"Steve Gromek came home for the winter to more than the usual frost.
There were hostile letters in his mailbox.
People he considered friends wouldn't speak to him.
In a Hamtramck bar, Gromek said hello to a former amateur teammate, 'and he ignored me'.
I saw a guy I had known for more than 10 years, a guy I had played ball with.
I said hello and he ignored me.
People he considered friends wouldn't speak to him.
"Oh, Christ," a bartender told the World Series hero, "it's that picture you took with Larry Doby, you could have just shook his hand.
That picture of Steve Gromek and Larry Doby has unmistakable flesh and blood cheeks pressed close together, brawny arms tightly clasped, equally wide grins.
The chief message of the Doby-Gromek picture is acceptance."
Marjorie McKenzie Lawson.
Pittsburgh Courier.
"I will always cherish that photograph and the memory of Steve Gromek hugging me and me hugging him, because it proved that emotions can be put into a form not based on skin color."
Larry Doby.
"This photo was astonishing for its time. Larry Doby followed Jackie Robinson by less than three months in the 1947 integration of MLB.
The idea of men of two different races cheek-to-cheek offended the most bigoted parts of the white population, some of whom never forgave Steve Gromek.
It should also be added that Larry Doby endured the same racism and brutality as Jackie Robinson, but received less credit for it as the second man to integrate baseball while Robinson was the first."
Dr. Gerald Stein.
Larry Doby:
1st Black player in the American League.
1st Black player to hit a home run in World Series.
1st Black player to hit a home run in an All-Star game.
1st Black player in the American Basketball League (preceded NBA).
1st Black player to go directly to the majors from the Negro leagues.
1st Black player to lead either league in home runs.
July 5th should be "Larry Doby Day."