Page 8 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, June 19, 2020 Don Newcombe By Th e Old Sachem D on Newcombe was among the early black players to play in the major leagues. He followed Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella into the big leagues, signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949. Don was born June 14, 1926, in Madison, New Jersey, and died February 19, 2019, at 92 years old. His family moved to Elizabeth, N.J., and he attended Elizabeth High School, but the school didn’t have a baseball team. He described himself as an “indiff erent student” and left school rather than retake biology. He pitched semipro during his high school years and was picked up by the Newark Eagles in the Negro National League, pitching in 1944 and 1945. He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945 off -season and began his major league career with the Dodgers in the 1946 season. While at the Dodgers’ minor league team in Nashua, New Hampshire, he was paired with a catcher who would become his big league catcher, Roy Campanella Together they played on the fi rst racially integrated baseball team based in the United States in the 20th century with the 1946 Dodgers in the Dodgers minor league club, Nashua, in the New England League. In 1948 he was advanced by the Dodgers to their triple A club, the Montreal Royals of the Class AAA International League. He became the third African-American pitcher in the major league after Satchel Paige and Dan Bankhead. His major league debut was on May 20, 1949, and during the season he became Rookie of the Year and led the club Bill Stewart The Old Sachem to the National League Pennant, with 17 wins, and led the league with fi ve shutouts, also pitching 32 consecutive innings of scoreless innings. He was among the fi rst of four black players to be named to a league All-Star team along with teammates Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Larry Doby of the Indians. With his outstanding year, he was named both the Baseball Writers’ of America and the Sporting News Rookie of the Year. The next season he won 19 games and in his third season he won 20 while leading the league with strikeouts. He pitched in the playoff game between the Dodgers and the New York Giants in the playoffs of 1951 for the National League championship, when manager Chuck Dressen decided it was time to bring in reliever Ralph Branca. Newcombe had a 4-1 lead going into the ninth and gave up a home run, then had runners on fi rst and second when pitching coach Clyde Sukeforth told the manager that it was time to change pitchers. Branca gave up a threerun homer to Bobby Thomson to lead the Giants into the World Series. He missed the 1952 and 1953 season, being drafted to serve in the Army during the Korean War. He had a serious drinking problem throughout his career. In 1954 his record was 9 and 8 with a 4.55 earned run average. He returned to stardom in the 1955 season, where he fi nished second in the National League with a record of 20 and 5 and an ERA of 3.20. The 1956 season was his shining moment with 27 wins and only 7 losses, 139 strikeouts, an ERA of 3.06 fi ve shutouts, and 18 complete games. During his seven years with the Dodgers, his regular season record was 123 wins and 60 losses. He later pitched for the Indians and the Cubs. His big league career regular season totals were 149 wins, 90 losses, 3.56 ERA, 24 shutouts, 1,129 strikeouts, hit batter 30 times, 3 balks and 22 wild pitches. In his prime he tended to pitch inside with a stinging fastball that kept batters leery. Newcombe was also a pretty good batter. With 878 at bats, he scored 93 runs and had 232 hits, 32 doubles, 3 triples and 15 home runs. He was occasionally used as a pinchhitter. He played for the Chunichi Dragons in 1962 in the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan. Among his awards were as a four-time All-Star (1949, 1950, 1951, 1955) and a member of a World Series Champion in 1955. He was the National League Most Valuable Player in 1956, Cy Young Award winner in 1956, Rookie of the Year in 1949, MLB wins leader in 1956 and MLB strikeout leader in 1951. His personal life was a mixed bag. He was married three times, divorced twice and had three children from his marriages. He described himself as “a stupefi ed, wife-abusing, child-frightening, falling down drunk” during the 50s and 60s, pawning his World Series ring to aff ord alcohol. He changed his life around in 1966 and proceeded to assist others to battle substance abuse. An outstanding pitcher with a blazing fastball to intimidate batters, he was able to overcome his diffi cult times, and is remembered as an original member of black integration into Major League Baseball. 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