Joe Black鈥檚 Dodger teammate Jackie Robinson broke baseball鈥檚 color line, but Black himself wasn鈥檛 far behind, entering the majors in 1952, when he was the National League Rookie of the Year. He became the first African-American pitcher to win a World Series game. Here his daughter, who works in the White Sox organization, coauthors the story of her dad鈥檚 life both on the diamond and afterward as an executive with Greyhound bus lines.
Here's an excerpt from "Joe Black":
鈥淛oe faced Stan Musial for the first time 鈥� and as the great left-handed hitter settled into his peek-a-boo stance, Joe heard a voice booming from the St. Louis dugout. 鈥楬ey Stan,鈥� the guy yelled, 鈥榳ith that big black background, you shouldn鈥檛 have trouble hitting that white ball.鈥� Joe stepped off the rubber, glared into the dugout and saw nothing but blank faces. Jackie [Robinson] rushed in from his position to ask Joe if he had seen who yelled. Joe said he hadn鈥檛 and Jackie told him guys like that were gutless and always hid. 鈥楩orget it right now and work on Musial,鈥� he told Joe. Joe did just that, and retired the left-hander on a fly to center. When Joe bumped into Musial the next night, the future Hall of Famer apologized. 鈥業鈥檓 sorry that happened, but don鈥檛 let things like that bother you,鈥� Musial said. 鈥榊ou鈥檙e a good pitcher.鈥� Joe told that story many times through the years, always remembering the dignity shown him by one of the game鈥檚 great players.鈥�
