Subject(s): Larry Doby Sport: Baseball Location: Broad Street, Camden, SC Unveiled: 29/3/2013 Sculptor: Maria Kirby-Smith Material: Bronze Status: In Situ Inscription(s): Plaque: THE BASEBALL LEGEND. LAWRENCE EUGENE DOBY WAS BORN IN CAMDEN ON DECEMBER 13, 1923. HIS PARENTS WERE DAVID AND ETTA BROOKES DOBY. HE SPENT HIS EARLY YEARS WITH HIS MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER AND WAS KNOWN AS BUBBA BROOKES. DOBY'S FATHER WAS AN OUTSTANDING LOCAL BASEBALL PLAYER AND HIS YOUNG SON INHERITED THIS TALENT. DOBY ATTENDED MATHER ACADEMY IN CAMDEN FROM 1934 TO 1938, WHILE HE LIVED WITH HIS UNCLE AND AUNT, JAMES AND ALICE COOKE. DURING THIS PERIOD HE LEARNED HIS REAL NANME, LAWRENCE EUGENE DOBY. AT MATHER ACADEMY HE RECEIVED HIS FIRST COACHING IN BASEBALL FROM NOTABLE BLACK COACH, FRANK DUBOSE. AT AGE FOURTEEN HE MOVED TO PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, WHERE HIS MOTHER WORKED. THERE LAWRENCE EXCELLED AT BASEBALL, BASKETBALL, TRACK AND FOOTBALL WHILST AT EASTSIDE HIGH SCHOOL. HE ATTENDED LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY DURING WORLD WAR II HE WAS IN THE NAVY AND WAS STATIONED AT THE GREAT LAKES NAVAL WEAPONS STATION AND SERVED IN THE CENTRAL PACIFIC. HE MARRIED MELYN CURVEY AND THEY HAD FIVE CHILDREN. IN 1947 HE BECAME THE FIRST BLACK BASEBALL PLAYER IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE, DRAFTED BY THE CLEVELAND INDIANS, FOLLOWING BY ONLY ELEVEN WEEKS JACKIE ROBINSON'S BREAKING THE COLOR BARRIER WITH THE BROOKLYN DODGERS IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE. LARRY PLAYED WITH THE CLEVELAND INDIANS FROM 1947 TO 1955 AND LATER WITH THE CHICAGO WHITE SOX, THE BALTIMORE ORIOLES, AND THE DETROIT TIGERS. HE ALSO BECAME THE SECOND AFRICAN-AMERICAN MANAGER IN THE HISTORY OF BASEBALL WHEN HE WAS APPOINTED BY HIS MENTOR, BILL VEECK, TO THAT POSITION WITH THE CHICAGO WHITE SOX IN 1978. LARRY WAS A SEVEN-TIME ALL STAR AND WAS INDUCTED INTO THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME IN 1998, THE OCCASION WHEN HE POINTEDLY ACKNOWLEDGED CAMDEN AS THE PLACE OF HIS BIRTH. DOBY'S OUTSTANDING BASEBALL CAREER WAS MARKED WITH DIGNITY, DECENCY, AND QUIET COURAGE IN THE FACE OF RACIAL PREJUDICE. LARRY DOBY DIED IN 2003 AT AGE SEVENTY-NINE. All his years, on and off the field, all he meant was goodness and hope. YOGI BERRA. Links: Sculptor