Doby, Paige highlight special 1948 World Series

CLEVELAND — In 1947, Jackie Robinson and Dan Bankhead became the first African-American players to appear in the World Series as members of the National League-champion Brooklyn Dodgers, who lost an epic seven-game series against the crosstown-rival Yankees.

The importance of Robinson, in particular, appearing on that Series stage in the same season in which he changed baseball forever isn’t diminished by the fact that he happened to be on the losing end.

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But there are other thresholds worth celebrating nonetheless, and it was the 1948 Indians that became the first World Series-winning ballclub to feature African-American players, in Larry Doby and Satchel Paige.

It is, admittedly, as Major League Baseball’s official historian John Thorn put it, “less historically significant than trivia oddity.”

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But the contributions of Doby and Paige to the last Tribe team to go the distance are worthy of recognition.

Doby broke the American League color barrier a few months after Jackie arrived, but he played only sparingly, and not particularly well in that 1947 season. While Robinson had a full season in the International League to assist his acclimation before his big league arrival, Doby went from the Negro League Newark Eagles to the Indians …

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