Joe Black
Encyclopedia
Joseph Black was an American
right-handed pitcher
in Negro League
and Major League Baseball
for the Brooklyn Dodgers
, Cincinnati Redlegs
, and Washington Senators
who became the first black pitcher to win a World Series
game, in 1952. Black died of prostate cancer
at age 78.
A native of Plainfield
, New Jersey
, he starred at Plainfield High School
. Black attended on a baseball scholarship and graduated from Morgan State University
in 1950 and later received an honorary doctorate from Shaw University
. He was a member of Omega Psi Phi
fraternity. He appears prominently in Roger Kahn's classic book, The Boys of Summer.
of the Negro Leagues win 2 championships in 7 years. He and Jackie Robinson
pushed for a pension plan for Negro League players and was instrumental in the inclusion of players who played before 1947. Black then played for a year in the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league
system.
. Black was 28 when he reached the majors. He roomed with Jackie while with Brooklyn, and was dominant out of the bullpen, chosen Rookie of the Year
after winning 15 games and saving 15 others for the National League champions. He had a 2.15 ERA but, with 142 innings pitched, fell 8 innings short of winning the ERA title.
Strapped for pitching, Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen
brought Black out of the bullpen and started him 3 times in 7 days in the 1952 World Series against the New York Yankees. He won the opener with a 6-hitter over Allie Reynolds
, 4-2, then lost the 4th game, 2-0, and the 7th, 4-2.
.
In addition to lobbying for black players, he remained in baseball through his affiliation with the commissioner's office, where he consulted with players about career choices.
In 1991, Black appeared as a fictional character 'Joe 'Playday' Sims', in TV's Cosby Show
, in the 7th Season episode, "There's Still No Joy in Mudville", which originally aired April 4, 1991.
He was a board director of the Baseball Assistance Team
and worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks
in community relations after they joined the NL in 1998. Black was a regular in the Diamondbacks' dugout during batting practice and in the press box. He also did a lot of charity work in the Phoenix area.
He wrote a syndicated column, "By The Way," for Ebony
magazine and an autobiography, Ain't Nobody Better Than You.
Black was interred in the Hillside Cemetery of Scotch Plains, New Jersey
.
said. "He always had positive words for me. His parting words were always, `Make sure you do it your way.' He must have told me that a hundred times last year. "He was a diehard Diamondbacks fan. He loved this team and I'm just glad we had a chance to win a World Series for him."
"He was a Dodger, but he was a giant of a man," former NL president Len Coleman said. "He was the greatest friend, and his loss leaves the world a lot more empty."
"His legacy is the thought that unheralded players can rise to the heights, that someone who at the time was considered an ordinary athlete could wind up pitching Game 1 of the World Series," said Vin Scully
, the Dodgers' play-by-play announcer since 1951.
"He loved the game and he loved to talk the game," said Montreal manager Frank Robinson
, who was friends with Black and visited him this month when the Expos were in Phoenix. "He was a great guy, a jolly guy, a real fun guy," said New York Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer
, a teammate with the Dodgers. "It's sad to lose him."
Beginning in 2010, the Washington Nationals will present the Joe Black Award to a Washington area organization chosen for its work promoting baseball in African-American communities. The award recognizes Black as the first African American player on the Washington Senators (1957).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
right-handed pitcher
Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
in Negro League
Negro league baseball
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in...
and Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
, Cincinnati Redlegs
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....
, and Washington Senators
Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...
who became the first black pitcher to win a World Series
1952 World Series
The 1952 World Series featured the three-time defending champion New York Yankees beating the Brooklyn Dodgers in seven games. The Yankees won their fourth straight title—tying the mark they set between 1936 and 1939 under manager Joe McCarthy, and Casey Stengel became the second manager in Major...
game, in 1952. Black died of prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
at age 78.
A native of Plainfield
Plainfield, New Jersey
Plainfield is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population increased to a record high of 49,808....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, he starred at Plainfield High School
Plainfield High School (New Jersey)
Plainfield High School is a comprehensive community four-year public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Plainfield, in Union County, New Jersey, United States. The school is part of the Plainfield Public School District, one of New Jersey's 31 Abbott Districts...
. Black attended on a baseball scholarship and graduated from Morgan State University
Morgan State University
Morgan State University, formerly Centenary Biblical Institute , Morgan College and Morgan State College , is a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Morgan is Maryland's designated public urban university and the largest HBCU in the state of Maryland...
in 1950 and later received an honorary doctorate from Shaw University
Shaw University
Shaw University, founded as Raleigh Institute, is a private liberal arts institution and historically black university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1865, it is the oldest HBCU in the Southern United States....
. He was a member of Omega Psi Phi
Omega Psi Phi
Omega Psi Phi is a fraternity and is the first African-American national fraternal organization to be founded at a historically black college. Omega Psi Phi was founded on November 17, 1911, at Howard University in Washington, D.C.. The founders were three Howard University juniors, Edgar Amos...
fraternity. He appears prominently in Roger Kahn's classic book, The Boys of Summer.
Negro and minor leagues
Black helped the Baltimore Elite GiantsBaltimore Elite Giants
The Baltimore Elite Giants were a professional baseball team that played in the Negro leagues from to . The team was established by Thomas T. Wilson, in Nashville, Tennessee as the semi-pro Nashville Standard Giants on March 26, 1920. The team was renamed the Elite Giants in , and would move to...
of the Negro Leagues win 2 championships in 7 years. He and Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
pushed for a pension plan for Negro League players and was instrumental in the inclusion of players who played before 1947. Black then played for a year in the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
system.
Call up to Brooklyn
The Dodgers promoted Black to the major leagues in 1952, five years after teammate Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrierBaseball color line
The color line in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Organized Baseball, or the major leagues and affiliated minor leagues, until Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization for the 1946 season...
. Black was 28 when he reached the majors. He roomed with Jackie while with Brooklyn, and was dominant out of the bullpen, chosen Rookie of the Year
MLB Rookie of the Year Award
In Major League Baseball, the Rookie of the Year Award is annually given to one player from each league as voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America . The award was established in 1940 by the Chicago chapter of the BBWAA, which selected an annual winner from 1940 through 1946...
after winning 15 games and saving 15 others for the National League champions. He had a 2.15 ERA but, with 142 innings pitched, fell 8 innings short of winning the ERA title.
Strapped for pitching, Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen
Chuck Dressen
Charles Walter Dressen , known as both "Chuck" and "Charlie," was an American third baseman, manager and coach in professional baseball during a career that lasted almost fifty years, and was best known as the manager of the powerful Brooklyn Dodgers of 1951–1953...
brought Black out of the bullpen and started him 3 times in 7 days in the 1952 World Series against the New York Yankees. He won the opener with a 6-hitter over Allie Reynolds
Allie Reynolds
Allie Pierce Reynolds was a pitcher in Major League Baseball.-Biography:...
, 4-2, then lost the 4th game, 2-0, and the 7th, 4-2.
Black's decline
The next spring after the World Series, Dressen urged Black to add some pitches to his strong slowball, which was his favorite pitch. In six seasons, he compiled a 30-12 record, half of his wins coming in his rookie season.After baseball
After his career ended, Black taught health and physical education at Hubbard Junior High School in Plainfield, N.J., and later became an executive with Greyhound in Phoenix, ArizonaPhoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
.
In addition to lobbying for black players, he remained in baseball through his affiliation with the commissioner's office, where he consulted with players about career choices.
In 1991, Black appeared as a fictional character 'Joe 'Playday' Sims', in TV's Cosby Show
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
, in the 7th Season episode, "There's Still No Joy in Mudville", which originally aired April 4, 1991.
He was a board director of the Baseball Assistance Team
Baseball Assistance Team
The Baseball Assistance Team is a 501 non-profit affiliated with Major League Baseball. The organization's stated goal is to "help members of the baseball family who have come on hard times and are in need of assistance," and is guided by the principles of teamwork, caring, and sharing...
and worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team based in Phoenix. They play in the West Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From 1998 to the present, they have played in Chase Field...
in community relations after they joined the NL in 1998. Black was a regular in the Diamondbacks' dugout during batting practice and in the press box. He also did a lot of charity work in the Phoenix area.
He wrote a syndicated column, "By The Way," for Ebony
Ebony (magazine)
Ebony, a monthly magazine for the African-American market, was founded by John H. Johnson and has published continuously since the autumn of 1945...
magazine and an autobiography, Ain't Nobody Better Than You.
Black was interred in the Hillside Cemetery of Scotch Plains, New Jersey
Scotch Plains, New Jersey
Scotch Plains is a township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the township population increased to a record high of 23,510.-History:...
.
Comments on Black
"Joe Black was a tremendous human being," Arizona manager Bob BrenlyBob Brenly
Robert Earl Brenly is an American former professional baseball player, coach and manager in Major League Baseball. He played the majority of his career as a catcher with the San Francisco Giants and played half a season for the Toronto Blue Jays...
said. "He always had positive words for me. His parting words were always, `Make sure you do it your way.' He must have told me that a hundred times last year. "He was a diehard Diamondbacks fan. He loved this team and I'm just glad we had a chance to win a World Series for him."
"He was a Dodger, but he was a giant of a man," former NL president Len Coleman said. "He was the greatest friend, and his loss leaves the world a lot more empty."
"His legacy is the thought that unheralded players can rise to the heights, that someone who at the time was considered an ordinary athlete could wind up pitching Game 1 of the World Series," said Vin Scully
Vin Scully
Vincent Edward Scully is an American sportscaster, known primarily as the play-by-play voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team on Prime Ticket, KCAL-TV and KABC radio...
, the Dodgers' play-by-play announcer since 1951.
"He loved the game and he loved to talk the game," said Montreal manager Frank Robinson
Frank Robinson
Frank Robinson , is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. He played from 1956–1976, most notably for the Cincinnati Reds and the Baltimore Orioles. He is the only player to win league MVP honors in both the National and American Leagues...
, who was friends with Black and visited him this month when the Expos were in Phoenix. "He was a great guy, a jolly guy, a real fun guy," said New York Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer
Don Zimmer
Donald William "Popeye" Zimmer is a former infielder, manager, and coach in Major League Baseball, currently serving as a senior advisor to the Tampa Bay Rays baseball organization...
, a teammate with the Dodgers. "It's sad to lose him."
Honors and awards
The Arizona Fall League's Most Valuable Player award is named for Black. First presented in 2002, the award honors the 1952 National League Rookie of the Year.Beginning in 2010, the Washington Nationals will present the Joe Black Award to a Washington area organization chosen for its work promoting baseball in African-American communities. The award recognizes Black as the first African American player on the Washington Senators (1957).