erskine's Tales Book from Dodgers Dugout: Extra Innings (2004) includes a short story from former Dodger pitcher Carl Erskine. Campanella stands out in many of these stories. Campanella wrote his autobiography, It's Good to Be Alive , published in 1959. Michael Landon made his TV movie director's debut in the 1974 movie It's Good to Be Alive , a version who is very fictional of Campanella's recovery after his accident. Campanella is described by Paul Winfield.
Campanella was featured on US stamps in 2006. Stamps are one of four honors baseball blocks, others are Mickey Mantle, Hank Greenberg, and Mel Ott.
The Los Angeles Dodgers announced the creation of the Roy Campanella Award in September 2006. The award was chosen among the players and the club coach and given to Dodger who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership of "Campy's". Shortstop Rafael Furcal was named the first award winner.
Simon & amp; Schuster published a biography of Campanella in 2011 written by Neil Lanctot, author of Negro League Baseball - The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution . This book is titled Campy - The Two Lives of Roy Campanella . This book reveals new details about the nearly fatal Campanella car accident and its chaotic relationship with Jackie Robinson. It also provides the most comprehensive view on the Campanella Negro league career, including newly compiled year-to-year statistics.
SpiritClips.com, a sub-division of Hallmark Channel, released 'Roy Campanella Night', a 2013 short film that documents the period of paralysis leading to a renowned tribute to Roy Campanella on May 7, 1959 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The film is directed by Chris Commons and stars Anthony Holiday, Tia Streaty and Nathan Wilson.
See also
- Leaders list of the Champions League's main home runs
- The annual Major League Baseball List goes on being hit in the leader
- List of Major League Baseball players who spend their entire career with one franchise
Footnote
References
- Campanella, Roy. Good for Life , New York: Little Brown and Co., 1959
- Daly, Steve. Dem Little Bums: The Nashua Dodgers , Concord, New Hampshire: Plaidswede Publishing, 2002
- Roper, Scott C., and Stephanie Abbot Roper. "'We Will Give All We Have For Small Towns': Baseball Integration and 1946 Nashua Dodgers" Historical New Hampshire , Spring/Summer, 1998
- Tygiel, Jules. Big Baseball Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy , New York: Oxford University Press, 1997
- Young, U.S. (Andrew Sturgeon). Great Negro Baseball Stars, and How They Make the Major League , New York: A. S. Barnes, 1953.
External links
- Career and player information statistics from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
- Baseball league baseball stats and player information from Baseball-Reference (Negro league)
- Roy Campanella at Baseball Hall of Fame
- TIME 1955 articles on Campanella
- Roy Campanella at Discover Mausoleum
- Spiritclips.com
- Roy Campanella greeted The New York Herald Tribune Book and Luncheon Writer Oct. 26, 1959 broadcasted by WNYC Radio.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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