Don Newcombe

Donald "Newk" Newcombe (June 14, 1926 – February 19, 2019) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played ten non-consecutive seasons in Major League Baseball. He began his career in the Negro National League and ended it in Nippon Professional Baseball.

In 1949, Newcombe became the first black pitcher to start a World Series game, and he won the Rookie of the Year Award. In 1951, he became the first black pitcher to win 20 games in a single season. In 1956, the inaugural year of the Cy Young Award, he became the first pitcher to win the National League Most Valuable Player and the Cy Young in the same season. Across his career he was the first pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, and Cy Young Awards — a distinction not matched again until 2011, when Justin Verlander, Rookie of the Year in 2006, won the Cy Young and MVP awards.

Newcombe was an excellent hitting pitcher, compiling a career batting average of .271 with 15 home runs, and was used as a pinch hitter, a rarity for pitchers.

Born in Madison, New Jersey, on June 14, 1926, Newcombe was raised in Elizabeth. He had three brothers and a sister.