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Roy Campanella Photo Gallery
Gil with Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella
Mr. James Newcombe (father of Don), Roy Campanella, Buzzy Bavasi
Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Don Newcombe, Luke Easter, Roy Campanella.
Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe, Preacher Roe, Roy Campanella, PeeWee Reese, Gil Hodges, Duke Snider
Dodgers' Joe Black and Roy Campanella with kids
Roy Campanella
Roy Campanella celebrates 1955 WS victory with Johnny Podres
Gil celebrates with Dodger teammates Duke Snider, Clem Labine, and Roy Campanella
Great New York catchers: Roy Campanella and Yogi Berra
Roy Campanella
Don Newcombe, Roy Campanella, Larry Doby and Jacksonville Eagles manager, Jim Williams.
Roy Campanella tags out Phil Rizutto at the plate as Joe Collins looks on Umpire is Bill Stewart
Roy Campanella
Roy Campanella on cover of Life magazine in 1953
Roy Campanella
Gil with teammates Roy Campanella and Don Zimmer
Band members with Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, and Carl Furillo, as they arrived at Ebbets Field during the 1951 pennant race
Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, PeeWee Reese, Roy Campanella
Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe, 1955
Roy Campanella in action at home plate
Roy Campanella smothers a base runner
Dodger players at Spring training, 1955: Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, PeeWee Reese, Gil Hodges
Willie with wheelchair-bound, Roy Campanella.
Roy Campanella
Roy Campanella night
Roy Campanella with Gene Autry
Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, Jackie Robinson
Roy Campanella with his pitchers at training camp. Ralph Branca, Carl Erskine, Preacher Roe and Clem Labine, 1952
Roy Campanella with family
Roy Campanella’s Great Start to the 1953 Season
40 RBIs in First 30 Games!
You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you, too. -Roy Campanella
On May 10, 1953, Roy Campanella hit a double and a home run against the Phillies at Ebbets Field. With those two hits, Campy drove in all five runs in the Dodgers’ 5-0 victory, which gave him over 40 RBIs in the first 30 games of the season, a feat that wouldn’t be matched for forty-four years.
And after that great start, what a year Campy put together! He posted a .312 average, with 162 hits, 103 runs, a league-leading 142 RBIs, 41 home runs, a .395 on-base percentage, and a .611 slugging average, and was the 1953 MVP. His 154 OPS+ was well above average among his major league contemporaries (100 being the major league average).
Before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Philadelphia native spend eight seasons in the Negro Leagues (1937-1945). A three-time All-Star, he hit .317, with 18 home runs, and 856 RBIs, winning the batting title crown in 1944 with a .388 average.
Campy played in his first game for the Dodgers on April 20, 1948, a year after Jackie Robinson broke the major league color barrier. Over his 10-year career in Brooklyn (1948-1958), which was unfortunately cut short by a debilitating auto accident on January 26, 1958, the eight-time All-Star hit .276, with 1167 hits, 627 runs, 856 RBIs, 242 home runs, a .360 on-base percentage, and a .500 slugging average. Campy was a three-time MVP award winner (1951, ’53, and ’55). In each of his MVP seasons, he batted more than .300, hit more than 30 home runs, and had more than 100 runs batted in. In 41 postseason games, he hit .257, with five home runs, and 20 RBIs.
His 1949 All-Star selection made him one of the first four African-Americans honored, along with Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe, and Larry Doby. He played in every All-Star game from 1949 to 1956. In 1950, he hit home runs in five straight games. Campanella caught three no-hitters during his career: Carl Erskine’s two on June 19, 1952, and May 12, 1956, and Sal Maglie’s on September 25, 1956. Defensively, he was one of the best. During his career, he threw out 57% of potential base stealers, the highest percentage by any catcher in major league history.
In 1955, he helped Brooklyn win its first-ever World Series championship. After the Dodgers lost the first two games of the series to the Yankees, Campy hit a two-out, two-run homer in the first inning of Game Three. The Dodgers won that game, then got another home run from Campanella in a Game Four victory that tied the series. They went on to win the series in seven games.
After he retired as a player, Campy held positions in scouting and community relations with the Dodgers. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. On June 4, 1972, the Dodgers retired Campanella’s uniform number 39 alongside Jackie Robinson’s number 42 and Sandy Koufax’s number 32. In 1999, Campanella ranked number 50 on The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players and was a Major League Baseball All-Century Team nominee.
Roy Campanella passed away on June 26, 1993, aged 71, at his home in Woodland Hills, California. Today, we’re very happy to shine our baseball spotlight on the Dodgers’ great Hall of Famer, Roy Campanella!
Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: All from Google search
Information: Excerpts edited from the Roy Campanella Wikipedia page. Stats from Baseball Reference.com
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