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 Don Newcombe and the1955 Dodgers Photo Gallery
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Don Newcombe, RIP (1926-2019)

Don Newcombe Retires, January 19, 1961

“Don Newcombe’s influence on me is beyond words. I can’t even tell you how huge it was for me to meet him at the time I did in my career.” –Former major league ace pitcher, Dave Stewart

This past Friday, January 19, 2024, marked the sixty-third anniversary of Don Newcombe’s release from the Indians, bringing to a close his remarkable twelve-year major league career.

Don passed away nearly five years ago at age 92 on February 19, 2019. At the time of his death, I wrote a tribute to him, recalling some of the highlights of his remarkable, under-appreciated career. It was a career replete with many truly historic achievements. Here’s some updated excerpts:

My Tribute to Don Newcombe (Written in 2019)

With the passing of Don Newcombe, a magnificent chapter in baseball history – the “Boys of Summer” – is slowly drawing to its conclusion. And what a chapter it was! Will baseball ever see its likes again? Just writing out these names and recalling the glory days of the 1950s – one of baseball’s truly Golden Eras  – brings tears to the eyes, along with pangs of nostalgia, to old baseball fans like me:

Clem Labine, George Shuba, Andy Pafko, Joe Black, Preacher Roe, Pee Wee Reese, Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Billy Cox.

And now we sadly add the name Don Newcombe to the list. They’re all gone now. Ninety-seven-year-old Carl Erskine, “Oisk,” is the only one left. And with them goes a big part of us too…

Don Newcombe’s Career 

Don Newcombe was one of the last surviving players from the Negro Leagues, pitching for the Newark Eagles in 1944 at age 18. In 1945, he had an 8-3 record with the Eagles and caught the attention of baseball’s iconic pioneer, Branch Rickey. 

Debuting with the Dodgers on May 20, 1949, the 6’4″ 225-pound right-hander pitched 12 seasons in the majors,1944-1960 (counting his two Negro League years with the Newark Eagles), with two years lost to military service during the Korean War. He pitched for the Dodgers (1949-’51, 1954-’58), Reds (1958-’60), and Indians (1960). He also played a year in Japan with the Chunichi Dragons (1962).

Over his career, the four-time All-Star went 153-96 (.614), with a 3.57 ERA, 1,129 strikeouts, 145 complete games, and 24 shutouts. In addition, he was an excellent hitting pitcher – often used as a pinch hitter – with a .268 batting average, 15 home runs, and 109 RBIs.

His best seasons came in 1955 and 1956, leading the league both years in winning percentage.  In ’55 we went 20-5 (.800) with a 3.20 ERA, helping the team to a pennant and the franchise’s first World Series championship. In ’56 he went 27-7 (.794) with a 3.06 ERA and another pennant. His 27 wins led the league.

But the dry statistics don’t tell the complete story of Don Newcombe’s outstanding, often overlooked, career. It includes many “firsts”:

• In 1946, along with the great Roy Campanella, Don played on the first fully integrated team in the United States, the Nashua Dodgers.
• In May 1949, Newk became the third African American pitcher in the major leagues, after Dan Bankhead and Satchel Paige.
• In 1949, he was among the first four black players to be named to an All-Star team, along with teammates Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella and the Indians’ Larry Doby, also winning Rookie of the Year honors.
• In 1950, he won 19 games, and 20 the following season, also leading the league in strikeouts in 1951.
• Don helped the Dodgers to the pennant in 1951, winning 17 games, leading the league in shutouts, and pitching at one point 32 consecutive scoreless innings.
• In 1951, he became the first black pitcher to win twenty games in one season.
• In 1956, the inaugural year of the Cy Young Award (when only one award was given for both leagues), Don was the first pitcher to win Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Awards in the same season.
• Don Newcombe was the first pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, and Cy Young Awards during his career (an achievement matched by Justin Verlander in 2011).

Don Newcombe’s life was not without its tragedies. The demons of alcoholism nearly destroyed him. At one time he described himself as “a stupefied, wife-abusing, child-frightening, falling-down drunk.”

But he overcame the addiction and stopped drinking in 1966 after his wife threatened to leave him. He reformed himself; and from then on, he became a mentor to both military personnel and ball players, including Maury Wills, who were struggling with substance abuse. In addition, he always made himself available to young Dodgers players for advice and counseling, often having a major impact on their lives, as the above quote from Dave Stewart attests. Don rejoined the Dodgers in the late 1970s and was the team’s Director of Community Affairs. In March 2009, he was named special adviser to the chairman of the team.

Baseball lost a good man when we learned that Don Newcombe passed away in 2019. He was a great pitcher, an even better man, and one of the game’s true racial pioneers. He, along with the other “Boys of Summer” are gone now…but they will live forever in our hearts.

Gary Livacari 

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Information: Excerpts edited from Don Newcombe Wikipedia page; Statistics from Baseball Reference.com