Editing Major League Baseball (section)

===Breaking the color barrier===
{{Main|Baseball color line}}
[[File:Jackie Robinson No5 comic book cover.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Jackie Robinson]]'' comic book, 1951]]
[[Branch Rickey]], president and general manager of the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]], began making efforts to introduce a black baseball player to the previously all-white professional baseball leagues in the mid-1940s. He selected [[Jackie Robinson]] from a list of promising [[Negro league]] players. After obtaining a commitment from Robinson to "turn the other cheek" to any [[racial antagonism]] directed at him, Rickey agreed to sign him to a contract for $600 a month. In what was later referred to as "The Noble Experiment", Robinson was the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s, joining the Dodgers' farm club, the [[Montreal Royals]], for the 1946 season.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jackierobinson.org/about/jackie.php|title=The Jackie Robinson Foundation|publisher=[[Jackie Robinson Foundation]]|access-date=July 4, 2013 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628015406/http://www.jackierobinson.org/about/jackie.php|archive-date=June 28, 2013}}</ref>

The following year, the Dodgers called up Robinson to the major leagues. On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators, including more than 14,000 black patrons. Black baseball fans began flocking to see the Dodgers when they came to town, abandoning the Negro league teams that they had followed exclusively. Robinson's promotion met a generally positive, although mixed, reception among newspaper writers and white major league players. Manager [[Leo Durocher]] informed his team, "I don't care if he is yellow or black or has stripes like a fucking zebra. I'm his manager and I say he plays."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/leo-durocher/|title=Leo Durocher|publisher=[[Society for American Baseball Research]]|access-date=July 4, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526093444/http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/35d925c7|archive-date=May 26, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>

After a strike threat by some players, NL president [[Ford C. Frick]] and Commissioner [[Happy Chandler]] let it be known that any striking players would be suspended. Robinson received significant encouragement from several major-league players, including Dodgers teammate [[Pee Wee Reese]] who said, "You can hate a man for many reasons. Color is not one of them."<ref name="Newman">{{cite web|last=Newman|first=Mark|date=April 13, 2007|title=1947: A time for change|url=http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070412&content_id=1895445&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb|url-status=dead|access-date=September 12, 2009|website=MLB.com|archive-date=April 7, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090407050137/http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070412&content_id=1895445&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb}}</ref> That year, Robinson won the inaugural [[Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award]] (separate NL and AL Rookie of the Year honors were not awarded until 1949).<ref name=ROY>''Rookie of the Year Awards & Rolaids Relief Award Winners''. [[Baseball-Reference.com]]. Retrieved November 24, 2013.</ref>

Less than three months later, [[Larry Doby]] became the first African-American to break the color barrier in the American League with the Cleveland Indians.<ref name=Doby>''Doby was AL's first African-American player''. [[ESPN Classic]]. June 26, 2003. Retrieved November 24, 2013.</ref> The next year, a number of other black players entered the major leagues. [[Satchel Paige]] was signed by the Indians and the Dodgers added star catcher [[Roy Campanella]] and [[Don Newcombe]], who was later the first winner of the [[Cy Young Award]] for his outstanding pitching.<ref name=Finkelman>{{cite book|editor-last=Finkelman|editor-first=Paul|title=Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-First Century, Volume 1|year=2008|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-516779-5|page=145|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gbQHxb_P0QC&q=dodgers+black+players&pg=PA145|access-date=November 16, 2020|archive-date=July 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701113124/https://books.google.com/books?id=6gbQHxb_P0QC&q=dodgers+black+players&pg=PA145|url-status=live}}</ref>