we should remember that on this day in 1947 he made his major league debut. It was not spectacular: he went hitless.
His career was not long by major league standards - he only played 10 years. During that time he was selected to 6 all-star teams, was Rookie of the Year in 1947, and MVP in 1949.
He came from an athletic family - his older brother Mac was an Olympic medalist. He himself was an all-round athlete, playing football, basketball, track, and tennis as well as baseball, all at a high level. In college he would earn letters at UCLA in all of these except tennis. He was a member of a 1936 high school all star team that included two other future Hall of Famers, Ted Williams and Bob Lemon. After dropping out of college, he briefly played professional football before World War II intervened.
I met Jackie Robinson once, when he visited our junior high school. Most of my classmates were Yankee fans, but even they were excited by his visit. He was gentle and patient with the young people, something very different than the fierce competitor that he was in athletics and in life.
Please keep reading.
Jackie Robinson was old for a major league rookie - born January 31, 1919, he was already 28. That maturity perhaps helped him get through the racist attacks when he first came to the majors.
So did a history of standing up for himself. in 1938 he was arrested for protesting police detention of a friend, received a two year suspended sentece, and that may not have been his only encounter with local police.
His most famous incident occurred in the military. Already a commissioned officer, he boarded a bus on base in Fort Hood TX. The driver ordered Robinson to the back of the bus, and he refused - as a matter of fact the Army had desegregated this bus line. At the end of the run the driver called MPs who took Robinson into custody. Robinson was subjected to racist questioning, for which he challenged the investigating officer, who thereupon recommended that Robinson be court-martialed, but his commanding officer refused to agree to the charges. So Robinson was transferred to another unit whose commanding officer agreed to a series of charges, including public drunkenness (although Robinson did not drink).
Eventually all except two charges were dropped, and Robinson was acquitted by a jury of all-white officers, but the court-martial meant that he was not deployed overseas with his unit, which did see combat.
I am not going to go through all the indignities and insults Robinson face in the minors and in the majors. I will note his own teammates on the Dodgers threatened to strike rather than play with him, but Manager Leo Durocher put things in context, as you can see if you read Robinson's Wikipedia article. Durocher told his players "I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a fuckin' zebra. I'm the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What's more, I say he can make us all rich. And if any of you cannot use the money, I will see that you are all traded."
Robinson got support from Pee Wee Reese, and encouragement from Hank Greenberg, who as a Jew had himself been subject to slurs and taunting. The President of the National League Ford Frick and the Commissioner of Baseball A. P. "Happy" Chandler (from Kentucky) also both backed Robinson, which put something of a lid on what those opposing Robinson on racial grounds could do.
Branch Rickey, who had selected Robinson to break the color barrier, asked Robinson not to fight back for two years. For two years he performed at a high level, but was subject to people deliberately trying to hurt him - coming into second base with spikes up, throwing baseballs at his head as he came into second base. His third year he was unleashed and baseball experienced one of the fiercest competitors it had ever seen.
It is worth noting how well, despite the pressure, Robinson performed his Rookie year:
.297 batting average, 175 hits, 125 runs, 31 doubles, 5 triples, 12 homers, and leading the league with 28 sacrifices and 29 stolen bases.
Before the 1949 season, Jackie worked with hitting guru George Sisler, learning how to hit to right field, among other things. That year, as well as becoming the fierce competitor, he became a superb performer: he batted .342, scored 122 runs while knocking 124, stole 37 bases, and was second in the league in doubles and triples.
Remember that Robinson came to the majors late for a player. He played ten years, but the last few he was a shadow of the great player he had been.
He later had success in business, but also experienced personal tragedy - his eldest son had drug problems, and just when he seemed to be overcoming them died in an auto accident.
Robinson himself found post-baseball that he had diabetes.
Jackie Robinson was politically active. He was somewhat conservative on a number of issues, and originally supported Republicans - remember, in those days Democrats were often seen as the party of segregation given the Southern Democratic control in Congress. He had supported Nixon over Kennedy in 1960, although he came to admire JFK. He was upset at Conservative Republican opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and supported Nelson Rockefeller. Perhaps his final break with Republicans came when Goldwater was nominated and Jackie Robinson, as outspoken as ever, said he now had "a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler's Germany".
Jackie Robinson died of a heart attack in 1972 at the age of 53.
in 1997, Major League baseball retired his number - 42. Since then no player on any team has had that as his uniform number.
Except to honor Jackie. Ken Griffey Jr. sought and got the permission of Rachel, Jackie's widow, and the approval of MLB, and in 2007 players were on this day, April 15, Jackie Robinson Day, allowed to wear his number.
In 2009, every uniformed player, coach and manager wore #42.
Jackie Robinson was a great baseball player.
He was a fierce competitor.
His career, although brief, was outstanding and he was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
Here may be his most famous moment, in the 1952 World Series:
Today, Jackie Robinson Day, is a day we should all, baseball fans or not, remember his legacy.