Lester Rodney helps break baseball’s color barrier

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Lester Rodney, the sports editor and columnist for the American Communist Party newspaper the Daily Worker, gained late-in-life recognitionfor his crusade in the 1930s and `40s to end segregation in major league baseball.

Rodney, who died Dec. 20 at age 98, was shunned by some fellow sportswriters because he was a Communist. But as a sports writer, he was known for having good relationships with many baseball players -- as well as with Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher.

In an interview for Irwin Silber’s 2003 biography of him, ‘Press Box Red,’ Rodney recalled that while discussing strategy with Durocher after a game, ‘Leo leans over to me, grabs my arm, and says, ‘You know, Rodney, for a . . . Communist, you sure know your baseball.’ ‘

-- Dennis McLellan

Photo: In a 2004 photo, Lester Rodney holds a handful of press credentials he kept from past World Series games he covered. Credit: Kim Kulish / For The Times