SHOULDA BEEN THE 4TH:

Larry Doby got what shut-eye he could as the bus carrying him and his Negro League teammates made its trek from Wilmington, Del., to Newark, N.J., in the early morning hours of Thursday, July 3, 1947.

As Doby slept that night 75 years ago, he did not know about the newspaper report bearing his name. Did not know that his home would, in a matter of hours, be swarmed by inquiring reporters. Did not know that his life -- and the entire structure of professional baseball -- was about to be enduringly altered.

By the time Doby had disembarked the bus, driven his Ford convertible to his apartment in Paterson, N.J., and gotten into bed for a more proper rest, it was roughly 5:30 a.m. And it was just before 7 a.m. when Newark Eagles owner Effa Manley rang Doby's phone and cut short his sleep with the big news.

"Larry," she said, "you have been bought by the Cleveland Indians of the American League and you are to join the team in Chicago on Sunday."

While Jackie Robinson's color-barrier-breaking debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers 11 weeks earlier was a cultural touchstone and a vital precursor to the American civil rights movement, it is important to consider what the purchase of Doby's contract meant not just for the now-integrated AL, but for baseball's framework.

Robinson, after all, had signed his contract with the Dodgers in October 1945, and spent the entire 1946 season in the Minor Leagues with the Dodgers' Triple-A affiliate in Montreal. He was promoted to the Majors six days before the start of the 1947 season, unofficially debuting in an exhibition game at Ebbets Field four days before the real thing.

Doby, on the other hand, arrived to the AL literally overnight, on a Pennsylvania Railroad train, to make his debut -- 75 years ago today -- on July 5, 1947, against the White Sox.

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