Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 28, 1993 TAG: 9306280046
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEN DALEY LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long
"No one had more courage than Roy Campanella," Dodgers president Peter O'Malley said in a statement. "To me, he was the greatest Dodger of them all. My thoughts are with his loving wife, Roxie, and his family."
Campanella died at his Woodland Hills home about 7 p.m. Saturday, said his daughter Joni Campanella Roan. He was pronounced dead by paramedics at 7:15 p.m. The cause of death had not been determined officially Saturday night.
"He gave a lot of himself to everybody," Roan said. "He always had time for everybody. He's just as much a champion off the field as he was on."
Campanella played 10 seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers (1948-57), earning All-Star honors eight straight years (1949-56) and being voted Most Valuable Player of the National League in 1951, 1953 and 1955.
But his playing career was cut tragically short in January 1958 - on the eve of the Dodgers' move to Los Angeles - when, at age 36, he fractured a vertebra and damaged his spinal cord in a single-car automobile accident while on his way to his home in Glen Cove, N.Y.
"I wouldn't change one thing in my life," Campanella said in a 1989 interview with Los Angeles Daily News columnist Dennis McCarthy, "except that night my car hit the pole. The only regret I have is that I never got a chance to show the fans in L.A. the kind of ballplayer I was. That's all."
The crash left Campanella a quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair and bothered by respiratory problems for the remaining 35 years of his life, but he continued to work for the club as a representative of its Community Services department and as an instructor in spring training.
This March, Campanella worked in Vero Beach, Fla., with the Dodgers' Mike Piazza, who has emerged as the league's top Rookie of the Year candidate.
"He was very inspirational, but he's walking now," Piazza said. "He helped me out a lot."
"He took [former Dodger Mike] Scioscia and made him an All-Star," Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda said.
Don Drysdale, who pitched to Campanella in the first two seasons of his own Hall of Fame career, said, "He was a heck of a guy, I'll tell you that. I think you had to be around him to understand what kind of guy he really was.
"When I first came up, I remember standing in the outfield one day with Campy and Carl Furillo and asking them what it was going to take for me to pitch in the big leagues. Campy said, `Son, you don't have to do any more than you're doing right now. Just keep throwing that ball and Campy will take care of you.' "
The Dodgers appeared in five World Series during Campanella's career (winning it in 1955), spurred in no small measure by the catcher who was the first at his position to break organized baseball's color line in 1948. Campanella hit 242 home runs and drove in 856 runs during his career, highlighted by his 1953 season when he batted .312 with 41 homers, 103 runs scored and a league-leading 142 RBI.
But on Jan. 28, 1958, the brilliant career was shattered. Campanella had been working late at his liquor store in Harlem, preparing to appear on a radio show following the Monday night boxing matches at Madison Square Garden. He received a phone call early that evening from host Harry Wismer, asking if Campanella wouldn't mind postponing his appearance so Wismer could promote it for another week.
Campanella agreed, and stayed to finish paperwork. He left at midnight in his 1956 Chevrolet, driving on wet, icy streets.
Less than three miles from his home, Campanella came around a bend at an estimated 30 mph, but lost control of his vehicle on a patch of ice. The car slammed into a telephone pole and overturned. Campanella's neck was broken.
"I remember Sandy [Koufax] and myself were at Fort Dix, N.J., when we heard about the accident," Drysdale said. "It was such a freak thing. He was driving a smaller car than he normally drove and he just hit a small piece of ice in the road. It didn't even do that much damage to the car.
"He just got hit the right way, and that was the end."
The Dodgers moved to Los Angeles to start their first season on the West Coast three months later. A year after that, on May 7, 1959, Campanella finally was able to be wheeled out to home plate by shortstop Pee Wee Reese for "Roy Campanella Night," before a crowd of 93,103 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Most in the crowd for the game against the Yankees lit matches or candles in tribute.
"That was one of the greatest nights I'll ever remember," Drysdale said.
Campanella was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. The Dodgers made his No. 39 one of their eight retired jerseys on June 4, 1972.
Lasorda said, "It's a sad, sad moment right now. He's been an inspiration to millions and millions. He's been a friend, a teammate and a coach, and I'm going to miss him very much.
"But now, he won't suffer anymore."
Campanella is survived by his wife, Roxie, and children Roy II, Joni Campanella Roan, Anthony, John and Ruth Campanella Effort.
by CNB