"Five years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, Ty Cobb publicly supported blacks and whites playing baseball together, adding: "Certainly it is okay for them to play. I see no reason in the world why we shouldn't compete with colored athletes as long as they conduct themselves with politeness and gentility. Let me say also, that no white man has the right to be less of a gentleman than a colored man; In my book that goes not only for baseball, but in all walks of life." Using even stronger language, Ty Cobb told the Sporting News in 1952 that: "The Negro should be accepted and not grudgingly, but wholeheartedly." In 1953, black newspapers cited his praise for Brooklyn Dodgers' catcher Roy Campanella, who Cobb said was: "Among the all-time best catchers in baseball." Following Roy Campanella's accident that left him paralyzed, the Dodgers staged a tribute game where tens of thousands of spectators silently held lit matches above their heads. Cobb wrote Walter O'Malley, the Dodgers owner to show his appreciation: "For what you did for this fine man." Cobb also stated that Willie Mays was the: "Only player I'd pay money to see." In the Ty Cobb obituaries that ran in the black press following Cobb's death, Cobb was praised for: "Speaking in favor of racial freedom in baseball."