| Roy Campanella | |
|---|---|
 Campanella with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956 | |
| Catcher | |
| Born:(1921-11-19)November 19, 1921 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | |
| Died: June 26, 1993(1993-06-26) (aged 71) Woodland Hills, California, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| Professional debut | |
| NgL: 1937, for the Washington Elite Giants | |
| MLB: April 20, 1948, for the Brooklyn Dodgers | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 29, 1957, for the Brooklyn Dodgers | |
| Career statistics | |
| Batting average | .282 |
| Home runs | 261 |
| Runs batted in | 1,023 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Member of the National | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 1969 |
| Vote | 79.4% (seventh ballot) |
Roy Campanella (November 19, 1921 – June 26, 1993), nicknamed "Campy", was an American professionalbaseball player, primarily as acatcher. The Philadelphia native played in theNegro leagues andMexican League for nine years before entering the minor leagues in 1946. He made hisMajor League Baseball (MLB) debut in 1948 for theBrooklyn Dodgers, for whom he played until 1957. His playing career ended when he wasparalyzed in an automobile crash in January 1958. Athree-time MVP, he is considered one of the greatest catchers in the history of the game.[1]
After he retired as a player as a result of the accident, Campanella held positions inscouting and community relations with the Dodgers. He was inducted into theBaseball Hall of Fame in 1969.[2]
Roy Campanella was born in Philadelphia on November 19, 1921 to parents Ida, who wasAfrican American, and John Campanella, the son ofItalian immigrants. Roy was the youngest of the four children born to the couple. They first lived inGermantown, and then moved toNicetown inNorth Philadelphia, where the children attended integrated schools.[3]
He attended Gillespie Junior High School andSimon Gratz High School, although he left high school before graduating. Because of their mixed-race, Campanella and his siblings were sometimes taunted by other children in school who called them "half-breed". Campanella had athletic gifts that he used to great effect; he was elected captain of every sports team he played on in high school, but baseball was his passion.[4]
Of mixed race, Campanella was prohibited from MLB play as a result of thebaseball color line. In 1937, at the age of 15, he began playingNegro league baseball for theWashington Elite Giants on weekends, subsequently dropping out of high school a few months later on his 16th birthday so he could play full time.[4][5] The Elite Giants moved to Baltimore the following year,[6] and Campanella became a star player with the team until 1945.[4][7][8]
During the 1942 season, Campanella left the Baltimore Elite Giants after a spat with owner Tom Wilson. He played the rest of the season and the following 1943 season in theMexican League with theSultanes de Monterrey.[5]Lázaro Salazar, the team's manager, told Campanella that one day he would play at the major league level. Campanella subsequently returned to the Elite Giants for the 1944–45 seasons.
In 1946, Campanella played in the newly formedVenezuelan Professional Baseball League on theSabios de Vargas team, which he was co-coach and led to the league championship.
Campanella moved into theBrooklyn Dodgers'minor league system in1946 as the Dodger organization began preparations to break the MLB color barrier withJackie Robinson. His easy-going personality and strong work ethic were credited with his being able to move successfully between the races. AlthoughBranch Rickey considered hiring Campanella to break baseball's color barrier, Rickey ultimately decided upon Robinson.[9]
For the 1946 season, Robinson was assigned to theMontreal Royals, the Dodgers' affiliate in the Class AAAInternational League. On March 18, 1946, Campanella signed a contract to play for Danville Dodgers of theIllinois–Indiana–Iowa League.[10] After the general manager of the Danville Dodgers reported that he did not feel the league was ready forracial integration, the organization sent Campanella and pitcherDon Newcombe to theNashua Dodgers of the Class BNew England League, where the Dodgers felt the climate would be more tolerant. The Nashua team thus became the first professional baseball team of the 20th century to field a racially integrated lineup in the United States.[11]
Campanella's 1946 season proceeded largely without racist incidents, and in one game Campanella assumed the managerial duties after managerWalter Alston was ejected. Campanella was the firstAfrican American to manage White players of an organized professional baseball team. Nashua was three runs down at the time Campanella took over. They came back to win, in part due to Campanella's decision to use Newcombe as a pinch hitter during the seventh inning; Newcombe hit a game-tying two-run home run.
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.[9]
After spending most of the beginning of the 1948 season on the bench, Campanella was assigned to theSaint Paul Saints, the Dodgers' affiliate in the Class AAAAmerican Association, where he resided in theRondo 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.[12][13]
Campanella stayed at the Major League level and played for the Dodgers from July1948 through1957 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 theAll-Star Game every year from1949 through1956. With his 1949 All-Star selection, he was one of the first four African Americans so honored. (Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe andLarry Doby were also All-Stars that year.)[14] In 1950 Campanella hit home runs in five straight games; the only other Dodgers to homer in five consecutive games areShawn Green (2001),Matt Kemp (2010),Adrián González (2014–15),Joc Pederson (2015),Max Muncy (2019), andShohei Ohtani (2025).[15][16][17]
Campanella received theMost Valuable Player (MVP) award in theNational League three times: in1951,1953, and1955. 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 byJack Fournier (1925) andBabe Herman (1930). Today, it is the second most in franchise history,Tommy Davis breaking it with 153 RBI in1962.[18] That same year, Campanella hit 40 home runs in games in which he appeared as a catcher, a record that lasted until1996, when it was exceeded byTodd Hundley. In his career, he threw out 57% of thebase runners who tried tosteal a base on him, the highest percentage of any catcher in major league history.[19][20] He also had four seasons where he threw out more than 60% of attempted base stealers.[21]
In 1955, Campanella's final MVP season, he helped Brooklyn win its firstWorld Series championship. After the Dodgers lost the first two games ofthe 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 whenJohnny Podres shut out the Yankees 2–0 in Game 7.
Campanella caught threeno-hitters during his career:Carl Erskine's two, on June 19,1952[22] and May 12,1956[23] andSal Maglie's on September 25, 1956.[24][25] "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."[25]
After the1957 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.
Campanella lived onEast Island inGlen Cove, New York, on the North Shore ofLong Island; he operated a liquor store inHarlem between regular-season games and during the off-season. After closing the store for the night on January 28, 1958, he began his drive home to Glen Cove. While he was traveling at about 30 mph (48 km/h), his rented1957 Chevrolet sedan hit a patch of ice at an S-curve on Dosoris Lane near Apple Tree Lane in Glen Cove, skidded into a telephone pole, and overturned, breaking Campanella's neck. He fractured the fifth and sixth cervicalvertebrae and compressed thespinal cord.[26][27] The crash left Campanella paralyzed from the shoulders down.[26] With physical therapy, he was eventually able to regain substantial use of his arms and hands.[28] He was able to feed himself, shake hands, and gesture while speaking, but he required a wheelchair for mobility for the remainder of his life.[29]
Campanella wrote his autobiography,It's Good to Be Alive, which was published in 1959; in it, he discussed his convalescence and partial recovery after the crash.Michael Landon directed a TV-movie based on the book,It's Good to Be Alive (1974), which was considerably fictionalized. Campanella was portrayed byPaul Winfield.
After his playing career and rehabilitation, Campanella remained involved with the Dodgers. In January 1959, the Dodgers named him assistant supervisor of scouting for theeastern United States and special coach at the team's annualspring training camp inVero Beach, Florida, serving each year as a mentor and coach to young catchers in the Dodger organization.[30]
On September 27, 1959, Campanella appeared as himself in an episode ofLassie called "The Mascot" in which he coached the Calverton boys' baseball team and advised Timmy about a matter of cheating.
On May 7, 1959, the Dodgers, then playing their second season inLos Angeles, honored him with "Roy Campanella Night" at theLos Angeles Memorial Coliseum. TheNew York Yankees agreed to make a special visit to Los Angeles (between road series inKansas City andChicago) to play an exhibition game against the Dodgers for the occasion.[31]
The Yankees won the Thursday night game 6–2, with an attendance of 93,103, setting a record at that time for the largest crowd to attend a Major League Baseball game. The proceeds from the game went to defray Campanella's medical bills.[32]
On March 28, 1970, Campanella was named manager of the West team in theEast-West Major League Baseball Classic, a charity exhibition All-Star game held in honor ofMartin Luther King Jr. It was the first time he wore his Dodgers uniform since his career-ending accident.[33]
In 1978, Campanella moved toCalifornia and accepted a job with the Dodgers as assistant to the director of community relations,Don Newcombe, his former teammate and longtime friend.
A historic marker was installed inNashua, New Hampshire by theBlack Heritage Trail of New Hampshire to celebrate the achievements of Campanella and Newcombe in 2023.[34]
Campanella was married three times. His first marriage, to Bernice Ray on January 3, 1939, ended in divorce. They had two daughters together.
On April 30, 1945, he married Ruthe Willis, who brought her son David to the marriage. They had three children together (including a son,Roy Campanella II, who became a television director). Their marriage deteriorated after Campanella's accident; they separated in 1960. Ruthe died of a heart attack at age 40 in January 1963.
On May 5, 1964, Campanella marriedRoxie Doles, who survived him.
Campanella died ofheart failure at age 71 on June 26, 1993, at his home inWoodland Hills, California.[1][35] His body was cremated at theForest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery inLos Angeles.[36]
In July 1969, Campanella wasinducted into theBaseball Hall of Fame inCooperstown,[37] the second player of black heritage so honored, afterJackie Robinson. The same year, he received theBronze Medallion from the City ofNew York.
Campanella was elected to theMexican Professional Baseball Hall Of Fame in 1971.[38] On June 4, 1972, the Dodgers retired Campanella's uniform number 39 alongsideJackie Robinson's number 42 andSandy Koufax's number 32.[39]
In 1999, Campanella ranked number 50 onThe Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players,[40] and was a nominee for theMajor League Baseball All-Century Team. In 2020,The Athletic ranked Campanella at number 94 on its "Baseball 100" list, complied by sportswriterJoe Posnanski.[41]
Campanella was featured on a United Statespostage stamp in 2006. The stamp is one of a block of four honoring baseball sluggers, the others beingMickey Mantle,Hank Greenberg, andMel Ott.[42]
In September 2006, theLos Angeles Dodgers announced the creation of theRoy Campanella Award. The club's players and coaches vote on it annually, and is given to the Dodger who best exemplifies "Campy's" spirit and leadership. ShortstopRafael Furcal was named the inaugural winner of the award.
Campanella is mentioned in the lyrics of multiple songs, including "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit that Ball?", written and recorded by Buddy Johnson in 1949 (and covered by Count Basie and his Orchestra that same year), "We Didn't Start the Fire" byBilly Joel, and in the refrain of "Talkin' Baseball" byTerry Cashman.
Roy Campanella Park, a recreation center operated by theLos Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation in unincorporatedWest Rancho Dominguez, California, is named after him.[43]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Not quite a year after his 22-year career as a homer-hammering catcher ended in a Long Island auto accident, Old Dodger Roy Campanella was back in baseball. His new job, at an estimated $25,000 a year: assistant supervisor of scouting for Los Angeles in the eastern part of the U.S.. and special coach at the Bums' spring training camp at Vero Beach. Fla.
Often a cemetery that performs a cremation gets listed as the interment site. Thus Lee lists Roy Campanella as buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, although Campanella was only cremated there with his remains returned to the family.
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