How Black Players Propelled Cleveland's Baseball Team To Win The 1948 World Series

A few months after Jackie Robinson broke modern baseball's color barrier in 1947, Larry Doby became the first Black player in baseball's American League. A year later, Satchel Paige joined the Cleveland Indians as the team's second Black player.

The two Black players, and the team owner's willingness to sign them, propelled Cleveland to win the World Series in 1948 in one of baseball's most notable seasons.

It's the story told in Luke Epplin's new book, Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball.

If team owner Bill Veeck "hadn't integrated the team, the Indians would not have won the pennant and thus would not have won the World Series," Epplin says. "So it really showed what you could do if you opened up your inclusive policies on the ball club."

Epplin talked with Scott Simon on Weekend Edition about the legacy of the team's early efforts toward integration.