42

[MisterCairo]

Lizzie, would you say 42 is something to be seen on the big screen, or is it a rental?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the baseball scenes are well worth the big screen experience -- the detail is really impressive, and the recreation of long-gone ballparks is best seen to full effect on a big screen. (I wish they'd gotten the outfield billboards right, but that's a small nitpick under the circs.)

 

[Tomasso]

I've always thought that Larry Doby got short shrift for his efforts in breaking the color line in the AL, just eleven weeks after Jackie. Doby was also the second black manager in the majors, after another Robinson (Frank) broke that barrier.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Doby was one of the best hitters in the American League for a long time. One of his overlooked accomplishments on the racial front is that he was, as far as anyone has been able to determine, the first black batter to charge the mound after being hit by a pitch. He was with the White Sox in 1957 and Art Ditmar of the Yankees knocked him down. Doby offered Ditmar some advice on how to improve his control, and Ditmar responded with a racial slur. After ten years in the league, Doby figured he'd had enough of that, so he ran out to the mound and flattened Ditmar with a punch in the mouth. Both benches emptied, and the resulting brawl lasted over half an hour. Among the players getting the worst of it was Enos Slaughter, then with the Yankees. Ten years earlier, Slaughter had severely spiked Jackie Robinson in a close play at first base, a spiking believed by most to have been extremely intentional. Progress.

Ain't payback swell?

 

[MisterCairo]

I've always thought that Larry Doby got short shrift for his efforts in breaking the color line in the AL, just eleven weeks after Jackie. Doby was also the second black manager in the majors, after another Robinson (Frank) broke that barrier.

Talk to Buzz Aldrin about being "second" at something....

 

[Tomasso]

Talk to Buzz Aldrin about being "second" at something....

Buzz Who?

 

[Tomasso]

Bill Veeck used to claim that he seriously considered fielding an all black team but the Commissioner got wind and put the kibosh to it. This was before Jackie.

 

[MisterCairo]

Buzz Who?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Bill Veeck used to claim that he seriously considered fielding an all black team but the Commissioner got wind and put the kibosh to it. This was before Jackie.

The idea was that he was going to buy the Phillies -- then near bankruptcy -- and stock them with the cream of the Negro Leagues. Interestingly, there was another such scheme going on around the same time -- Eddie Gottleib and Abe Saperstien, the promoters behind the Harlem Globetrotters, were considering the same type of venture, and again, the Phillies were the franchise they had in mind. Ironic, considering how viciously the Phils opposed Robinson in 1947, but that also suggests the project wouldn't have been particularly successful in Philadelphia even if the commissioner had approved it.

Saperstien and Gottlieb, who had close ties to Negro League baseball, became Veeck's chief talent advisors with the Indians when he began integrating the American League, which is likely how Larry Doby came to his attention, and how he managed to convince Satchel Paige to take a pay cut in order to join the Cleveland club.

 

[Chicago Jimmy]

We went to a restored 1928 theater (Tivoli in Downers Grove,IL ) on Saturday to see it. Lizzie your 100% correct on seeing it on a large screen. This Theater was not hacked up into smaller ones like some do. The scenery was fantastic...not to mention the hats,clothes,and vehicles.