Roy Campanella-His Love for Baseball and Life
Born to an Italian father and an Afro-American mother on November 19th, 1921, Roy Campanella hailed from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Being black, Roy Campanella was barred from playing in the major leagues until 1948. He played with the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro National League from 1939 until 1945, with stints in the Mexican Leagues in between. His agility behind the plate, a rifle arm, and a powerful bat made Roy Campanella the premier catcher in the league, supplanting the aging Josh Gibson. Roy Campanella caught the eye of Dodger executive Branch Rickey, who was already in the process of integrating baseball with Jackie Robinson. Roy Campanella would make his major league debut on July 1st, 1948, doubling in his first at bat and singling twice later in the game. Three days later, on the 4th of July, Roy Campanella hit his first two major league baseball home runs during a 13-12 Dodgers-Giants slugfest. He finished 1948 with 9 homers and 45 runs batted in, playing in 83 games.
Roy Campanella became the Dodgers starting catcher the next season; he would start in the All-Star game behind the plate for the next eight years. Hitting 22 home runs and pushing 82 Dodger runs across home plate, Roy Campanella, at the age of 27, quickly proved he was one of the games best. Brooklyn won the pennant in 1949, but lost the World Series to the Yankees; Roy Campanella hit .267 with a home run in the Fall Classic. The next season, Roy Campanella had similar numbers, with 31 homers and 89 RBI.
With unwavering enthusiasm for the sport and a pleasant nature, the five-foot nine, two hundred plus pound Roy Campanella quickly became a fan favorite at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field. Runners took few liberties with the Dodger catcher, as his quick reflexes were likened to that of a cat, and his strong right arm gunned potential base stealers down. At the plate, Roy Campanella was rewriting the record books for catchers. In 1951, the first of his three National League MVP campaigns, Roy Campanella hit .325, pounding out 33 homers and knocking in 108 men. The Dodgers lost a three game playoff to the hated New York Giants to lose the pennant, with the Giants winning the deciding game on Bobby Thompson’s famous home run at the Polo Grounds.
The following year, Roy Campanella once again neared 100 RBI, settling for 97, with 22 round trippers. The Dodgers won another pennant, and suffered yet another loss to the Yankees. Roy Campanella, perhaps worn down by year;s end, hit only 6 for 28 in the Series with no RBI. 1953 saw Roy Campanella capture his second MVP trophy, with one of the greatest seasons ever by a catcher. He hit .312 with career highs in homers with 41 and runs batted in with 142. Although Roy Campanella hit a home run off New York’s Vic Raschi to win Game Three for Brooklyn, the Dodgers once again fell to the Yankees, this time in six games.
In the spring of 1954, Roy Campanella chipped a bone in the heel of his catching hand and damaged a nerve. The pain kept Roy Campanella from playing a full season. Appearing in just 111 games, Roy Campanella had his worst season in baseball, batting just .207. Surgery alleviated the problem for the 1955 season, and pain free, Roy Campanella had his last great season at the age of 33. He hit over .300 and contributed 107 RBI in 123 games. The World Series finally had a different result for Roy Campanella and the Dodgers, as they defeated the Yankees in six games. Roy Campanella greatly helped the cause by homering in games three and four, both Dodger victories. Roy Campanella was honored as the National League’s MVP for the third and last time after the season.
Another Yankee win in the 1956 Series, followed by a third place finish in ’57, did little to dull Roy Campanella’s love of baseball. The surgery that had helped his chipped bone in his left hand was able to solve the [problem for only one year though, and the pain returned. Roy Campanella pressed on, readying himself for the 1958 Brooklyn Dodger season. On the evening of January 29th, 1958, Roy Campanella was returning from a package store he owned in New York City. His car hit an icy patch in Long Island and flipped over after hitting a telephone pole. Upside down in the vehicle for hours, Roy Campanella was paralyzed from the waist down, his spinal cord nearly severed. He would never play baseball again.
Roy Campanella went through years of intense physical therapy and regained the use of his arms and hands. He worked in the community as a representative of the Dodgers, who moved away from Brooklyn for the uncultivated fan market of Los Angeles in 1959.
In May of 1959, the Yankees graciously agreed to travel to Los Angeles for an exhibition game against their old rivals. It was “Roy Campanella Night”, and the game drew the largest crowd to ever see a major league game, over 93,000 people. New York won by a 6-2 count.
Confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, Roy Campanella made several television appearances, even guest starring on an episode of Lassie. He served as a Dodger coach, mentoring their young catching prospects. Roy Campanella was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969, the second black player so honored; Jackie Robinson was the first. The Dodgers retired the number 39 that “Campy” wore for ten glorious seasons, ten wonderfully productive years which saw him pile up 242 home runs and over 850 RBI despite losing prime years to the discrimination that kept him out of the sport. Because of his undaunted spirit Roy Campanella lived far beyond the normal life expectancy for quadriplegics, dying at the age of 71 in California on June 26th, 1993. Roy Campanella loved the game he played as much as it loved him. He was once asked when he would leave the sport of baseball. To this, Roy Campanella replied, “I never want to quit playing ball. They’ll have to cut this uniform off of me to get me out of it.”
