Don Newcombe

CTL-E-6990 · Person · other · 1926–2019

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07862 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6990.

Donald Newcombe (June 14, 1926 – February 19, 2019), nicknamed "Newk," was a right-handed pitcher who broke ground at every step of integration-era baseball. A Madison, New Jersey, native, he began with the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League (1944–45), then debuted for Brooklyn on May 20, 1949, becoming the third Black pitcher in the major leagues after Dan Bankhead and Satchel Paige. In his rookie season he became the first African-American pitcher named to an All-Star team, won the National League Rookie of the Year Award, and that October became the first Black pitcher to start a World Series game. In 1951 he was the first Black pitcher to win twenty games in a season. After military service in 1952–53, he won twenty again for the 1955 world champion Dodgers, and in 1956 — going 27–7 — he won the inaugural Cy Young Award and the National League MVP in the same season. He was the first player to win the Rookie of the Year, MVP, and Cy Young awards in a career, a distinction he held alone until Justin Verlander matched it in 2011. He finished with the Reds and Cleveland, and later worked for decades in the Dodgers' front office and community programs.

The record

• Also known as: Donald Newcombe, Newk, Big Newk

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0270. Firsts disposition: ASSERTED, each double-sourced (SABR + NLBM) — first African-American pitcher in an All-Star Game (1949), first Black pitcher to start a World Series game (1949), first Black pitcher to win 20 games in a season (1951), first Cy Young Award recipient (1956) with the NL MVP the same season, and first player to win Rookie of the Year, MVP, and Cy Young in a career. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Newcombe is the integration era's great pitcher and its great omission — the awards stack has no equal among pitchers of any color, and Cooperstown has never called. Photo: CLEARED (1956 portrait, public domain).

Sources

• Russell Bergtold. "Don Newcombe." SABR BioProject. Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)
• Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. "Don Newcombe" (Personal Profiles, eMuseum). Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)
• Wikipedia. "Don Newcombe." Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)

More person records

• Mack Jones
• Madam C. J. Walker
• Madam C.J. Walker
• Made Kuti
• Madge Sinclair
• Madison Bailey

Browse the full directory: all entity records

Record CTL-E-6990 · Combined Graph record U-07862 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

Cite this record

Citation guidance for teachers, journalists, and funders: How to Cite Us.

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.