Clyde Sukeforth 2000 Deaths

Clyde Sukeforth

Brooklyn Dodgers scout and manager who scouted and signed baseball's first black player, Jackie Robinson; was the only other person in the room when Dodgers' president Branch Rickey told Robinson of his plans to sign him in Montreal in 1946; managed the Dodgers for two games in 1947, replacing Leo Durocher who was suspended by the league; remained a Dodger coach and in 1951 was in the bullpen when manager Charlie Dressen needed a reliever to face the Giants' Bobby Thomson in the ninth inning of the decisive third game of the N.L. pennant playoff. He passed over Carl Erskine and sent in Ralph Branca, who gave up Thomson's "shot heard 'round the world"; The cause of his death was not given.