Editing Roy Campanella (section)

===Major League Baseball===
[[File:Roy Campanella 1953.jpg|thumb|180px|Campanella, circa 1953]]
Jackie Robinson's first season in the major leagues came in 1947, and Campanella began his MLB career with the Brooklyn Dodgers the following season, playing his first game on April 20, 1948. In later years, Robinson and his wife sometimes stayed with the Campanella family during some ballgames because adequate hotels for blacks could not be found in the city.<ref name="kashatus65"/>

After spending most of the beginning of the 1948 season on the bench, Campanella was assigned to the [[St. Paul Saints|Saint Paul Saints]], the Dodgers' affiliate in the Class AAA [[American Association (1902–1997)|American Association]], where he resided in the [[Rondo neighborhood]]. On May 18, Campanella become the first person to break the color barrier in the American Association when he entered a game. By early July, after having success against the league's pitching, he returned to the Dodgers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Top Five Black Players In St. Paul Saints History |url=https://www.milb.com/news/top-five-black-players-in-st-paul-saints-history |access-date=2023-05-11 |website=MiLB.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Borzi |first=Pat |date=2019-05-17 |title=With City of Baseball Museum, the Saints add a side of history to CHS Field |work=[[MinnPost]] |url=https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2019/05/with-city-of-baseball-museum-the-saints-add-a-side-of-history-to-chs-field/ |access-date=2023-05-11}}</ref>

Campanella stayed at the Major League level and played for the Dodgers from July {{mlby|1948}} through {{mlby|1957}} as their regular catcher. In 1948, he had three different uniform numbers (33, 39, and 56) before settling on 39 for the rest of his career.

Campanella was selected to the [[Major League Baseball All-Star Game|All-Star Game]] every year from {{mlby|1949}} through {{mlby|1956}}. With his 1949 All-Star selection, he was one of the first four African Americans so honored. (Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe and [[Larry Doby]] were also All-Stars that year.)<ref>[http://www.baseball-almanac.com/asgbox/yr1949as.shtml 1949 All-Star Game]. – Baseball-Almanac.</ref>  In 1950 Campanella hit home runs in five straight games; the only other Dodgers to homer in five consecutive games are [[Shawn Green]] (2001), [[Matt Kemp]] (2010), [[Adrián González]] (2014–15), [[Joc Pederson]] (2015), and [[Max Muncy]] (2019).<ref name="ocregister.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.ocregister.com/dodgers/denver-664320-dodgers-final.html|title=Joc Pederson homers again but Dodgers blow lead in ninth|work=The Orange County Register|date=3 June 2015}}</ref><ref name="truebluela.com">{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190823053133/https://www.truebluela.com/2019/8/22/20828986/max-muncy-has-homered-in-5-straight-games-dodgers-news|title=Max Muncy is on a 5-game home run streak|work=True Blue LA|date=22 August 2019}}</ref>

[[File:Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Jim Gilliam in Japan 1956 IMG 20220429 0002.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Campanella with teammates [[Jackie Robinson]] and [[Jim Gilliam]] in Japan, 1956]]

Campanella received the [[Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award|Most Valuable Player]] (MVP) award in the [[National League (baseball)|National League]] three times: in {{mlby|1951}}, {{mlby|1953}}, and {{mlby|1955}}. In each of his MVP seasons, he batted over .300, hit more than 30 home runs, and had more than 100 runs batted in (RBI). His 142 RBI during 1953 exceeded the franchise record of 130, which had been held by [[Jack Fournier]] ({{mlby|1925}}) and [[Babe Herman]] ({{mlby|1930}}). Today it is the second most in franchise history, [[Tommy Davis (outfielder)|Tommy Davis]] breaking it with 153 RBI in {{mlby|1962}}. That same year, Campanella hit 40 home runs in games in which he appeared as a catcher, a record that lasted until {{mlby|1996}}, when it was exceeded by [[Todd Hundley]]. In his career, he threw out 57% of the [[Baserunning|base runners]] who tried to [[Stolen base|steal]] a base on him, the highest percentage of any catcher in Major League history.<ref>[http://members.tripod.com/bb_catchers/catchers/100BestCSCar.pdf 100 Best Catcher CS% Totals at The Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers]</ref> Campanella had five of the seven top caught stealing percentages for a single season in Major League history.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://members.tripod.com/bb_catchers/catchers/cs50guys.htm |title=Catching Better Than 50% of Base Stealers |publisher=The Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers |access-date=July 15, 2019 }}</ref>

In 1955, Campanella's final MVP season, he helped Brooklyn win its first [[World Series]] championship. After the Dodgers lost the first two games of [[1955 World Series|the series]] to the Yankees, Campanella began Brooklyn's comeback by hitting a two-out, two-run home run in the first inning of Game 3. The Dodgers won that game, got another home run from Campanella in a Game 4 victory that tied the series, and then went on to claim the series in seven games when [[Johnny Podres]] shut out the Yankees 2–0 in Game 7.

Campanella caught three [[no-hitter]]s during his career: [[Carl Erskine]]'s two, on June 19, {{mlby|1952}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1952/B06190BRO1952.htm|title=Retrosheet Boxscore: Brooklyn Dodgers 5, Chicago Cubs 0|work=retrosheet.org}}</ref> and May 12, {{mlby|1956}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1956/B05120BRO1956.htm|title=Retrosheet Boxscore: Brooklyn Dodgers 3, New York Giants 0|work=retrosheet.org}}</ref> and [[Sal Maglie]]'s on September 25, 1956.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1956/B09250BRO1956.htm|title=Retrosheet Boxscore: Brooklyn Dodgers 5, Philadelphia Phillies 0|work=retrosheet.org}}</ref><ref name="Art of Pitching"/> "In my no-hitter...I only shook Campy off once," Maglie recalled. "He was doing the thinking, calling the pitches just right for every batter in every situation, and all I had to do was check the sign to see if I agreed and then throw."<ref name="Art of Pitching">{{cite magazine|last=Terrell|first=Roy|url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1958/03/17/part-1-sal-maglie-on-the-art-of-pitching|title=Part 1: Sal Maglie on the Art of Pitching|magazine=Sports Illustrated|date=March 17, 1958|access-date=August 7, 2020}}</ref>

After the [[1957 in baseball|1957 season]], the Brooklyn Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles and became the Los Angeles Dodgers, but Campanella's playing career came to an end as a result of an automobile accident. He never played a game for Los Angeles.