06.14_Edwin Hodge_Pitcher Don Newcombe

#OTD Pitcher Don Newcombe, winner of Rookie of the Year, MVP and a Cy Young Award, the first pitcher to win that combo of accolades in a career, was born in Madison, New Jersey. Actor Edwin Hodge narrates.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, I'm actor Edwin Hodge. This day in Quissery June fourteenth,
nineteen twenty six. Pitcher Don Newcomb is born in Madison,
New Jersey. Nicknamed Nuke, Newcomb played one season with the
Newark Eagles Negro League team before signing with the Brooklyn
Dodgers in May of nineteen forty nine. In his ten
years with the Dodgers, Newcomb spent the first seven in

(00:22):
Brooklyn before following the franchise to Los Angeles. In nineteen
fifty eight. Newcomb would become the first player in the
major leagues to win the Rookie of the Year, the
Cy Young and an MVP in an MLB career. That
feat was not accomplished again until fifty five years later.
Newcomb would retire from the game in nineteen sixty with
a win loss record of one hundred and forty nine

(00:43):
to ninety ten. Years after retiring, Newcomb was credited for
having started the MLB's first community relations department as an
active Dodgers Alumni Association participant, Newcomb, who struggled with substance
abuse during his career, switched Skiers after retiring to eight
people battling with drug and alcohol related problems,