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Brookdale North Service Area on Parkway renamed to honor baseball Hall of Famer Larry Doby

Mar 11 2022

The Brookdale North Service Area on the Garden State Parkway in Bloomfield has been renamed in honor of New Jersey Hall of Famer Larry Doby, a baseball star at Paterson Eastside High School who went on to become the first African American player in the American League.

The name change became official last night when "Larry Doby Service Area" signs were installed on the Parkway.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced last summer that nine Garden State Parkway service areas would be renamed to honor New Jersey Hall of Fame inductees in the arts, entertainment, and sports.  Brookdale North is the third one to be renamed so far.  The former Cheesequake Service Area was renamed for rock star Jon Bon Jovi last fall, and the former Forked River Service Area was renamed for Salsa star Celia Cruz in January. Other NJ Hall of Fame inductees who will have Parkway service areas renamed for them in the coming months include James Gandolfini (Montvale), Connie Chung (Brookdale South), Whitney Houston (Vauxhall), Judy Blume (Monmouth), Frank Sinatra (Atlantic), and Toni Morrison (Ocean View).

Doby was an all star with the Newark Eagles of the Negro leagues when he was signed in 1947 by the Cleveland Indians. Without ever appearing in a minor league game, he made his big league debut on July 5th of that year, a few months after Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League.

"As the American League’s first black player, Larry Doby endured bigotry and prejudice with class," reads a short biography of Doby on the New Jersey Hall of Fame website.

Doby went on to play for 13 seasons with the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, and Detroit Tigers. He made seven all star teams and finished in the top 10 in MVP voting two times. Doby was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997. 

He died in Montclair in 2003.