They ran the next legs, taking the baton from Jackie Robinson as black players claimed their place in the game.
One was on the mound for those Brooklyn Dodgers teams of the 1950s, and woe to the hitter who found Don Newcombe glaring down at him. The other was in the batter’s box and compelling in his own right. Frank Robinson hunched over the plate and dared any pitcher to throw it his way.
Their deaths in 2019 left baseball not only without two pillars on the diamond but two pillars in its fight against iniquities.
Newcombe, “Big Newk,” knew the sting of segregation traveling from city to city.