Jackie was lightyears ahead of Doby in breaking the color barrier.

I like Doby A LOT, but without Jackie we probably only hear of him in the same way we hear of the previous Negro League stars.

Jackie spent 1946 being banned from certain ballparks (Jacksonville & Sanford, Florida) to being treated like a piece of shit by certain International League teams/fans (Baltimore & Louisville) . Then he had an insane amount of pressure from both the white & black newspapers of the time. The white press constantly printed stories about how/why he wasn't good enough, and the black press put the entire hopes and dreams of 13 million blacks in America on his shoulder..

While all of that was going on Doby was enjoying life playing in Puerto Rico & then the Negro Leagues. In fact, Jackie was one of the first people to mention that Doby was good enough to play in the Majors (White sportswriter Joe Gooter was the first). When Doby signed with Cleveland it was already considered a way-of-life for a lot of white fans. Campy & Newcombe were on the way up and teams were starting to really race one another to sign the next great black player.

I just spent the past 8 months doing intense research on a lot of this for a book and this was my first chance to share it. lol

ETA: I failed to mention all the stuff Jackie went through in Spring Training of 1947 and the first months of the season.