Did you know that…

...in 1946 the Nashua Dodgers of the class-B New England League became the first professional baseball team based in the United States to use black baseball players?

Catcher Roy Campanella and pitcher Don Newcombe joined the minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Spring of ’46. The Dodger’s affiliate in Danville, Illinois refused to accept the black players. That season the 19 year-old Campanella went on to win the league’s Most Valuable Player Award and Newcombe went on to win 14 games.

The Dodgers other minor league team in Montreal was where Jackie Robinson first played professional ball in the same season. Of course by now we all know that Robinson became the first African-American baseball player in the major leagues and “Campy” and "Newk" were right behind him. Campanella would go on to win three more MVP awards, but all of them with the big club. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. Newcombe went on to play 11 seasons in the majors and to this day is the only player in history to win a Rookie of the Year Award, Most Valuable Player Award and Cy Young Award award in his career.

The Nashua Dodgers did not share the same success as their two greatest players. The team existed from 1946 to 1949 when the New England League folded.