Roy Campanella and George Clooney
- Makio Mukai
- Nov 21
- 4 min read
The Los Angeles Dodgers have established the Roy Campanella Award. Each year, players and coaches vote for one player who, like Roy Campanella, demonstrates leadership and spiritual strength within the team. The award was established in 2006, and this year marks its 20th anniversary.
It was announced on September 20th that Miguel Rojas has been selected as the 2025 recipient for the second consecutive year, following last year. Besides Rojas, three other players have been selected twice: Clayton Kershaw, Chase Utley, and Justin Turner. Of these three, only two players have won the award twice in a row, like Rojas: Clayton Kershaw (2013, 2014) and Justin Turner (2019, 2020). Chase Utley won the award in 2016 and 2018.
The award named after Roy Campanella might not ring a bell among many Japanese Major League Baseball fans. It's fair to say that Roy Campanella is fairly unknown in Japan today; only the most knowledgeable Major League Baseball fans might even know his name. This isn't the case in the United States, where I believe he's a widely known figure (right?), so I'll give a very brief introduction.
Roy Campanella (nickname: Campy) played in the Negro Leagues before signing a minor league contract with the Dodgers in 1946. He made his major league debut with the Dodgers in 1948, a year after Jackie Robinson made his major league debut with the Dodgers in 1947. Roy Campanella went on to have a successful career as a great catcher, winning the RBI title once and being named the season MVP three times. However, a traffic accident before the start of the 1958 season left him paralyzed from the waist down, forcing him to use a wheelchair and eventually retiring. He passed away in 1993 at the age of 71.
He was also inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. He was the second African-American to receive this honor, after Jackie Robinson. Furthermore, in 1972, Roy Campanella's uniform number 39 was retired by the Dodgers.
It's such a shame that so many Japanese Major League Baseball fans are unaware of such a great player, one whose name will forever go down in history.
Here, I'd like to write a little bit of my personal experience.
In the fall of 1956, when I was nine years old, the Dodgers (then the Brooklyn Dodgers) came to Japan and played 19 games against teams such as the All-Japan team. I looked up the game results and individual stats and found that the Dodgers had 13 wins, 4 losses and 1 draw, with Roy Campanella, who was part of the visiting team, hitting four home runs.
I watched their first game in Japan live at the stadium. It seems Roy Campanella played from start to finish in that game as catcher, but I don't remember a single thing about Roy Campanella's play. I think the reason for this was probably the presence of Jackie Robinson.
Jackie Robinson, who was among the visiting team, was famous in Japan as the first black major leaguer, and he hit a home run in the first game I was watching. So Jackie Robinson made a strong impression on me. What's more, Jackie Robinson retired after returning to the United States from Japan, which made it an even stronger memory for me.
It's really pathetic and disappointing that I don't remember anything about Roy Campanella's play, even though I had the opportunity to see him play live.
Nowadays, when I hear the name Roy Campanella, I immediately think of the movie actor George Clooney. You're probably wondering why that is, so let me explain why.
First of all, it's important to note that I love George Clooney. There are three reasons why I love him so much.
1) Clooney is very cool.
2) Clooney must love baseball, as he even tried out for a Major League Baseball team.
3) Clooney himself has said that he has always felt a sense of affinity with Japan.
Well, there's the movie "Good Night, and Good Luck" (2005), directed and written by my favorite Clooney who also starred in it. This film is set in the 1950s, when an extreme anti-communist movement broke out in the United States, threatening democracy and infuriating the people. It's a masterpiece that depicts Ed Murrow (a journalist who worked on the national television network CBS) who boldly fought against this movement. There's a cool and wonderful scene in this film that really impresses me, an avid Major League Baseball fan. It's a scene depicting CBS in October 1953, where one staff member gives instructions to another staff regarding Roy Campanella, who is mentioned in the TV show. ...Using Roy Campanella to convey the atmosphere of 1953 is truly appropriate and brilliant! That's because in 1953, Roy Campanella had a spectacular season with a .312 batting average, 142 RBIs, and 41 home runs, and was selected as the MVP. His 41 home runs that year was the major league record for home runs by a catcher in a season at the time (now the record for a catcher is 60, set by Cal Raleigh in 2025).
George Clooney is truly impressive for writing a script that includes such a cool scene. It just makes me love Clooney even more.
( If I’ve made a mistake or left out something important, please let me know. I’ll try to make corrections or additions.)