NEW YORK — When people think about players who made their mark with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Joe Black is not the first name that comes up. Obviously, Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese are legends and they should be recognized as such.
But Black had a season to remember for the Boys of Summer in 1952. Black, then 28, was a product of the Negro Leagues’ Baltimore Elite Giants. He was a rookie with Brooklyn and was its top reliever, going 15-4 with a 2.15 ERA and a team-leading 15 saves. After the ’52 season ended, he was voted the National League Rookie of the Year and finished third in NL MVP voting.
But it’s what he did on Oct. 1, 1952, that put him in the baseball history books. Black became the first African American to win a World Series game, and he did it against the mighty Yankees, who had won the last three World Series titles.
It was Game 1 of that ‘52 Fall Classic when Black became a barrier breaker. He helped the Dodgers defeat the Yankees, 4-2, by pitching the game of his life. Black tossed a complete game, allowing two runs on six hits and two walks while striking out six batters. Three of those K’s came in the third, when he struck out Billy Martin, Allie Reynolds and Hank Bauer. Robinson — a roommate of Black’s — Reese and Duke Snider supplied Brooklyn’s power with homers, which accounted for all four of its runs.
“For Black, the stage was not too big for him,” said Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. “He clearly was a fierce competitor. He pitched great in that game.”
According to Black’s daughter, Martha Jo Black, Joe wished some of the scouts who ignored his talent were in attendance at Yankee Stadium that day.
“My dad said when he was on that pitching mound, he was [thinking about] the scouts that came to his high school and did not look at him because he was Black,” Martha Jo recalled. “He said he wished he bought one of them a ticket to see him [on that day].”
There was a reason Black received the nod for Game 1. The Dodgers had a solid rotation that featured Carl Erskine, Preacher Roe, Billy Loes and Ben Wade. But according to Black, manager Charlie Dressen felt that Black was the only pitcher on the team who was strong enough to pitch three games in the World Series. Back then, the World Series didn’t have off-days, which meant Black had to pitch every third day.
Black started twice during the regular season, both times in September. In those two games, opponents hit .186 against him, and he pitched a complete game against the Boston Braves on Sept. 21.
“[Dressen] said, ‘You are the strongest pitcher I got. So I’m going to start you against Boston,’” Black said during a symposium at Kenyon College in 2001. “So I pitched against Boston. A week before the season ended, I beat them and I clinched the pennant for us.”
Black didn’t know he was pitching in Game 1 of the World Series until that day. He said he wasn’t nervous and remembers no one making a big deal of the history he made that day.
“It was just a baseball game,” Black told Kenyon College. “I wasn’t a big superstar. I was just another guy. … You don’t have to be a Hall of Famer to win a game.”
Black’s luck against the Yankees ended after that first game. He pitched well in Games 4 and 7, but lost both as the Yankees won their fourth consecutive World Series title. Black is not well known as a barrier breaker in Major League Baseball, but Kendrick is making sure that Black is not forgotten.
“[This past season], we [had] a traveling exhibition called Barrier Breakers, which has been on display at Dodger Stadium since April 15. We debuted it for Jackie Robinson’s 75th anniversary for breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier,” Kendrick said. “But we wanted to highlight the other integration pioneers in our game because they have been oftentimes overlooked. …
“Some of these other guys who did not get the notoriety, like a Joe Black, falls into that category of almost being the answer to a trivia question. So when you raise the question, ‘Who was the first Black pitcher to win a World Series game?’ chances are people are not going to know.”
Black’s career was never the same after the ‘52 season. According to Baseball Reference, Dressen wanted Black to add more pitches to his arsenal and Black agreed to do it. However, it changed his mechanics and he had a tough time getting hitters out. Over the next five seasons with the Dodgers and Reds, Black never had an ERA under 4.05. He was out of Major League Baseball after the 1957 season.
He went on to have a successful career off the field. Black became an executive with Greyhound and worked for the D-backs in community affairs before he passed away in 2002 at age 78.