Newk: First Cy Young Winner

What do you think of when you hear his name? My first thoughts are of a guy who finished what he started. A player who lost two full seasons to military service while in his prime. And later a player who turned his life around when he was headed down a path of self-destruction.

Donald Newcombe was born on the 14th of June 1926 in Madison New Jersey. His parents were Roland and Sadie Newcombe. His father was a chauffeur for a wealthy family for 28 years. He also was adept at making home-made beer. Newk had three brothers, Harold, Norman, and Roland Jr. and a sister, Dolly, who died when she was 8.

His dad would start giving them his home-made brew when Don was about 8. He witnessed many family arguments and by 13 he was buying his own beer and spending time with his friends. Roland would occasionally take his boys to Ruppert Stadium where they would pay 25 cents to sit in the left-field bleachers and watch either the Newark Eagles of the Negro League, or the Newark Bears, who were a Yankee minor league AAA affiliate. Newks favorite player was Bears outfielder, Bob Seeds, a well-traveled veteran who played for five major league teams in a 9 year-span. However, Newcombe later recalled, one player stood out from the rest. ” If you were black and a baseball fan, you knew about Satchel Paige. He was a legend.”

Eventually, his family moved to Elizabeth New Jersey. There, the 14-year-old Newcombe excelled at baseball for his Jr. High team. His coach would not let him pitch citing a lack of talent. When he went to Jefferson High School, he pitched for Semi-pro teams since his high school did not have a team. His next-door neighbor, Johnny Grier, had a tremendous influence on Don. Grier, 12 years older, mentored him and kept him out of trouble. He also taught him his wind-mill windup and high leg kick; he would use his entire career.

By the age of 15, Newcombe was already 6′ tall and 200 pounds. He was sitting in a bathroom drinking a beer when he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Falsifying his age, he enlisted in the army. When the clerks discovered the ruse, they called his father to come pick him up. Because of the segregation that existed in major league baseball, his father had envisioned him as the next Joe Louis, not Dizzy Dean. But Don told his dad he did not want to box because he did not want to get hit in the face.

On an afternoon in December of 1943, he was playing checkers at Pryor’s Barbershop. He met Buddy Holler. Holler was an acquaintance of Abe Manley who owned the Newark Eagles. Two months later, he took Don to the Manley home, and he met Abe’s wife Effa. Effa co-owned the team with her husband and was also the business manager. Impressed by Newcombe’s physical size alone, she invited him to their spring training. The next morning, he and Holler headed for Eagles camp in Richmond, Virginia.

Newcombe dropped out of high school to play baseball full time for a salary of 170 dollars a month. He made his professional debut in relief on May 14th, 1944, at Ruppert Stadium in New Jersey. In one game he was facing the Baltimore Elite Giants. As Roy Campanella stepped into the box, his manager, Mule Suttles, ordered him to knock Campy down. ” I threw it high but not inside enough and Campy hit the ball into the seats.” It was a dubious beginning to a lifelong friendship.

Campy and Newk crossed paths again at an exhibition series between white players and Negro Leaguers. This time they were teammates. This was October of 1945. The series was at Ebbets Field. Campy and Newk were impressive enough to be considered for Rickey’s second wave of integration although they were being scouted long before the series took place. While Campy was already considered MLB material, Newcombe was just raw talent. Rickey signed him because of his size and a belief he could mature into that pitcher. Effa Manley was embittered by the signing of her young player because she never received compensation. “The Dodgers don’t deserve to win for what they did to Negro baseball.” She later said.

With the 1946 season just months away, Rickey looked desperately for a team that would accept both players. Originally scheduled to play for Danville of the Three-I League, but the league president stated he would rather shut down the league than integrate. So, Rickey called Buzzie Bavasi, GM of Nashua Dodgers if the New England League. “If they can play better than what we have, I do not care what color they are.” Bavasi replied. While Rickey had prepared Robinson for the challenges he would face, he did not do the same with Roy and Don. Instead, they met with Jackie in New York and talked about the challenges they would face in person.

Throughout the season, they would keep in contact with Jackie. ” We’re being depended on by black people all over the world, we cannot afford to fail.” Jackie said according to Don. After Newcombe married Freddie Cross, the newlyweds joined Campy and his wife in Nashua, New Hampshire. Reportedly, they were the only black people in the town. Rickey forgot to tell their manager, Walter Alston, about their arrival. “I did not think about it, after I saw them play a couple of games, I was glad they were on my team.” Walt said.

Campy was a Negro league vet having 9 seasons under his belt. He had a calming effect on the young and sometimes very temperamental Newcombe. Newk had a shutout in his debut and won his first four starts. Besides driving the team bus, Newk showed a surprising proficiency with the bat. Some wondered if he might switch positions and play every day. Hitting from the left side, he became Alston’s most trusted pinch hitter.

By mid-June, the team was 13 games back of league leading Lynn Red Sox. By August, Newcombe was 8-3 with a .349 BA. He and Campy led the charge down the stretch and they made the playoffs. Newcombe threw a shutout in game three to lead the Dodgers to a sweep of Pawtucket. They then took the Sox to six games, winning game six behind Newcombe and becoming the league champs.

The Dodgers went to Havana for spring training in 1947. They did that to avoid all the racial tension and Jim Crow laws that would have hampered Robinson training with the big-league club. The Dodgers were put up at the luxurious Hotel National, and housed Montreal at the new Havana Military Academy. But the four black players, Robinson, Newk, Campy and Roy Paltrow, were put in a musty third-rate hotel to avoid racial tension. Robinson was livid. They were also given meal tickets to use in Havana’s less than sanitary restaurants.

” One night, I sat in the hotel eating some soup, I stirred the soup and a cockroach crawled out of it. I threw up everything I had in me all over the counter.” Newcombe recalled. Weakened by the deplorable conditions, Newcombe lost 35 pounds. He was sent back to Nashua to work on his control, Robinson went to Brooklyn and Campy went to Montreal. The Havana venture was a total mess costing a lot of money and aggravation.

By 1948, Campy went to Brooklyn with Robbie and Newk went to Montreal. He blossomed at AAA. Armed with a explosive fastball, a looping curve and a slider, he went 17-6. He also tossed his only professional no-hitter. His manager, Clay Hopper, called him the next Dizzy Dean.

Newk went 2-1 in the playoffs against Rochester. He won game one 4-3. He lost game four 1-0 on a fielder’s choice by Chuck Connors in the first inning and then won a pitcher’s duel where they were tied 0-0 in the bottom of the 9th and then league MVP, Jimmy Bloodworth hit a three-run walk of homer.

That set up a Junior World Series matchup between the Dodgers top two farm teams, St. Paul and Montreal. St. Paul’s manager, Alston, was quite familiar with Newk. He and Hopper were vying hopefully for them, for the managerial opening in Brooklyn due to the departure of Leo Durocher. Both Rickey and Walter O’Malley were in attendance. Montreal prevailed in five games. Newcombe won one and lost one.

Newcombe fully expected to go north with the Dodgers after spring training in 1949. He pitched well but was sent back to the minors. The reasoning was that he had not matured enough. Upset, he went home. He had to be persuaded by his wife to report to Montreal. He was branded by manager, Burt Shotton as a fire-eater who ” couldn’t keep his mouth shut.” He also said he did not want Newcombe spoiling it for the other black players on the team. But by May, the Dodgers were foundering, and Shotton had to accept Newcombe’s promotion. He got knocked around a little in his debut in relief on May 20th. Two days later, he threw a shutout against the Reds in his first start.

By July, he was selected to play in the only All-Star game ever played at Ebbets Field. He went on to finish the season with 17 wins and led the league in shutouts. He almost won the strikeout title, finishing 2 behind the leader, Warren Spahn, who threw 58 more innings. He won the Rookie of the Year Award, becoming the second black player in three years to do so. Jackie was the first. He got a lot of encouragement by having Robinson and Campanella there to guide him. Their methods though were totally different. Jackie felt that rattling his cage made him pitch better. Campy on the other hand would sooth Newk like some sort of balm. The word got around the league that Newcombe was not afraid to take aim at other hitters if pitchers went after the Dodgers two hitting stars. Conversely, Robinson had his best season and won the MVP Award.

Both pennant races were decided on the last day of the season for the first time in MLB history. The Dodgers went 10 innings in a game Newcombe started and beat the Phillies, 9-7. The Yankees beat Boston, 5-3 to win the AL flag. Newk would lose two games in the series. In game one, he lost on a walk off homer by Tommy Henrich. It was later discovered that he had pitched that game with an ingrown toenail. Anyone who has ever had one of those can tell you exactly how painful that is. He also pitched in game four but was ineffective. Brooklyn lost in five games.

Newcombe got a World Series share of close to five-thousand dollars. So, he bought a house in Colonia, New Jersey. He joined the volunteer fire department and took to refereeing wrestling matches in the off-season.

In 1950 he once again carried a heavy workload. The Dodgers pretty much chased the Phillies all year. But he was once again an All-Star. He had five consecutive complete game wins beginning August 31st. The last of those was the first game of a doubleheader against the Phillies on the 6th of September. He started the second game also and left in the seventh down, 2-0. But the Dodgers came back with 3 in the ninth to win the game.

On the 18th of September, the Phillies were 9 games ahead of Brooklyn with two weeks to go. On September the 30th, the Phillies came into Ebbets Field, and the Dodgers were 2 games back. If they could win both games, they would tie and force a playoff. Brooklyn won the Saturday game, 7-3. The last game would pit the Phillies ace, Robin Roberts, against Newcombe. Not only were they pitching for the pennant, but both were also trying to become 20 game winners for the first time.

The Dodgers had a chance to win in the bottom of the ninth. Cal Abrams walked and Reese singled. Snider then laced a single to center. The slow-footed Abrams was waved home but was thrown out. Snider advanced to second on the throw. They walked Robinson intentionally. Furillo then fouled out and Hodges flied to right to end the threat. In the top of the 10th, with Newcombe still pitching, he gave up back-to-back singles to Roberts and Eddie Waitkus. Dave Sisler, Hall of Famer, George Sisler’s son, then hit a three-run homer that held up and the Phillies went to the World Series. One of those games that would later be used to say Newcombe did not win the big games.

O’Malley and some of the players questioned Shotton’s decision making, especially leaving Newcombe in for the 10th inning. O’Malley had just recently become the majority owner. So, he refused to renew Shotton’s contract and hired Charlie Dressen to be the new manager. At the same time, he refused to renew Branch Rickey’s contract. In an effort to make some more cash, Newcombe worked in a men’s clothing store during the winter.

Dressen was a former coach under Giant manager, Leo Durocher. Dressen wanted nothing more than to beat his former boss. By August of 1951, the Dodgers had pulled away from the rest of the NL and held a 12.5 game advantage on the Giants on August 12th. But the Giants got incredibly hot and on the 28th of September, they pulled into a tie with the Dodgers. For the second year in a row, the Dodgers faced the Phillies in a series that could win or lose the pennant.

Newcombe shut the Phils out in the first game, 5-0, making him a 20-game winner. But the Giants beat the Braves to keep pace. In the second game, the Dodgers trailed, 8-5 going into the top of the 8th inning. Newcombe was brought in in the bottom of the 8th and pitched 5 2/3rds innings of scoreless relief. The Dodgers tied the game in the top of the 9th. Newk was pulled in the 13th inning with 2 outs. But no runs scored.

In the top of the 14th, with the game tied, 8-8, Robinson hit a homer. Brooklyn won, 9-8 but the Giants again beat the Braves forcing a 3-game playoff. After losing game one at Ebbets Field, the series shifted to the Polo Grounds. The Dodgers gave the Giants a 10-0 beatdown in game two. Newcombe was pitching game 3. He pitched six shutout innings before allowing a run in the bottom of the seventh. When he came to the bench after the inning, he told Dressen that his arm was dead. Nevertheless, Dressen sent him back out for the bottom of the eighth. He retired the Giants in order. He was allowed to hit in the top of the 9th because of his hitting ability. Dressen did not want to waste a pinch hitter.

Every Dodger fan knows what happened in the bottom of the 9th. The Giants would get a run, Don was pulled for Ralph Branca, and Bobby Thompson hit the ” Shot heard round the world.” I can still hear Russ Hodges call. It was the first sporting event televised coast to coast. It is forever etched in baseball history. As a fan, I do not blame Newcombe. I blame Dressen. It was one time for sure that a manager’s pig headedness caused a loss. Any sane person would have pulled Newcombe after he told him his arm was dead. Even more grievous is sending him back out to pitch the 9th after he had advised the manager he was spent. Reminds me a lot of Alston’s boner in 62.

And it was no coincidence that Thompson took Branca deep. He had done the same thing in game one. Branca and Erskine were warming up when Newcombe got in trouble. In what Erskine described many years later as a quirk of fate, when Dressen called to the pen to see who was ready, Erskine had just bounced a curve in the dirt. But he said his curve was really working that day. The bullpen coach told Dressen that Erskine had just bounced one in the dust. Not wanting a wild pitch, Dressen brought in his fastball pitcher, and they lost.

For the next two years, what would have been his age 26 and 27 seasons, Newcombe was in the military. When he returned in 1954, he showed some rust. He finished 9-8. The Dodgers, under new manager, Walter Alston, finished 30 games over .500. But they still lost the pennant to the Giants by five games. In 55, Alston relied more on Erskine, Loes, Meyer and Podres. Newcombe was in the rotation, but he was not the dominant pitcher Alston remembered.

Frustrated, Newcombe went to Alston with an ultimatum, pitch me or trade me. Alston pulled out a schedule and told Newcombe he would start on the 6th of May against the Phillies. But on the 5th, coach Joe Becker, told Newcombe to pitch batting practice. Infuriated, he stormed into Alston’s office to complain. Alston told him to take off his uniform and go home if he did not like it. Which is exactly what he did against the advice of Campy and Robinson.

He got a telegram from Bavasi when he got home telling him he was suspended and fined. He called Bavasi, and they agreed to end the suspension, but he was still fined 350 dollars for leaving the team. He did not start the May 6th game but pitched two innings in relief to pick up his 3rd win. His next start came on the 10th of May at Wrigley Field. He faced only 27 batters and threw a one-hitter. That seemed to kick start his season. He made the All-Star team again and reclaimed his role as the team ace.

Not only did he lead the team in virtually every statistic by seasons end, but he was also the team leader in BA with a .359 average and a .632 slugging percentage. He had 17 extra-base hits among his 42 hits. 7 of them were homers. On July 31st, he was 18-1. It would be a month before he won another game, and he lost three by just one run. On September 5th, he pitched his last complete game and won his 20th. He would miss a couple of weeks with a virus. The Dodgers cruised to the pennant by 13 1/2 games. Don started game one of the World Series in New York facing Whitey Ford. The Dodgers staked him to a 2-0 lead, the Yankees tied it, Snider untied it with a homer putting Brooklyn up 3-2. The Yankees again tied it in the bottom of the third.

Newcombe would give up two homers to Joe Collins and the Yankees would win the game, 6-3. Newcombe did not pitch the rest of the series. Fans might wonder why. Newcombe later explained that he had done something to his arm late in September. All night before that Series start his wife sat up putting warm compresses on his arm. Alston knew, but no one else did. So, Walt kept him out of the rest of the Series, Podres became the Series MVP, and the Dodgers had their first and only Championship in Brooklyn.

Newcombe and his wife adopted two children that winter, Gregory and Evit. And in 1956, Newcombe had his finest season. He went 27-7. He was so dominant that in September, he was pitching on two days rest so the Dodgers could keep up with the Braves. They lost a game on September 26th, when Sandy Amoros dropped a fly ball that led to three Phillie runs. When he got back to the dugout, tensions were running high. He yelled at Alston to get someone out there who could catch a fly ball. Carl Furillo took exception and stood up for the diminutive outfielder. The next day, Robinson convinced Newcombe to apologize to Amoros. The Dodgers won the pennant on the last day of the season when Newcombe went seven and a third innings beating the Pirates. But it was Amoro’s two homers that made the difference.

The Dodgers faced the Yankees again. Newcombe went less than 2 innings in his game 2 start. A Berra grand slam driving him from the game. Newk left the ballpark while the game was in progress and assaulted Michael Brown, a parking lot attendant outside Ebbets Field. The Dodgers came back to win the game and went up 2-0 on the Yankees. But Don Larsen no-hit Brooklyn with a perfect game in game six in the Bronx and the Yanks were up 3-2. Labine started game six and the Dodgers got a 1-0 win. Newcombe was slated for game 7. He gave up 3 homers to the Yankees by the 4th inning, two to Berra, and was removed from the game. As he did after game two, he left the park before the game was over. The Yanks won, 9-0 and the Series was over.

Newcombe won the inaugural Cy Young Award and the NL’s MVP Award for his performance in 1956. He would never come close to those numbers again. He found out about it when they returned from a 19-game tour of Japan. But changes were coming. Robinson was traded to the Giants, refused to report and retired from the game taking a position with Chock Full O’Nuts as a vice president and director of personnel.

57 was also the Dodgers last year in Brooklyn. Unable to get a new stadium in Brooklyn, O’Malley made a deal with the City of Los Angeles to move the Dodgers west. He also convinced Giants owner, Horace Stoneham, to move the Giants west where they re-located to San Francisco. Newcombe was 11-12 as the Dodgers slipped to third. But he was now making more news off the field than on.

On August 21st, after shutting out the Reds, he was driving his father home to Colonia when he struck 4-year-old, John Chase Jr. with his car. Later, in December, two of his brothers and Don were accused of assaulting Ulysses Ross, a former East Orange NJ policeman, at Newcombe’s Newark Tavern. Of more importance to the Dodgers though, was the tragic traffic accident that paralyzed Roy Campanella. With all his legal troubles, his marriage began to collapse. He left his wife and two adopted children.

Without Campy and Robinson as steading influences, he started the 1958 season in LA, 0-6. He also started dating Billie Roberts, an attractive and educated lady when they moved to LA. 1958 presented another problem. With air-travel now the norm, Newcombe had a fear of flying. He had witnessed a plane crash in Newark in the early 50’s. Though he would later overcome his fears and get a pilot’s license through hypnotherapy, he would more and more rely on whiskey and vodka to calm his nerves.

But Bavasi and the Dodgers had run out of patience. They traded Newcombe to the Reds on the 15th of June, the deadline in those days, for Steve Bilko, Johnny Klippstein and two players to be named later. Newcombe pitched ok for the Reds going 7-7 with a 3.85 ERA. He rebounded in 59 with a 13-8 record for a Reds team that finished in fifth place, 6 games below .500.

During spring training in 1960, the Newcombe’s got a divorce in Juarez Mexico, with his wife getting custody of the children. A week later he married Billie Roberts. Around the same time, the 240-pound Newcombe pulled a muscle in his right thigh. The manager told him to stay off of his feet for a couple of days. While recovering, he started taking diet pills in an effort to take some weight off of the injured leg. An injury in April when he was hit by a batted ball by Bill Virdon, his season was basically ruined. He won only 4 games in 15 starts.

There was also an incident in Pittsburgh when he was slated to start the second game of a doubleheader. The Pirates complained that his sweatshirt had one sleeve longer than the other. When he was told to change the shirt by umpire, Dusty Boggess, he replied sarcastically, ” what if Pete Gray (the former one-armed outfielder for the Browns) came out here to pitch, what would you do then?” Some more words ensued, and he was ejected from the game. On the 29th of July, he was sold to Cleveland, and was used entirely out of the bullpen. He pitched his last MLB game on the first of October, 1960. After the season, Bavasi signed him to pitch for the Dodgers AAA team in Spokane. In 62, he went to Japan to play first base for the Chunichi Dragons along with Larry Doby.

Although he was known to drink some during his career, the full extent of his alcoholism was not known until he revealed it after he retired. Some teammates were totally shocked by this. Newcombe admitted he was a stupefied, wife-abusing, child-scaring, falling-down drunk. That would also explain his lack of prudence which plagued him most of his career. By 1965 he was forced to declare bankruptcy. He was so desperate for drinking money that he pawned his 1955 Championship ring and an expensive watch. Both were later bought and returned to him by Peter O’Malley, who was the Dodgers vice president.

It all came to a head in 1966 when his second wife threatened to leave him and take Don Jr. with her. He quit drinking and slowly began to turn his life around. He became a staunch advocate of recognizing alcohol abuse. He formed Don Newcombe Enterprises, a personal services company in 1976. He was named to the Dodgers director of community relations post in 1970. He was still in that post in 2017. He created the Dodger drug and alcohol awareness program. He also held the same position with some other awareness programs.

He and his wife divorced after 30 years of marriage in 1990. He appeared in the 1990 production of Pastime; another Bull Durham type look into minor league baseball through the eyes of a veteran player. A pitcher who had one game in the majors and allowed a homer to Stan Musial, mentors a young black pitcher. Also appearing were Duke Snider, Ernie Banks, Bill Mazeroski, Harmon Killebrew and Bob Feller. It should be noted that all of those players are in the Hall except Newcombe.

Newcombe reflected that his behavior was a large part of the reason he is not in the Hall. He wished he had taken better care of himself because he felt he should have been there. Newk remained a huge part of the Dodger organization and could be seen regularly at Dodger Stadium talking to fans and to players. He was well loved throughout the organization. The Dodgers have honored him with 2 bobbleheads. Newk passed away on February 19th, 2019.