- Welcome to "American Black Journal."

I'm your host Stephen Henderson.

We're more than a month away from the start of the major league baseball season, but today, we're bringing you a story about a pivotal moment in the history of America's favorite pastime.

The year was 1948.

The World Series matchup was between Cleveland and Boston.

Cleveland came out on top, but it was a locker room photo of victorious teammates, Larry Doby and Steve Gromek, sharing a hug that grabbed even more attention.

One Detroit's, Bill Kubota, explains in this report.

- [Bill Kubota] Troy, home of the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame.

It's ballot counting time for this year's inductees.

- A number of individuals from Hamtramck in Detroit got together to form the organization, and Stan Musial was our first inductee.

- [Bill Kubota] That was 52 years ago.

Stan the Man, one of the greatest hitters of all time, from Pennsylvania.

But there's representation from around here, Hamtramck, and baseball in particular.

- Art Pinky Deras, who's considered the greatest little leaguer of all time.

- [Bill Kubota] Art Deras, great pitcher, great hitter too.

His Hamtramck team won the national championship in 1959.

Then there's Tom Paciorek.

On several teams in his 18 years in the majors, in the seventies and eighties.

- I think one of the really neatest pieces we have in our Hall of Fame is the Jersey, a Cleveland Indians jersey, back when they were the Indians, of Steve Gromek.

- [Sports Announcer] Johnny Sain and Steve Gromek, two right-handers, will face each other today in the fourth game of the World Series of 1948.

- [Bill Kubota] A record setting crowd in Cleveland, eyes on Gromek, a good pitcher among greats.

The rocket arm future Hall of Famer, Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, also destined for the Hall of Fame, and up and comer, Gene Bearden.

Gromek, an occasional starter, surprised some when he was picked for such a crucial game.

Nearly eight decades later, "Detroit Free Press" columnist, Neil Rubin, has been recounting his story.

- I knew Steve Gromek's name basically tied to those 48 Indians.

Then over time, as I lived here, I learned that he was a Hamtramck guy, 'cause Hamtramck has a huge athletic tradition and a big baseball tradition.

- [Sports Announcer] Steven Joseph Gromek, 28-year-old right-hander, of Polish ancestry, entered pro ball as an infielder in 1939.

- I've personally done a lot of research on Steve Gromek.

He's one of my favorite Hamtramck-born major league players.

Very interesting guy, great family.

- [Bill Kubota] The Hamtramck Historical Museum just got this photo album from one of Gromek's sons.

Pictures from Hamtramck Day at Briggs Stadium, when Cleveland came to play the Tigers.

And here's a news photo with Gromek and Cleveland teammate, Larry Doby.

- Yeah, it's such a great photo.

I mean, especially for the time period and how race relations were.

It's such an an iconic photo, you know- - 1948 baseball had only been integrated for two seasons.

Larry Doby was the second Black man to play major league baseball.

- [Bill Kubota] And Doby, the first in the American League.

As Cleveland won game four, the photo of Doby and Gromek made the papers across the country.

- So there's the picture, signed by our dad and Mr.

Doby.

And you know, when I saw this picture, for years, I thought it was a huge group in the locker room, just everyone mulling around, but then an associate of mine's wife found the picture of them here.

See, the two of 'em are standing alone in the locker room.

Nobody else is around 'em.

So this is just the two of 'em, embracing.

You know, so it's not like the ah (mutters indistinctly) It was like a real hug.

- [Bill Kubota] Steve Gromek's boys, quite young during their dad's playing days, but the photo always set prominently among the sports trophies, a happy moment recorded for history, but for Steve, not without consequences.

- He doesn't even think anything about this picture.

They didn't pose for it, it was spontaneous, but he gets home after the season.

He's back in Hamtramck, seeing old friends, and some people wouldn't talk to him.

They were so appalled by this photo of a White man and a Black man that people he had known for decades froze him out.

- [Bill Kubota] A January Sunday in Royal Oak, Pastor Jeff Nelson with the first United Methodist Church, and a sports fan, he's been thinking about that photo with Doby and Gromek.

- I've been holding this story since Neil shared it with me, knowing that it's the kind of story that needs to be told.

To be a servant of Christ is defy gravity, and defying gravity changes the world, and we need images of what that new world might look like.

Here's an image that defied the gravity of its day.

Meet Larry Doby and Steve Gromek.

It combines all my favorite things.

It's got baseball, it's got social justice and doing the right thing, and it's just a great human story, and it's local, and I just think that's pretty cool.

This snapshot defied the gravity of a racially segregated world, and I'm here today to tell you, that picture made neither of these men popular.

- He came home and his friends, old teammates, didn't wanna talk to him, and it's because after that World Series win, took a picture with his arm around Larry Doby, and during the time that it was, people saw that and were like, "Nope."

- Gromek found hate mail waiting for him in his mailbox, and longtime friends who would no longer have a drink with him at the bar.

One former buddy, even quipped, "Man, why couldn't you just shook his hand?"

- There was a lot of fallout in 1948.

- (laughs) And you look at that photo and go, "Yeah, I'm not talking to that guy anymore."

That's weird to me, and I mean I'm sure there's probably a stronger word than weird, but like weird is the best thing I can think of right now.

- [Sports Announcer] And that brings to the plate, Larry Doby, Doby who's had four out of 11, hitting a 364, currently the leading hitter in the series.

- You think about it now and it's like how could this happen back then?

It's like, oh, very simply, they did not want someone like this to be here.

It kind of makes your head hurt, 'cause you try to think about like, why does that make sense?

- It's interesting because in our family, we just saw two ball players and it was a World Series.

- In Hamtramck, my dad, he would go and play baseball wherever there was a game.

He used to play, you know, with the Black players too.

You know, they had great baseball players too.

So my dad would play with everyone when he was there, you know, in Hamtramck, - [Sports Announcer] One to nothing, Cleveland.

Last half of the third inning.

An overhand fast ball, swung on, hit high and deep in the right center field.

The ball is going, going, it's gone!

- Even to Larry Doby, where they added him to this team, and if you add a player like that who helps your team get over the hump, but in sports, like is literally a win-loss business.

Wouldn't you wanna do everything you can to win?

- [Sports Announcer] Larry Doby just teed off for the first home run of the 1948 World Series, and the Indians lead two to nothing.

Lou Boudreau is up, right hand- - [Bill Kubota] Cleveland these days, the team, they're the guardians now.

Around progressive field, some heroes victorious in 1948, cast in bronze, Rapid Robert Feller, player manager Louis Boudreau, and Larry Doby.

At the Baseball Heritage Museum, a small Doby display with artifacts from the Newark Eagles.

Doby's negro league team before coming to Cleveland in 1947, just 11 weeks after Jackie Robinson joined the National League's, Brooklyn Dodgers.

Doby, the second one in.

Have we forgotten?

Who doesn't know about it?

- Not so much Clevelanders, but when we get people from the West Coast, or even you know, a couple states out of Ohio, yeah, people are surprised to hear about Larry Doby's story and his place in American League baseball history.

- [Bill Kubota] The effort to not be forgotten.

December, 2023, a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony.

Although Larry Doby died in 2003, his likeness joins Roberto Clemente and Jackie Robinson as just the third baseball player to receive the honor.

- The photo was a huge deal to Larry Doby's family to the point where his son insisted that it be on his Congressional Medal.

And he was told, "Oh no, we don't put two people on that side of the medal.

That's just for the honoree."

And he said, "Well that's a very nice policy and if you don't use that photo, there's not gonna be a medal."

- The names that I heard in my house were the guys who looked out for him, the guys who made what he did possible.

That was Steve Gromek, that was Joe Gordon, that was Jim Hegan, that was Bob Lemon.

Those guys accepted him and they were lifelong friends, and I'm just sorry I didn't get to meet some of them to thank 'em for their friendship.

- Here is a replica of the Congressional Gold Medal.

It really has a nice message on the back too.

It says, "We are stronger together as a team, as a nation, as a world."

- And I thank all you guys from the bottom of my heart.

(audience applauds) - [Bill Kubota] Steve Gromek died in 2002, but some of the Gromek family attended the ceremony, including Steve's wife, Jeanette Gromek, age 99.

- And it turned out great because my mother was still alive, and that was really- - My mother was still alive too.

- Huh?

- My mother was still alive too.

- Oh.

(laughs) - Why are you gonna say, "My mother?"

What about my mother?

Our mother.

- [Bill Kubota] Jeanette Gromek died last February, her husband probably not destined for the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, but he's cast in history in a way few other ball players will ever be.

- [Sports Announcer] In the ninth inning of the fourth World Series game of 1948.

Mr.

Gromek is firing the ball a lot harder and faster, and more deliberately in this half inning than in any so far.

The pitch, there's a drive to right field, and it goes right to Kennedy.

(audience cheering) Cleveland wins.

(audience cheers) And the margin was Larry Doby's home run.

- He couldn't have written a script.

People wouldn't believe this if somebody's writing a movie, or how they say, oh that's too unbelievable.

You know, you can't make that story up.

(audience cheers) - Because it wasn't game seven, it wasn't the last game of a World Series, but Steve Gromek, he understood what the photo showed that moment of joy, but he also came to understand what it represented.

That was important to him also.

- He could have very easily said, "It's never gonna happen again.

No more pictures of me and my teammates of different races, never."

So the fact that he leaned in was the mark of a standup guy, and I mean, people throw this term around a lot, but like, that's like what an ally looks like.

That's someone who has his back.

- I just think that it's a story that Detroiters in particular need to know and be proud of, and just kind of own.

- Let's continue to be a movement that defies the gravity.

If these two guys could do it, a local kid from just down the street, then maybe we can do it too.

Let us pray.

Gracious God, we thank you for this chance to be together here this morning and how this film and this moment...