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Jackie Robinson

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Who2 Biography: Jackie Robinson, Baseball Player
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Jackie Robinson
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  • Born: 31 January 1919
  • Birthplace: Cairo, Georgia
  • Died: 24 October 1972 (diabetes)
  • Best Known As: The man who broke baseball's color barrier

Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play in baseball's major leagues in the modern era. Only white players were accepted in the major leagues until 1947, when Robinson was called up to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He made his first major league appearance on 15 April 1947. Robinson was named Rookie of the Year for 1947 and went on to appear in six World Series in ten seasons with the Dodgers (1947-56). Other major league teams soon followed Brooklyn's lead and hired black players of their own. Robinson's stellar play, and his role in breaking the color barrier, led to his 1962 induction as the first African-American in baseball's Hall of Fame. In 1997, on the 50th anniversary of Robinson's first year with the Dodgers, Major League Baseball permanently retired Robinson's uniform number, 42. He is the only baseball player ever to have been so honored. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Robinson was mainly a second baseman, though he also played at first and third... The Brooklyn Dodgers moved west and became the Los Angeles Dodgers after the 1957 season... Robinson attended UCLA, where he lettered in four sports: track, baseball, football and basketball... He served in the U.S. Army from 1941-44... According to the official site of Robinson's estate, "Jackie married Rachel Isum, a nursing student he met at UCLA, in 1946." They had three children: Jackie Jr., Sharon and David.

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African American Literature: Jackie Robinson
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Robinson, Jackie (1919–1972), athlete and autobiographer. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in 1919 in Cairo, Georgia, and grew up in Pasadena, California. He was a star athlete in high school and junior college before becoming an athletic legend at the University of California at Los Angeles from 1939 to 1941, playing football, baseball, basketball, and competing in track and field. He joined the army in 1942 and was discharged as a lieutenant in 1945 after breaking a white bus driver's jaw in a disagreement about moving to the back of the bus.

Robinson was selected by Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, to become the first African American to play Major League baseball in the twentieth century. Entering the big leagues in 1947, Robinson had to abide by an agreement he made with Rickey not to be provoked to retaliation by taunts from white players and fans. Robinson endured racial epithets shouted by opposing players and patrons, segregated hotel and restaurant accommodations, balls thrown at his head by opposing pitchers, spiking incidents by opposing runners, volumes of hate mail, and a threatened strike by some white players including several on his own team. Nontheless, he performed brilliantly in the field and earned Rookie-of-the-Year honors in 1947. During his nine years with the Dodgers, Robinson also won a Most Valuable Player award and a batting title. He was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1962.

Robinson's influence can be most easily seen in the film persona of Sidney Poitier in the 1950s and 1960s, who tended to play black characters who were forced to function under great pressure and stress in the white world, maintaining his dignity and poise while pacifistically revealing his contempt when he is mistreated. Robinson's behavior in his first few years in the big leagues became the model, along with Gandhi, for the nonviolent civil rights marchers in the 1950s and 1960s. Robinson died in 1972 at the age of fifty-three. Many believe that what he endured in his days as a player took a dramatic toll on his health. Robinson coauthored several autobiographies including Breakthrough to the Big Leagues (with Alfred Duckett), published in 1965; Jackie Robinson: My Own Story (with black sportswriter Wendell Smith), published in 1948; and I Never Had It Made (with Alfred Duckett), published in 1974.

Gerald Early

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Jackie Robinson
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Jackie Robinson, 1946.
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Jackie Robinson, 1946. (credit: UPI)
(born Jan. 31, 1919, Cairo, Ga., U.S. — died Oct. 24, 1972, Stamford, Conn.) U.S. baseball player, the first black player in the major leagues. Robinson became an outstanding performer in several sports at Pasadena Junior College and UCLA before leaving college to help his mother care for the family. He served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in World War II. He played baseball with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro leagues before being signed by Branch Rickey to a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team (1945 – 46). On being advanced to the majors in 1947, he endured with notable dignity the early opposition to his presence, opposition quickly silenced by Robinson's immediate success as he led the league in stolen bases and was chosen Rookie of the Year. In 1949 he won the batting championship with a .342 average and was voted the league's most valuable player. He retired from the Dodgers team in 1956 with a career batting average of .311. In his later years he strongly supported the cause of civil rights for African Americans.

For more information on Jackie Robinson, visit Britannica.com.

Biography: Jack Roosevelt Robinson
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Jack Roosevelt Robinson (1919-1972) was the first African American of the 20th century to play major league baseball.

Jackie Robinson was born on Jan. 31, 1919, in Cairo, Ga., the son of a sharecropper. After his father deserted his mother, the family moved in 1920 to Los Angeles. Robinson attended Muir Technical High School, where his athletic feats opened college doors. At Pasadena Junior College and at the University of California at Los Angeles, he won acclaim in basketball, football, and baseball. In 1941, when family financial problems forced him to leave the University of California without a degree, he played professional football. In 1942 he enlisted in the Army and in 1943 was commissioned a second lieutenant. He served as a morale officer, and his opposition to racial discrimination led to a court-martial for insubordination, but he was acquitted.

In 1944 Robinson began a professional baseball career, playing with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Major League. His performance in the east-west championship games (1945) interested Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who was scouting black players. A baseball innovator, Rickey knew that civil rights laws would soon end segregation in major league baseball, and he chose Robinson as a test case for integrating the sport. In 1946 Robinson signed a Dodger contract and was assigned to the Montreal team of the International League. Cautioned to prove himself worthy because other black players' futures depended on his success, Robinson maintained a subdued posture. He achieved stardom with the Dodgers, a team he joined in 1947, and in 1949 won the National League's batting championship and its Most Valuable Player Award.

With the admission of other African Americans to baseball, Robinson began to aggressively advocate more honest integration. His exposés of racial prejudice in baseball helped better the lot of black players but also branded him a troublemaker. He retired from the sport in 1956 and went into business. His lifetime batting average of .311 and his leadership prompted sportswriters in 1962 to vote him membership in Baseball's Hall of Fame.

As a businessman, Robinson fought for increased civil rights and economic opportunity for African Americans. For his civil rights work he received the Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1956. He died suddenly on Oct. 24, 1972, in Stamford, Conn.

Further Reading

Five semiautobiographies deal with Robinson's career, of which Carl. T. Rowan with Jackie Robinson, Wait till Next Year: The Life Story of Jackie Robinson (1960), is a candid portrayal. With other sportswriters Robinson coauthored Jackie Robinson: My Own Story (1948); Jackie Robinson (1950); Baseball Has Done It, edited by Charles Dexter (1964); and Breakthrough to the Big League (1965). Rickey's role in Robinson's breakthrough is described in Arthur Mann, Branch Rickey: American in Action (1957), and Branch Rickey, The American Diamond (1965). Richard Bardolph, The Negro Vanguard (1959), places Robinson's contribution in the context of the black civil rights movement, and David Q. Voigt, American Baseball (2 vols., 1966-1970), places him in the general history of baseball.

Black Biography: Jackie Robinson
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baseball player

Personal Information

Born Jack Roosevelt Robinson, January 31, 1919, in Cairo, GA; died of a heart attack, October 24, 1972, in Stamford, CT; son of Jerry (a plantation laborer) and Mallie Robinson (a housekeeper); married Rachel Issum (a psychiatric nurse and educator), February 10, 1946; children: Jackie, Jr. (died, 1971), Sharon, David.
Education: Attended Pasadena Junior College, 1938-39, and University of California at Los Angeles, 1939-41.
Military/Wartime Service: Served in U.S. Army, 1942-45; became first lieutenant.

Career

First black player in major league baseball. Played football with Honolulu Bears, 1941; played on Kansas City Monarchs baseball team, Negro National League, 1945; signed with Montreal Royals, late 1945; professional baseball player with the Brooklyn Dodgers, 1947-56. Had career batting average of .311 with the Dodgers; compiled .333 batting average as National League All-Star; helped Dodgers win six National League pennants and one World Series. Served as executive for Chock Full O'Nuts restaurant chain, and insurance, food-franchising, and interracial construction firms, beginning in late-1950s. chairman of the board of Freedom National Bank in Harlem; member of the New York State Athletic Commission. Author of autobiography I Never Had It Made, 1972.

Life's Work

Jackie Robinson may have had more influence on the integration of sports than any other athlete in history. When he began playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, he broke the color line in professional baseball and paved the way for the entry of black players into all professional sports. Monte Irvin, a black baseball player who came into the major leagues soon after Robinson, was quoted in The New York Times Book of Sports Legends as saying, "Jackie Robinson opened the door of baseball to all men. He was the first to get the opportunity, but if he had not done such a great job, the path would have been so much more difficult."

The grandson of a slave, Jack Roosevelt Robinson was the youngest of five children and spent his early years in Georgia. After his father deserted the family when Jackie was six months old, his mother, Mallie Robinson, moved the family to California in search of work. California also subjected blacks to segregation at that time, but to less of a degree than in the deep South. The young Jackie defused his anger over this prejudice by immersing himself in sports. He displayed extraordinary athletic skills in high school, excelling at football, basketball, baseball, and track. After helping Pasadena Junior College win the Junior College Football Championship, Robinson took his athletic prowess to the University of California at Los Angeles and became a top collegiate running back in 1939.

Robinson left college before graduating, having used up his athletic eligibility. Then he held a job with the National Youth Administration work camp until the camp was closed due to the onset of World War II. In the fall of 1941 he joined the Honolulu Bears professional football team, then was drafted onto a new "team" in 1942--the U.S. Army. While stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas with heavyweight champion Joe Louis, Robinson worked with Louis to eradicate unfair treatment of blacks in the military, but inequities would persist in the armed forces for decades to come. Robinson was discharged from the army in 1945 because his ankles had been weakened playing football.

Robinson joined the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League in 1945 for a reported $400 a month. Although he soon became one of the league's top players, he was not fond of the low pay and relentless traveling and apparently had no intention of making baseball a career. That attitude was changed due to the efforts of Brooklyn Dodger president Branch Rickey. Starting in 1943, Rickey had been searching for a black player to bring into the major leagues, which were closed to blacks at the time. Dodger owner Walter O'Malley stated in Harvey Frommer's book Rickey & Robinson: "Branch wanted Jackie because he knew Jackie had absolutely fierce pride and determination."

On October 23, 1945, Robinson signed a contract with Rickey to play for one of the Dodgers' farm teams, the Montreal Royals in the International League. Many owners and sportswriters were against this integration, claiming that it would destroy major league baseball, but both Rickey and Robinson were confident of the move. According to Frommer, Robinson said, "I think I am the right man to pick for this test. There is no possible chance that I will flunk it or quit before the end for any other reason than that I am not a good enough ballplayer."

Spring training in Florida was rough for Robinson due to segregation laws. He was forced to ride in the back of buses, and some games in which he was scheduled to play were canceled due to his presence. Nevertheless, he proved his worth that season by leading the Royals to the championship in the Little World Series. His performance made it clear that he was ready for the major leagues, but not all of the Dodgers were supportive of moving Robinson up to the big time. Some players on the team circulated a petition saying that they wouldn't play with Robinson, but hardly anyone signed it. When Rickey brought Robinson up to the Dodgers, he made the player promise to rein in his temper when he was subjected to racial taunts on the playing field, at least for the first year. Robinson reluctantly agreed, but once a star he allowed his pride to resurface during disputes that were racially tinged.

Robinson's arrival on the major-league scene in 1947 prompted a slew of racially motivated actions. The St. Louis Cardinals threatened to go on strike, then backed down when National League president Ford Frick threatened to ban all strikers from professional baseball. Pitchers often threw the ball directly at Robinson, base runners tried to spike him, and he was subjected to a steady stream of racial insults. He received hate mail, death threats, and even warnings that his baby boy would be kidnapped. Through it all, though, Robinson held his tongue in deference to Rickey's wishes. As the much-maligned player stated in his autobiography I Never Had It Made, "I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect."

Robinson let his playing do the talking, and before long he was known as one of the most exciting players in baseball. Soon fans both black and white were filling ballparks to see him in action, and the Dodgers set new attendance records. Most of his fellow teammates fully supported him as they became convinced of Robinson's value to the club. Despite the adversity he faced, Robinson led the league in stolen bases and was named Rookie of the Year.

By the end of the following season, Robinson was no longer willing to hold his temper in check. He would often get into shouting matches with opponents, as well as umpires. His playing kept improving, reaching a peak in 1949 when his exploits earned him a batting title and the Most Valuable Player award. By this time Robinson was famous throughout the world. He had a string of six consecutive seasons batting over .300 and became renowned for his daring steals of home. His success had opened the door to a string of other great black players such as Monte Irvin, Larry Doby, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, and Junior Gilliam. In 1950 Robinson was paid an annual salary of $35,000, tops in Dodger history, and a movie about his life opened in theaters.

As his fame grew, Robinson became more fervent in his protests against racist attitudes, and he offered more support for civil rights causes. His status on the team, however, changed in the 1951 season due to Rickey being replaced as president of the Dodgers by Walter O'Malley. A tremendous admirer of Rickey, Robinson was greatly disappointed by the changing of the guard, especially since O'Malley was less tolerant than Rickey of his speaking out on racial issues. Nevertheless, Robinson continued offering support for black causes and advice to black players in particular, including those on opposing teams.

Robinson's glory years as a player were coming to an end by the mid-1950s. He had developed a bad relationship with manager Walter Alston, and his average fell to .256 in 1955 during an injury-plagued season. After being sold in December of 1956 to the New York Giants, Robinson announced his retirement in the January 1957 issue of Look magazine. In the article, Robinson claimed that his body had passed its prime and could no longer perform at the major league level. He finished with a .311 career average and 19 career steals of home--the most by any player in the post-World War II era. Soon after his playing days were over, Robinson's health declined dramatically. He had to begin receiving insulin shots for diabetes and at one point went into a diabetic coma. In his later years the diabetic condition would take away his sight in one eye and significantly reduce his sight in the other.

After his retirement Robinson became a successful businessman and active supporter of political causes, devoting many of his efforts to the pursuit of a better life for African Americans. He became a vice president in the Chock Full O'Nuts restaurant chain, whose restaurants employed many blacks. He also worked with the Harlem YMCA in New York City and was made chairman of the board of the Freedom National Bank, a project in black capitalism. He later became the head of a construction company that built housing for black families and was involved in other ventures that stimulated black participation in business. Refusing to compromise his values, Robinson rejected an offer of membership in a private golf club when he learned that some members had objected to accepting an African American member. Despite his fame, he pursued his golf game at public courses.

In the political arena, Robinson campaigned for Senator Hubert Humphrey's bid for nomination on the Democratic presidential ticket in 1960. Then, despite objections from fellow Democrats, he switched parties to work for Richard Nixon in the presidential campaign because he felt that Nixon had helped support civil rights causes. Continuing to plot his own course, Robinson resigned his position as special assistant for community affairs on Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller's staff in 1968 to once against campaign for presidential-hopeful Hubert Humphrey.

Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year of eligibility. Even then he was surrounded by controversy, as fellow electee Bob Feller said that he didn't want to enter the Hall at the same time as Robinson. At his induction, Robinson called up three people from the audience to stand with him as he accepted the honor: his mother, his wife, and Branch Rickey. Robinson's respect and admiration for Rickey had never waned. He knew how important Rickey had been at helping blacks enter mainstream sports in the United States. When Rickey died in 1965, Robinson complained about the low number of blacks who had come to the funeral. According to The New York Times Book of Sport Legends, Robinson said, "I considered Mr. Rickey the greatest human being I had ever known."

Perhaps the cruelest blow to Robinson occurred in 1971, when his son, Jackie Jr., died in a car accident. Three years earlier, the younger Robinson had been arrested for heroin possession due to an addiction he had developed--and later kicked--after being wounded in Vietnam. Jackie Sr. remained active in national campaigns against drug addiction right up to his own death.

By the early 1970s Robinson was still pressing for more integration in sports, and most of all wanted to see a black manager in professional baseball. (In 1974 Frank Robinson became the first black major league manager, taking over the reins of the Cleveland Indians.) Robinson was specially honored in 1972, when he was asked to throw out the ball to open the second game of the 75th World Series at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Although still in his early 50s, Robinson was in shaky physical health by this time. He had survived one heart attack, and his body had suffered from years of diabetes and high blood pressure. Less than two weeks after his ceremonial toss at the World Series, he collapsed at his home in Connecticut and died later that day. His funeral at Riverside Church in New York City attracted more than 2,500 people, including many celebrities and political dignitaries. Thousands lined the streets as Robinson's body was taken to Brooklyn for burial.

Jackie Robinson always went his own way, answering to his own instincts and refusing to be swayed by those who objected to his choices. He never took for granted his role as a trailblazer in the integration of sports and the opening of opportunities for blacks in the United States. As Frommer wrote, "Just as Robinson had placed his stamp on baseball, his historic role in baseball had stamped him." By being a man with incredible physical skills, mental fortitude, and competitive fire who arrived in the right place and at the right time in history, Robinson had a major impact on the black struggle for equality in the twentieth century.

Awards

National junior college record in long jump; first student at UCLA to earn four varsity letters in one year; leading ground gainer in college football, 1939; International League Batting Title, 1946; voted National League Rookie of the Year, 1947; led league in stolen bases, 1947 and 1949; National League MVP, 1949; National League Batting Title, 1949; made National League All-Star Team, 1949-54; NAACP Spingarn Medal, 1956; elected to Baseball Hall of Fame, 1962.

Further Reading

Books

  • Connor, Anthony J., Baseball for the Love of It: Hall of Famers Tell It Like It Was, Macmillan, 1982, pp. 127, 211.
  • Frommer, Harvey, Rickey & Robinson: The Men Who Broke Baseball's Color Barrier, Macmillan, 1982.
  • Golenbock, Peter, Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Putnam, 1984.
  • Kahn, Roger, The Boys of Summer, Harper & Row, 1971.
  • The New York Times Book of Sports Legends, edited by Joseph J.
  • Vecchione, Times Books, 1991, pp. 252-259.
  • Robinson, Jackie, I Never Had It Made, Putnam, 1972.
Periodicals
  • New York Times, October 25, 1972, pp. 1, 56.

— Ed Decker

US History Companion: Robinson, Jackie
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(1919-1972), professional baseball player with the Brooklyn Dodgers (1947-1956); first African-American to play in major league baseball in the twentieth century. Intensely proud of his talents and his blackness in a white-dominated world, Robinson created drama throughout his life. He fought racism viscerally--in his California childhood, at college, and in the army, where he faced a court-martial for defying illegal segregation on an army bus.

When general manager Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers offered Robinson the chance to break organized baseball's powerful but unwritten color line, the fiery ballplayer not only accepted, he also agreed to Rickey's condition: that he not respond to the abuse he would face.

Jackie Robinson's debut in organized baseball is a legend (April 18, 1946, with the Montreal Royals of the International League, the Dodgers' best farm club). In five at-bats he hit a three-run homer and three singles, stole two bases, and scored four times, twice by forcing the pitcher to balk. Promoted to the Dodgers the following spring, Robinson thrived on the pressure and established himself as the most exciting player in baseball. His playing style combined traditional elements of black sports--the opportunistic risk taking known as "tricky baseball" in the Negro Leagues--with an aggressiveness asserting his right to be at the plate or on the basepaths. According to his manager Leo Durocher, "This guy didn't just come to play. He come to beat ya."

In their response to Jackie Robinson, African-Americans rejected "separate but equal" status and embraced integration. Robinson's presence in baseball electrified them, and they flocked to see the Dodgers in huge numbers and from great distances. African-American sportswriters, many of whom had advocated baseball integration for years, focused their attentions on Robinson and the black players who followed him. His success encouraged the integration of professional football, basketball, and tennis, while the Negro Leagues, which in a sense depended on segregation, began an irreversible decline, losing ballplayers, spectators, and reporters.

During his first two years with the Dodgers, Robinson kept his word to Rickey and endured astonishing abuse amid national scrutiny without fighting back. His dignified courage in the face of virulent racism--from jeers and insults to beanballs, hate mail, and death threats--commanded the admiration of whites as well as blacks and foreshadowed the tactics that the 1960s civil rights movement would develop into the theory and practice of nonviolence.

Robinson, however, finally broke his emotional and political silence in 1949, becoming an outspoken and controversial opponent of racial discrimination. He criticized the slow pace of baseball integration and objected to the Jim Crow practices in the southern states where most clubs conducted spring training. Robinson led other ballplayers in urging baseball to use its economic power to desegregate southern towns, hotels, and ballparks. Because most baseball teams integrated relatively calmly, the "Jackie Robinson experiment" provided an important example of successful desegregation to ambivalent white southern political and business leaders.

Having watched baseball integrate through a combination of individual black achievements, white goodwill, economic persuasion, and public outspokenness, Robinson, when he retired from baseball in 1957, sought to bring the same tactics to bear on increasing African-American employment opportunities.

His lifelong struggle continued to his last public appearance nine days before he died: he told television viewers of an Old-Timers' Game, "I'd like to live to see a black manager." Fittingly, his eulogy was delivered by the outstanding advocate of African-American self-help and employment opportunity--the Reverend Jesse Jackson. "When Jackie took the field," Jackson declared, "something reminded us of our birthright to be free."

Bibliography:

Jules Tygiel, Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (1984).

Author:

Warren Goldstein

See also Baseball; Racial Desegregation; Rickey, Branch; Spectator Sports.


 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Jackie Robinson
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Robinson, Jackie (Jack Roosevelt Robinson), 1919-72, American baseball player, the first African-American player in the modern major leagues, b. Cairo, Ga. He grew up in Pasadena, Calif., where he became an outstanding athlete in high school and junior college. While attending (1939-41) the Univ. of California at Los Angeles, he established a wide reputation in baseball, basketball, football, and track.

Robinson left college to support his mother, but in 1941 played professional football with the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the Pacific Coast League. He entered the army in World War II and was discharged as a lieutenant in 1945. In Oct., 1945, Branch Rickey, then president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, signed Robinson to play for the Montreal Royals, a Brooklyn farm club in the International League. Despite several incidents in spring training in the South and many inconveniences during the season, Robinson-the first African-American ballplayer in that league-excelled as a second baseman and won the league batting crown.

In 1947 precedent was shattered when Robinson was brought up to the Brooklyn club. African Americans had not played in big-league competition in the 20th cent., but resistance dwindled as Robinson excelled. In 1949 he won the National League batting crown, hitting .342, and was named the NL's most valuable player. Robinson played his entire career (1947-56) with Brooklyn, where he set fielding and batting records and gained a reputation for base stealing. Other African Americans began playing in the major leagues soon after his debut. In 1962 Robinson became the first African American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1972); J. Tygiel, Baseball's Great Experiment (1983) and Extra Bases (2002); A. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson (1997); S. Simon, Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball (2002).

History Dictionary: Robinson, Jackie
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An African-American athlete of the twentieth century. In 1947, he became the first black person to play baseball in the major leagues.

Wikipedia: Jackie Robinson
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For other persons named Jackie Robinson, see Jackie Robinson (disambiguation).
Jackie Robinson
Waist-up portrait of black batter in his mid-thirties, in Brooklyn Dodgers uniform number 42, at end of swing with bat over left shoulder, looking at where a hit ball would be
Second baseman
Born: January 31, 1919(1919-01-31)
Cairo, Georgia
Died: October 24, 1972 (aged 53)
Stamford, Connecticut
Batted: Right Threw: Right 
MLB debut
April 15, 1947 for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Last MLB appearance
October 10, 1956 for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Career statistics
Batting average     .311
Hits     1,518
Home runs     137
Stolen bases     197
Teams
Career highlights and awards
Member of the National
Empty Star.svg Empty Star.svg Empty Star.svg Baseball Hall of Fame Empty Star.svg Empty Star.svg Empty Star.svg
Induction     1962
Vote     77.5% (first ballot)

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was the first African American Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era.[2] Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As the first black man to openly play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated African-Americans to the Negro leagues for six decades.[3] The example of his character and unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation, which then marked many other aspects of American life, and contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement.[4][5]

Apart from his cultural impact, Robinson had an exceptional baseball career. Over ten seasons, he played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Championship. He was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games from 1949 to 1954,[6] was the recipient of the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949 – the first black player so honored.[7] Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams.

Robinson was also known for his pursuits outside the baseball diamond. He was the first African-American television analyst in Major League Baseball, and the first African-American vice-president of a major American corporation. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American-owned/controlled financial institution based in Harlem, New York. In recognition of his achievements on and off the field, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.

Contents

Early life

Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, into a family of sharecroppers in Cairo, Georgia, during a Spanish flu and smallpox epidemic. He was the youngest of five children, after siblings Edgar, Frank, Matthew (nicknamed "Mack"), and Willa Mae.[8][9] His middle name was in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt, who died twenty-five days before Robinson was born.[10][11] After Robinson's father left the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena, California.[12][13][14] The extended Robinson family established itself on a residential plot containing two small houses at 121 Pepper Street in Pasadena. Robinson's mother worked various odd jobs to support the family.[15] Growing up in relative poverty in an otherwise affluent community, Robinson and his minority friends were excluded from many recreational opportunities.[16] As a result, Robinson joined a neighborhood gang, but his friend Carl Anderson persuaded him to abandon it.[16][17][18]

John Muir High School

In 1935, Robinson graduated from Washington Junior High School and enrolled at John Muir High School (Muir Tech).[19] Recognizing his athletic talents, Robinson's older brothers Mack (himself an accomplished athlete and silver medalist at the 1936 Summer Olympics)[18] and Frank inspired Jackie to pursue his interest in sports.[20][21] At Muir Tech, Robinson played several sports at the varsity level and lettered in four of them: football, basketball, track, and baseball.[14] He played shortstop and catcher on the baseball team, quarterback on the football team, and guard on the basketball team. With the track and field squad, he won awards in the broad jump. He was also a member of the tennis team.[22]

In 1936, Robinson won the junior boys singles championship in the annual Pacific Coast Negro Tennis Tournament and earned a place on the Pomona annual baseball tournament all-star team, which included future Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Bob Lemon.[23] In late January 1937, the Pasadena Star-News newspaper reported that Robinson "for two years has been the outstanding athlete at Muir, starring in football, basketball, track, baseball and tennis."[24]

Pasadena Junior College

After Muir, Robinson attended Pasadena Junior College (PJC), where he continued his athletic career by participating in basketball, football, baseball, and track.[25] On the football team, he played quarterback and safety. He was a shortstop and leadoff hitter for the baseball team, and he broke school broad jump records held by his brother Mack.[14] As at Muir Hugh School, most of Jackie's teammates were white.[23] While playing football at PJC, Robinson suffered a fractured ankle, complications from which would eventually delay his deployment status while in the military.[26][27] Also while at PJC, he was elected to the Lancers, a student-run police organization responsible for patrolling various school activities.[28] In 1938, he was elected to the All-Southland Junior College Team for baseball and selected as the region's Most Valuable Player.[21][29] That year, Robinson was one of ten students named to the school's Order of the Mast and Dagger (Omicron Mu Delta), awarded to students performing "outstanding service to the school and whose scholastic and citizenship record is worthy of recognition."[30]

An incident at PJC illustrated Robinson's impatience with authority figures he perceived as racist – a character trait that would resurface repeatedly in his life. On January 25, 1938, he was arrested after vocally disputing the detention of a black friend by police.[31] Robinson received a two-year suspended sentence, but the incident – along with other rumored run-ins between Robinson and police – gave Robinson a reputation for combativeness in the face of racial antagonism.[32] Toward the end of his PJC tenure, Frank Robinson (to whom Robinson felt closest among his three brothers) was killed in a motorcycle accident. The event motivated Jackie to pursue his athletic career at the nearby University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he could remain closer to Frank's family.[21][33]

UCLA and afterward

Athlete in UCLA track uniform at the apex of a jump, with legs lunging forward, against a background of an academic building.
Robinson in his UCLA track uniform

After graduating from PJC in spring 1939,[34] Robinson transferred to UCLA, where he became the school's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track.[35][36] He was one of four African-Americans on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team; the others were Woody Strode, Kenny Washington, and Ray Bartlett. Washington, Strode, and Robinson made up three of the team's four backfield players.[37] At a time when only a handful of black players existed in mainstream college football, this made UCLA college football's most integrated team.[38][39] Belying his future career, baseball was Robinson's "worst sport" at UCLA; he hit .097 in his only season, although in his first game he went 4-for-4 and twice stole home.[40]

While a senior at UCLA, Robinson met his future wife, Rachel Isum, a UCLA freshman who was familiar with Robinson's athletic career at PJC.[41] In the spring semester of 1941, despite his mother's and Isum's reservations, Robinson left college just shy of graduation.[42] He took a job as an assistant athletic director with the government's National Youth Administration (NYA) in Atascadero, California.[43][44][45]

After the government ceased NYA operations, Robinson traveled to Honolulu in fall 1941 to play football for the semi-professional, racially integrated Honolulu Bears.[43][45] After a short season, Robinson returned to California in December 1941 to pursue a career as running back for the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the Pacific Coast Football League.[46] By that time, however, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had taken place, drawing the United States into World War II and ending Robinson's nascent football career.[43]

Military career

Black man in military uniform featuring the crossed-sabre insignia of a U.S. Cavalry unit receives a salute from a person out of view.
Robinson in his military uniform, c. 1943, during a visit to his home in Pasadena, California, receiving a military salute from his nephew Frank

In 1942, Robinson was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas. Having the requisite qualifications, Robinson and several other black soldiers applied for admission to an Officer Candidate School (OCS) then located at Fort Riley. Although Army policy had allowed black applicants to enter OCS since July 1941,[47] the applications of Robinson and his colleagues were inexplicably delayed for several months.[48] After protests by heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis (then stationed at Fort Riley) and the help of Truman Gibson (then an assistant civilian aide to the Secretary of War),[49] the men were accepted into OCS.[43][48][50] This common military experience spawned a personal friendship between Robinson and Louis.[51][52] Upon finishing OCS, Robinson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in January 1943.[36] Shortly afterward, Robinson and Isum were formally engaged.[48]

After receiving his commission, Robinson was reassigned to Fort Hood, Texas, where he joined the 761st "Black Panthers" Tank Battalion. While at Fort Hood, Robinson often used his weekend leave to visit the Rev. Karl Downs, President of Sam Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson University) in nearby Austin, Texas; Downs had been Robinson's pastor at Scott United Methodist Church while Robinson attended PJC.[31][53]

An event in July 1944 derailed Robinson's military career. While awaiting results of hospital tests on the ankle he had injured in junior college, Robinson boarded an Army bus with a fellow officer's wife; although the Army had commissioned its own unsegregated bus line, the bus driver ordered Robinson to move to the back of the bus.[54][55][56] Robinson refused. The driver backed down, but after reaching the end of the line, summoned the military police, who took Robinson into custody.[54][57] When Robinson later confronted the investigating duty officer about racist questioning by the officer and his assistant, the officer recommended Robinson be court-martialed.[54][58] After Robinson's commander in the 761st, Paul L. Bates, refused to authorize the legal action, Robinson was summarily transferred to the 758th Battalion – where the commander quickly consented to charge Robinson with multiple offenses, including, among other charges, public drunkenness – even though Robinson did not drink.[54][59]

By the time of the court-martial in August 1944, the charges against Robinson had been reduced to two counts of insubordination during questioning.[54] Robinson was acquitted by an all-white panel of nine officers.[54] Although his former unit, the 761st Tank Battalion, became the first black tank unit to see combat in World War II, Robinson's court-martial proceedings prohibited him from being deployed overseas, thus he never saw combat action.[60] After his acquittal, he was transferred to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, where he served as a coach for army athletics until receiving an honorable discharge in November 1944.[61] While there, Robinson met an ex-player for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League, who encouraged Robinson to write the Monarchs and ask for a tryout.[62] Robinson took the ex-player's advice and wrote Monarchs' co-owner Thomas Baird.[63]

Post-military

After his discharge, Robinson briefly returned to his old football club, the Los Angeles Bulldogs.[46] Robinson then accepted an offer from his old friend and pastor Rev. Karl Downs to be the athletic director at Sam Huston College in Austin, then of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.[64] The job included coaching the school's basketball team for the 1944–45 season.[53] As a fledgling program, few students tried out for the basketball team, and Robinson even resorted to inserting himself into the lineup for exhibition games.[64][65] Although his teams were outmatched by opponents, Robinson was respected as a disciplinarian coach,[53] and drew the admiration of, among others, Langston University basketball player Marques Haynes, a future member of the Harlem Globetrotters.[66]

Baseball career

Negro leagues

In early 1945, while Robinson was at Sam Huston College, the Kansas City Monarchs sent him a written offer to play professional baseball in the Negro leagues.[53][67] Robinson accepted a contract for $400 ($4,736 in 2009 dollars[68]) per month, a boon for him at the time.[43][69] Although he played well for the Monarchs, Robinson was frustrated with the experience. He had grown used to a structured playing environment in college, and the Negro leagues' disorganization and embrace of gambling interests appalled him.[70][71] The hectic travel schedule also placed a burden on his relationship with Isum, with whom he could now communicate only by letter.[72] In all, Robinson played 47 games at shortstop for the Monarchs, hitting .387 with five home runs, and registering 13 stolen bases.[73] He also appeared in the 1945 Negro League All-Star Game (where he was hitless in five at-bats).[74]

During the season, Robinson pursued potential major league interest. The Boston Red Sox held a tryout at Fenway Park for Robinson and other black players on April 16, 1945.[75] The tryout, however, was a farce chiefly designed to assuage the desegregationist sensibilities of powerful Boston City Councilman Isadore Muchnick.[76] Even with the stands limited to management, Robinson was subjected to racial epithets.[77] Robinson left the tryout humiliated,[75] and more than fourteen years later, in July 1959, the Red Sox became the last major league team to integrate its roster.[78]

Other teams, however, had more serious interest in signing a black ballplayer. In the mid-1940s, Branch Rickey, club president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, began to scout the Negro leagues for a possible addition to the Dodgers' roster. Rickey selected Robinson from a list of promising African-American players, and interviewed Robinson for possible assignment to Brooklyn's International League farm club, the Montreal Royals.[79] Rickey was especially interested in making sure his eventual signee could withstand the inevitable racial abuse that would be directed at him.[5][80] In a famous three-hour exchange on August 28, 1945, Rickey asked Robinson if he could face the racial animus without taking the bait and reacting angrily – a concern given Robinson's prior arguments with law enforcement officials at PJC and in the military.[43] Robinson was aghast: "Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?"[80][81] Rickey replied that he needed a Negro player "with guts enough not to fight back."[80][81] After obtaining a commitment from Robinson to "turn the other cheek" to racial antagonism, Rickey agreed to sign him to a contract for $600 a month.[82][83]

Although he required Robinson to keep the arrangement a secret for the time being, Rickey committed to formally signing Robinson before November 1, 1945.[84] On October 23, it was publicly announced that Robinson would be assigned to the Royals for the 1946 season.[43][83][85] On the same day, with representatives of the Royals and Dodgers present, Robinson formally signed his contract with the Royals.[86] In what was later referred to as "The Noble Experiment",[43][87] Robinson was the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s.[88] Robinson was not necessarily the best player in the Negro leagues,[89] and black talents Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson were upset when Robinson was selected first.[90]

Rickey's offer allowed Robinson to leave the Monarchs and their grueling bus rides behind, and he went home to Pasadena. That September, he signed with Chet Brewer's Kansas City Royals, a post-season barnstorming team in the California Winter League.[91] Later that off-season, he briefly toured South America with another barnstorming team, while his fiancée Isum pursued nursing opportunities in New York City.[92] On February 10, 1946, Robinson and Isum were married by their old friend, Rev. Karl Downs.[43][93][94]

Minor leagues

In 1946, Robinson arrived at Daytona Beach, Florida, for spring training with the Montreal Royals of the Class AAA International League (the designation of "AAA" for the highest level of minor league baseball was first used in the 1946 season). Robinson's presence was controversial in racially charged Florida. As he was not allowed to stay with his teammates at the team hotel, he lodged instead at the home of a local black politician.[95][96] Since the Dodgers organization did not own a spring training facility (the Dodger-controlled spring training compound in Vero Beach known as "Dodgertown" did not open until spring 1948),[97] scheduling was subject to the whim of area localities, several of which turned down any event involving Robinson or Johnny Wright, another black player whom Rickey had signed to the Dodgers' organization in January. In Sanford, Florida, the police chief threatened to cancel games if Robinson and Wright did not cease training activities there; as a result, Robinson was sent back to Daytona Beach.[98][99] In Jacksonville, the stadium was padlocked shut without warning on game day, by order of the city's Parks and Public Property director.[100][101] In DeLand, a scheduled day game was called off, ostensibly because of faulty electrical lighting.[102][103]

After much lobbying of local officials by Rickey himself, the Royals were allowed to host a game involving Robinson in Daytona Beach.[104][105] Robinson made his Royals debut at Daytona Beach's City Island Ballpark on March 17, 1946, in an exhibition game against the team's parent club, the Dodgers. Robinson thus simultaneously became the first African-American to openly play for a minor league team and against a major league team since the de facto baseball color line had been implemented in the 1880s.[3] Later in spring training, after some less-than-stellar performances, Robinson was shifted from shortstop to second base, allowing him to make shorter throws to first base.[59] Robinson's performance soon rebounded. On April 18, 1946, Roosevelt Stadium hosted the Jersey City Giants' season opener against the Montreal Royals, marking the professional debut of the Royals' Jackie Robinson. In his five trips to the plate, Robinson had four hits, including a three-run home run. He also scored four runs, drove in three, and stole two bases in the Royals' 14–1 victory.[106] Robinson proceeded to lead the International League that season with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage,[20] and he was named the league's Most Valuable Player.[107] Although he often faced hostility while on road trips (the Royals were forced to cancel a Southern exhibition tour, for example),[59] the Montreal fan base enthusiastically supported Robinson.[108] Whether fans supported or opposed it, Robinson's presence on the field was a boon to attendance; more than one million people went to games involving Robinson in 1946, an amazing figure by International League standards.[109] In the fall of 1946, following the baseball season, Robinson returned home to California and briefly played professional basketball for the short-lived Los Angeles Red Devils.[110][111]

Major leagues

Breaking the color barrier (1947)

The following year, six days before the start of the 1947 season, the Dodgers called Robinson up to the major leagues. With Eddie Stanky entrenched at second base for the Dodgers, Robinson played his initial major league season as a first baseman.[80] On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators, including more than 14,000 black patrons.[112] Although he failed to get a base hit, the Dodgers won 5–3.[112] Robinson became the first player since the 1880s to openly break the major league baseball color line.[113] Black fans began flocking to see the Dodgers when they came to town, abandoning their Negro league teams.[90]

Robinson's promotion met a generally positive, although mixed, reception among newspapers and white major league players.[109][114] However, racial tension existed in the Dodger clubhouse.[115] Some Dodger players insinuated they would sit out rather than play alongside Robinson. The brewing mutiny ended when Dodgers management took a stand for Robinson. Manager Leo Durocher informed the team, "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."[116]

Robinson was also derided by opposing teams. Some, notably the St. Louis Cardinals, threatened to strike if Robinson played. After the threat, National League President Ford Frick and Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler let it be known that any striking players would be suspended.[117][118][119] Robinson nonetheless became the target of rough physical play by opponents (particularly the Cardinals). At one time, he received a seven-inch gash in his leg.[120] On April 22, 1947, during a game between the Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies, Phillies players called Robinson a "nigger" from their dugout and yelled that he should "go back to the cotton fields".[121][122] Rickey later recalled that Phillies manager Ben Chapman "did more than anybody to unite the Dodgers. When he poured out that string of unconscionable abuse, he solidified and united thirty men."[123]

Robinson received significant encouragement from several major league players. Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese once came to Robinson's defense with the famous line, "You can hate a man for many reasons. Color is not one of them."[124] In 1948, Reese put his arm around Robinson in response to fans who shouted racial slurs at Robinson before a game in Cincinnati.[125] A statue by sculptor William Behrends, unveiled at KeySpan Park on November 1, 2005, commemorates this event by representing Reese with his arm around Robinson.[126] Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg, who had to deal with racial epithets during his career, also encouraged Robinson. After colliding with Robinson at first base on one occasion, Greenberg whispered a few words into Robinson's ear, which Robinson later characterized as "words of encouragement."[127] Greenberg had advised him that the best way to combat the slurs from the opposing players was to beat them on the field.[127]

Robinson finished the season with 12 home runs, a league-leading 29 steals, a .297 batting average, a .427 slugging percentage, and 125 runs scored.[128] His cumulative performance earned him the inaugural Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award (separate National and American League Rookie of the Year honors were not awarded until 1949).[129]

MVP, Congressional testimony, and film biography (1948–1950)

Further information: Paul Robeson and Jackie Robinson

Following Stanky's trade to the Boston Braves in March 1948, Robinson took over second base, where he logged a .980 fielding percentage that year (second in the National League at the position, fractionally behind Stanky).[130] Robinson had a batting average of .296 and 22 stolen bases for the season.[131] In a 12–7 win against the St. Louis Cardinals on August 29, 1948, he hit for the cycle – a home run, a triple, a double, and a single in the same game.[132] The Dodgers briefly moved into first place in the National League in late August 1948, but they ultimately finished third as the Braves went on to win the league title and lose to the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.[133]

Racial pressure on Robinson eased in 1948 as a number of other black players entered the major leagues. Larry Doby (who broke the color barrier in the American League on July 5, 1947) and Satchel Paige played for the Cleveland Indians, and the Dodgers had three other black players besides Robinson.[130] In February 1948, he signed a $12,500 contract with the Dodgers; while a significant amount, this was less than Robinson made in the off-season from a vaudeville tour, where he answered pre-set baseball questions, and a speaking tour of the South. Between the tours, he underwent surgery on his right ankle. Because of his off-season activities, Robinson reported to training camp thirty pounds overweight. He lost the weight during training camp, but dieting left him weak at the plate.[134]

In the spring of 1949, Robinson turned to Hall of Famer George Sisler, working as an advisor to the Dodgers, for batting help. At Sisler's suggestion, Robinson spent hours at a batting tee, learning to hit the ball to right field.[135] Sisler taught Robinson to anticipate a fastball, on the theory that it is easier to subsequently adjust to a slower curveball.[135] Robinson also noted that "Sisler showed me how to stop lunging, how to check my swing until the last fraction of a second".[135] The tutelage helped Robinson raise his batting average from .296 in 1948 to .342 in 1949.[135] In addition to his improved batting average, Robinson stole 37 bases that season, was second place in the league for both doubles and triples, and registered 124 runs batted in with 122 runs scored.[80] For the performance Robinson earned the Most Valuable Player award for the National League.[80] Baseball fans also voted Robinson as the starting second baseman for the 1949 All-Star Game – the first All-Star Game to include black players.[136][137]

That year, a song about Robinson by Buddy Johnson, "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?", reached number 13 on the charts; Count Basie recorded a famous version.[138] Ultimately, the Dodgers won the National League pennant, but lost in five games to the New York Yankees in the 1949 World Series.[130]

Summer 1949 brought an unwanted distraction for Robinson. In July, he was called to testify before the United States House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) concerning statements made that April by African-American athlete and actor Paul Robeson. Robinson was reluctant to testify, but he eventually agreed to do so, fearing it might negatively affect his career if he declined.[139]

A white man, standing, shakes his fist under the chin of a black man, sitting, who reacts calmly. Inset picture of a black baseball player at bat is overlaid with the caption: "The Jackie Robinson Story."
Lobby card for The Jackie Robinson Story, 1950, with Minor Watson (left, playing Dodgers president Branch Rickey) and Robinson

In 1950, Robinson led the National League in double plays made by a second baseman with 133.[132] His salary that year was the highest any Dodger had been paid to that point: $35,000[140] ($309,806 in 2009 dollars[68]). He finished the year with 99 runs scored, a .328 batting average, and 12 stolen bases.[131] The year saw the release of a film biography of Robinson's life, The Jackie Robinson Story, in which Robinson played himself,[141] and actress Ruby Dee played Rachael "Rae" (Isum) Robinson.[142] The project had been previously delayed when the film's producers refused to accede to demands of two Hollywood studios that the movie include scenes of Robinson being tutored in baseball by a white man.[143] The New York Times wrote that Robinson, "doing that rare thing of playing himself in the picture's leading role, displays a calm assurance and composure that might be envied by many a Hollywood star."[144]

Robinson's Hollywood exploits, however, did not sit well with Dodgers co-owner Walter O'Malley, who referred to Robinson as "Rickey's prima donna".[145] In late 1950, Rickey's contract as the Dodgers' team President expired. Weary of constant disagreements with O'Malley, and with no hope of being re-appointed as President of the Dodgers, Rickey cashed out his one-quarter financial interest in the team, leaving O'Malley in full control of the franchise.[146] Rickey shortly thereafter became general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Robinson was disappointed at the turn of events and wrote a sympathetic letter to Rickey, whom he considered a father figure, stating, "Regardless of what happens to me in the future, it all can be placed on what you have done and, believe me, I appreciate it."[147][148]

Pennant races and outside interests (1951–1953)

In 1951, Robinson led the National League in double plays made by a second baseman for the second year in a row, with 137.[132] He also kept the Dodgers in contention for the 1951 pennant. During the last game of the season, in the 13th inning, he had a hit to tie the game, and then won the game with a home run in the 14th. This forced a playoff against the New York Giants, which the Dodgers lost.[149]

A comic book cover titled "Jackie Robinson" depicts a black man in a Brooklyn Dodgers cap; inset image on the cover shows a black baseball player covering a slide at second base.
Cover of a Jackie Robinson comic book, issue #5, 1951

Despite Robinson's regular-season heroics, the Dodgers lost the pennant on Bobby Thomson's famous home run, known as the Shot Heard 'Round the World, on October 3, 1951. Overcoming his dejection, Robinson dutifully observed Thomson's feet to ensure he touched all the bases. Dodgers sportscaster Vin Scully later noted that the incident showed "how much of a competitor Robinson was."[150] He finished the season with 106 runs scored, a batting average of .335, and 25 stolen bases.[131]

Robinson had what was an average year for him in 1952.[151] He finished the year with 104 runs, a .308 batting average, and 24 stolen bases.[131] He did, however, record a career-high on-base percentage of .436.[131] The Dodgers improved on their performance from the year before, winning the National League pennant before losing the 1952 World Series to the New York Yankees in seven games. That year, on the television show Youth Wants to Know, Robinson challenged the Yankees' general manager, George Weiss, on the racial record of his team, which had yet to sign a black player.[152] Sportswriter Dick Young, whom Robinson had described as a "bigot", said, "If there was one flaw in Jackie, it was the common one. He believed that everything unpleasant that happened to him happened because of his blackness."[153] The 1952 season was the last year Robinson was an everyday starter at second base. Afterward, Robinson played variously at first, second, and third bases, shortstop, and in the outfield, with Jim Gilliam, another black player, taking over everyday second base duties.[131] Robinson's interests began to shift toward the prospect of managing a major league team. He had hoped to gain experience by managing in the Puerto Rican Winter League, but according to the New York Post, Commissioner Happy Chandler denied the request.[154]

In 1953, Robinson had 109 runs, a .329 batting average, and 17 steals,[131] leading the Dodgers to another National League pennant (and another World Series loss to the Yankees, this time in six games). Robinson's continued success spawned a string of death threats.[155] He was not dissuaded, however, from addressing racial issues publicly. That year, he served as editor for Our Sports magazine, a periodical focusing on Negro sports issues; contributions to the magazine included an article on golf course segregation by Robinson's old friend Joe Louis.[156][157] Robinson also openly criticized segregated hotels and restaurants that served the Dodger organization; a number of these establishments integrated as a result, including the five-star Chase Park Hotel in St. Louis.[120][158]

World Championship and retirement (1954–1956)

In 1954, Robinson had 62 runs, a .311 batting average, and 7 steals. His best day at the plate was on June 17, when he hit two home runs and two doubles.[131][132] The following autumn, Robinson won his only championship when the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series. Although the team enjoyed ultimate success, 1955 was the worst year of Robinson's individual career. He hit .256 and stole only 12 bases. The Dodgers tried Robinson in the outfield and as a third baseman, both because of his diminishing abilities and because Gilliam was established at second base.[159] Robinson, then 37 years old, missed 49 games and did not play in Game 7 of the World Series.[150] Robinson missed the game because manager Walter Alston decided to play Gilliam at second and Don Hoak at third base. That season, the Dodgers' Don Newcombe became the first black major league pitcher to win twenty games in a year.[160]

In 1956, Robinson had 61 runs, a .275 batting average, and 12 steals.[131] By then, he had begun to exhibit the effects of diabetes, and to lose interest in the prospect of playing or managing professional baseball.[161] After the season, Robinson was traded by the Dodgers to the arch-rival New York Giants for Dick Littlefield and $35,000 cash. The trade, however, was never completed; unbeknownst to the Dodgers, Robinson had already agreed with the president of Chock full o'Nuts to quit baseball and become an executive with the company.[162] Since Robinson had sold exclusive rights to any retirement story to Look magazine two years previously,[162] his retirement decision was revealed through the magazine, instead of through the Dodgers organization.[163]

Legacy

Further information: Racial integration in baseball

Robinson's major league debut brought an end to approximately sixty years of segregation in professional baseball, known as the baseball color line.[113] After World War II, several other forces were also leading the country toward increased equality for blacks, including the accelerated migration of African-Americans to the North, where their political clout grew, and President Harry Truman's desegregation of the military in 1948.[164] Robinson's breaking of the baseball color line and his professional success symbolized these broader changes and demonstrated that the fight for equality was more than simply a political matter. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that he was "a legend and a symbol in his own time", and that he "challenged the dark skies of intolerance and frustration."[165] According to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Robinson's "efforts were a monumental step in the civil-rights revolution in America ... [His] accomplishments allowed black and white Americans to be more respectful and open to one another and more appreciative of everyone's abilities."[166]

Beginning his major league career at the relatively advanced age of twenty-eight, he played only ten seasons, all of them for the Brooklyn Dodgers.[167] During his career, the Dodgers played in six World Series, and Robinson himself played in six All-Star Games.[6] In 1999, he was posthumously named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.[168]

Robinson's career is generally considered to mark the beginning of the post–"long ball" era in baseball, in which a reliance on raw power-hitting gave way to balanced offensive strategies that used footspeed to create runs through aggressive baserunning.[169] Robinson exhibited the combination of hitting ability and speed which exemplified the new era. He scored more than 100 runs in six of his ten seasons (averaging more than 110 runs from 1947 to 1953), had a .311 career batting average, a .409 career on-base percentage, a .474 slugging percentage, and substantially more walks than strikeouts (740 to 291).[131][167][170] Robinson was one of only two players during the span of 1947–56 to accumulate at least 125 steals while registering a slugging percentage over .425 (Minnie Miñoso was the other).[171] He accumulated 197 stolen bases in total,[131] including 19 steals of home. None of the latter were double steals (in which a player stealing home is assisted by a player stealing another base at the same time).[172] Robinson has been referred to by author David Falkner as "the father of modern base-stealing."[173]

I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me ... all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.
—Robinson[124]

Historical statistical analysis indicates Robinson was an outstanding fielder throughout his ten years in the major leagues and at virtually every position he played.[174] After playing his rookie season at first base,[80] Robinson spent most of his career as a second baseman.[175] He led the league in fielding among second basemen in 1950 and 1951.[176][177] Toward the end of his career, he played about 2,000 innings at third base and about 1,175 innings in the outfield, excelling at both.[174]

Assessing himself, Robinson said, "I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me ... all I ask is that you respect me as a human being."[124] Regarding Robinson's qualities on the field, Leo Durocher said, "Ya want a guy that comes to play. This guy didn't just come to play. He come to beat ya. He come to stuff the goddamn bat right up your ass."[178]

Post-baseball life

A black man with his arm around a black boy speaks into a microphone held by a person out of view.
Robinson and his son David (then age 11) are interviewed during the March on Washington, August 28, 1963.

Robinson retired from baseball on January 5, 1957.[179] Later that year, after he complained of numerous physical ailments, his doctors diagnosed Robinson with diabetes, a disease that also affected his brothers.[180] Although Robinson adopted an insulin injection regimen, the state of medicine at the time could not prevent continued deterioration of Robinson's physical condition from the disease.[181]

In his first year of eligibility for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962,[60] Robinson encouraged voters to consider only his on-field qualifications, rather than his cultural impact on the game.[182] He was elected on the first ballot, becoming the first African-American inducted into the Cooperstown museum.[20]

In 1965, Robinson served as an analyst for ABC's Major League Baseball Game of the Week telecasts, the first black person to do so.[183] On June 4, 1972, the Dodgers retired his uniform number, 42, alongside those of Roy Campanella (39) and Sandy Koufax (32).[184] From 1957 to 1964, Robinson was the vice president for personnel at Chock full o'Nuts; he was the first black person to serve as vice president of a major American corporation.[20][185] Robinson always considered his business career as advancing the cause of African-Americans in commerce and industry.[186] Robinson also chaired the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) million-dollar Freedom Fund Drive in 1957, and served on the organization's board until 1967.[185] In 1964, he helped found, with Harlem businessman Dunbar McLaurin, Freedom National Bank – an African-American-owned and operated commercial bank based in Harlem.[185] He also served as the bank's first Chairman of the Board.[187] In 1970, Robinson established the Jackie Robinson Construction Company to build housing for low-income families.[185][188]

Robinson was active in politics throughout his post-baseball life. He identified himself as a political independent[189][190] although he held conservative opinions on several issues, including the Vietnam War (he once wrote Martin Luther King, Jr. to defend the Johnson Administration's military policy).[191] After supporting Richard Nixon in his 1960 presidential race against John F. Kennedy, Robinson later praised Kennedy effusively for his stance on civil rights.[192] He subsequently supported Hubert Humphrey against Nixon in 1968.[163] In 1964, Robinson became one of six national directors for Nelson Rockefeller's Republican presidential campaign and later became special assistant for community affairs when Rockefeller was re-elected governor of New York in 1966.[185]

Robinson made his final public appearance on October 15, 1972, throwing the ceremonial first pitch before Game 2 of the World Series. He gratefully accepted a plaque honoring the twenty-fifth anniversary of his MLB debut. Not realizing that managers no longer served as third base coaches, he said in his speech, "I'm going to be tremendously more pleased and more proud when I look at that third base coaching line one day and see a black face managing in baseball."[193] This wish was fulfilled only after Robinson's death: following the 1974 season, the Cleveland Indians gave their managerial post to Frank Robinson (no relation), a Hall of Fame-bound player who would go on to manage three other teams. Despite the success of these two Robinsons and other black players, the number of African-American players in Major League Baseball has declined since the 1970s.[194]

Family life and death

After Robinson's retirement from baseball, his wife, Rachel Robinson, pursued a career in academic nursing – she became an assistant professor at the Yale School of Nursing and director of nursing at the Connecticut Mental Health Center.[195] She also served on the board of the Freedom National Bank until it closed in 1990.[196] She and Jackie had three children: Jackie Robinson Jr. (born November 18, 1946), Sharon Robinson (born January 13, 1950), and David Robinson (born May 14, 1952).[197]

Three Robinson family gravestones are placed next to a larger family headstone with the quotation "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives," inscribed with Robinson's signature
Robinson's family gravesite in Cypress Hills Cemetery. Robinson is buried alongside his mother-in-law Zellee Isum and his son Jackie Robinson, Jr.

Robinson's eldest son, Jackie Robinson Jr., had emotional trouble during his childhood and entered special education at an early age.[198] He enrolled in the Army in search of a disciplined environment, served in the Vietnam War, and was wounded in action on November 19, 1965.[199] After his discharge, he struggled with drug problems. Robinson Jr. eventually completed the treatment program at Daytop Village in Seymour, Connecticut, and became a counselor at the institution.[200] On June 17, 1971, at the age of 24, he was killed in an automobile accident.[201][202] The experience with his son's drug addiction turned Robinson, Sr. into an avid anti-drug crusader toward the end of his life.[203]

Robinson did not long outlive his son. Complications of heart disease and diabetes weakened Robinson and made him almost blind by middle age. On October 24, 1972, he died of a heart attack at home in Stamford, Connecticut, aged fifty-three.[80][201] Robinson's funeral service on October 27, 1972, at New York City's Riverside Church attracted 2,500 admirers.[204] Many of his former teammates and other famous black baseball players served as pallbearers, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson gave the eulogy.[204] Tens of thousands of people lined the subsequent procession route to Robinson's interment site at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, where he is buried next to his son Jackie and mother-in-law Zellee Isum.[204] Jackie Robinson Parkway also runs through the cemetery.[205]

After Robinson's death, his widow founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation, of which she remains an officer as of 2009.[80][206] On April 15, 2008, she announced that in 2010 the foundation will be opening a museum devoted to Jackie in Lower Manhattan.[207] Robinson's daughter, Sharon, became a midwife, educator, director of educational programming for MLB, and the author of two books about her father.[208] His youngest son, David, who has ten children, is a coffee grower and social activist in Tanzania.[209]

Awards and recognition

According to a poll conducted in 1947, Robinson was the second most popular man in the country, behind Bing Crosby.[210] In 1999, he was named by Time magazine on its list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.[211] Also in 1999, he ranked number 44 on the Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team as the top vote-getter among second basemen.[212][213] Baseball writer Bill James, in the The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, ranked Robinson as the 32nd greatest player of all time strictly on the basis of his performance on the field, noting that he was one of the top players in the league throughout his career.[214] Robinson was among the 25 charter members of UCLA’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 1984.[40] In 2002, Molefi Kete Asante included Robinson on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[215] Robinson has also been honored by the United States Postal Service on three separate postage stamps, in 1982, 1999, and 2000.[216]

The City of Pasadena has recognized Robinson in several ways. Brookside Park, situated next to the Rose Bowl, features a baseball diamond and stadium named Jackie Robinson Field.[217] The city's Human Services Department operates the Jackie Robinson Center, a community outreach center that provides early diabetes detection and other services.[218] In 1997, a $325,000 bronze sculpture by artists Ralph Helmick, Stu Schecter, and John Outterbridge depicting oversized nine-foot busts of Robinson and his brother Mack was erected at Garfield Avenue, across from the main entrance of Pasadena City Hall; a granite footprint lists multiple donors to the commission project, which was organized by the Robinson Memorial Foundation and supported by members of the Robinson family.[219][220]

An eight-foot blue sculpture of a stylized uniform number, 42, set atop a polished interior walkway
Memorial in the Jackie Robinson Rotunda inside Citi Field, dedicated April 15, 2009

MLB has honored Robinson many times since his death. In 1987, both the National and American League Rookie of the Year Awards were renamed the "Jackie Robinson Award" in honor of the first recipient (Robinson's Major League Rookie of the Year Award in 1947 encompassed both leagues).[221][222] On April 15, 1997, Robinson's jersey number, 42, was retired by Major League Baseball; no future player on any major league team can wear it. The number was retired in ceremonies at Shea Stadium to mark the 50th anniversary of Robinson's first game with the Dodgers.[223] A handful of players who wore number 42 as a salute to Robinson, such as the Mets' Butch Huskey and Boston's Mo Vaughn, were allowed to continue to use the number by means of a grandfather clause.[224] The Yankees' Mariano Rivera is the last player in the major leagues to wear jersey number 42 on a regular basis.[225]

As an exception to the retired-number policy, MLB has recently begun honoring Robinson by allowing players to wear number 42 on April 15, Jackie Robinson Day. For the 60th anniversary of Robinson's major league debut, MLB invited players to wear the number 42 on Jackie Robinson Day in 2007. The gesture was originally the idea of outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr., who sought Rachel Robinson's permission to wear the number.[226] After receiving her permission, Commissioner Bud Selig not only allowed Griffey to wear the number, but also extended an invitation to all major league teams to do the same.[227] Ultimately, more than 200 players wore number 42, including the entire rosters of the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, and Pittsburgh Pirates.[228] The tribute was continued in 2008, when, during games on April 15, all members of the Mets, Cardinals, Washington Nationals, and Tampa Bay Rays wore Robinson's number 42.[229] On June 25, 2008, MLB installed a new plaque for Robinson at the Baseball Hall of Fame commemorating his off-the-field impact on the game as well as his playing statistics.[182] In 2009, all uniformed personnel (players, managers, coaches, and umpires) wore number 42 on April 15.[230]

Building facade with interior window treatments reading "The Jackie Robinson Museum"
Headquarters of the Jackie Robinson Foundation and future home of the Jackie Robinson Museum and Learning Center

At the November 2006 groundbreaking for a new ballpark for the New York Mets, Citi Field, it was announced that the main entrance, modeled on the one in Brooklyn's old Ebbets Field, would be called the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. The rotunda was dedicated at the opening of Citi Field on April 16, 2009.[231] It honors Robinson with large quotations spanning the inner curve of the facade and features a large freestanding statue of his number, 42, which has become an attraction in itself. Mets owner Fred Wilpon announced that, in conjunction with Citigroup and the Jackie Robinson Foundation, the Mets will create a Jackie Robinson Museum and Learning Center, located at the headquarters of the Jackie Robinson Foundation at One Hudson Square in lower Manhattan. The main purpose of the museum will be to fund scholarships for "young people who live by and embody Jackie's ideals."[232][233]

Robinson has also been recognized outside of baseball. In December 1956, the NAACP recognized him with the Spingarn Medal, which it awards annually for the highest achievement by an African-American.[185] President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded Robinson the Presidential Medal of Freedom on March 26, 1984,[234] and on March 2, 2005, President George W. Bush gave Robinson's widow the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award bestowed by Congress; Robinson was only the second baseball player to receive the award, after Roberto Clemente.[235] On August 20, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, announced that Robinson was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento.[236]

Black woman holding aloft award presented by President George W. Bush and two other dignitaries
Rachel Robinson (third from left) accepts the posthumous Congressional Gold Medal for her husband from President George W. Bush in a March 2, 2005 ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. Also pictured are Nancy Pelosi (left) and Dennis Hastert (right).

A number of buildings have been named in Robinson's honor. The UCLA Bruins baseball team plays in Jackie Robinson Stadium,[237] which, because of the efforts of Jackie's brother Mack, features a memorial statue of Robinson by sculptor Richard H. Ellis.[238] City Island Ballpark in Daytona Beach, Florida – the baseball field that became the Dodgers' de facto spring training site in 1947 – was renamed Jackie Robinson Ballpark in 1989.[239] The New York Public School system has named a middle school after Robinson,[240] and Dorsey High School plays at a Los Angeles football stadium named after him.[241] In 1976, his home in Brooklyn, the Jackie Robinson House, was declared a National Historic Landmark.[242] Robinson also has an asteroid named after him, 4319 Jackierobinson.[243]

Career statistics

Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP E
1945 Kansas City 47 163 36 63 14 4 5 23 13 .387
1946 Montreal 124 444 113 155 25 8 3 66 40 92 27 .349 10
1947 Brooklyn 151 590 125 175 31 5 12 48 29 74 36 .297 .383 .427 252 28 9 5 16
1948 Brooklyn 147 574 108 170 38 8 12 85 22 57 37 .296 .367 .453 260 8 7 7 15
1949 Brooklyn 156 593 122 203 38 12 16 124 37 86 27 .342 .432 .528 313 17 8 22 16
1950 Brooklyn 144 518 99 170 39 4 14 81 12 80 24 .328 .423 .500 259 10 5 11 11
1951 Brooklyn 153 548 106 185 33 7 19 88 25 8 79 27 .338 .429 .527 289 6 9 10 7
1952 Brooklyn 149 510 104 157 17 3 19 75 24 7 106 40 .308 .440 .465 237 6 14 16 20
1953 Brooklyn 136 484 109 159 34 7 12 95 17 4 74 30 .329 .425 .502 243 9 7 12 6
1954 Brooklyn 124 386 62 120 22 4 15 59 7 3 63 20 .311 .413 .505 195 5 4* 7 13 7
1955 Brooklyn 105 317 51 81 6 2 8 36 12 3 61 18 .256 .378 .363 115 6 3 5** 3 8 10
1956 Brooklyn 117 357 61 98 15 2 10 43 12 5 60 32 .275 .382 .412 147 9 2 2 3 9 9
Totals Brooklyn 1382 4877 947 1518 273 54 137 734 197 740 291 .311 .409 .474 2310 104 9 7 72 113 107
Career 1553 5494 1096 1736 342 67 161 867 248 .316 9 7

Sources:[131][244]

(*) Note: The sacrifice fly (SF) as a unique statistical category did not exist in Major League Baseball from 1940 through 1953. Any pre-1954 sacrifice flies by Robinson would be reflected in the sacrifice hit (SH) category.

(**) Note: Likewise, the intentional walk (IBB) category only became a unique statistic beginning in 1955.[245] Any intentional walks issued to Robinson before that year would be reflected in the walk (BB) category.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Clark, Dick; Lester, Larry, eds (1994). The Negro Leagues Book. Cleveland: Society for American Baseball Research. pp. 250–251. ISBN 0910137552. 
  2. ^ Lamb, p. 6.
  3. ^ a b Loewen, James W. (1995). Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 163. ISBN 156584100X. 
  4. ^ Glasser, Ira (2003). "Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson: precursors of the civil rights movement". World & I 18 (3): 257–273. http://www.worldandi.com/newhome/public/2003/march/mtpub.asp. Retrieved September 14, 2009. 
  5. ^ a b Hill, Justice B. (April 15, 2008). "One meeting, two men, a changed world". MLB.com. http://mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080415&content_id=2529821. Retrieved September 14, 2009. 
  6. ^ a b "Jackie Robinson statistics and history". Baseball-Reference.com. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/robinja02.shtml. Retrieved September 4, 2009. 
  7. ^ Nemec & Flatow, p. 201.
  8. ^ Rampersad, p. 15.
  9. ^ Bigelow, p. 225.
  10. ^ Eig, p. 7.
  11. ^ "White House dream team: Jackie Roosevelt Robinson". Whitehousekids.gov. January 20, 2002. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/kids/dreamteam/jackierobinson.html. Retrieved September 14, 2009. 
  12. ^ Rampersad, pp. 15–18
  13. ^ "Biography". Official Site of Jackie Robinson. http://www.jackierobinson.com/about/bio.html. Retrieved April 9, 2009. 
  14. ^ a b c Robinson, Jackie, p. 9.
  15. ^ Eig, p. 8.
  16. ^ a b Robinson, Rachel, p. 17.
  17. ^ Rampersad, pp. 33–35.
  18. ^ a b Eig, p. 10.
  19. ^ Rampersad, p. 36.
  20. ^ a b c d "Jackie Robinson biography". The Biography Channel. http://www.biography.com/articles/Jackie-Robinson-9460813?print. Retrieved September 12, 2009. 
  21. ^ a b c Robinson, Rachel, p. 20.
  22. ^ Rampersad, pp. 36–37.
  23. ^ a b Rampersad, p. 37.
  24. ^ Rampersad, p. 39.
  25. ^ Rampersad, pp. 40–41.
  26. ^ Falkner, p. 44.
  27. ^ Stone, Bob (November 23, 1945). "Sports: Jackie Robinson" (PDF). Yank, the Army Weekly 4 (23). 
  28. ^ Rampersad, p. 47.
  29. ^ Rampersad, p. 54.
  30. ^ Rampersad, pp. 59–60.
  31. ^ a b Linge, p. 18.
  32. ^ Rampersad, pp. 50–51.
  33. ^ Falkner, p. 51.
  34. ^ Falkner, p. 49.
  35. ^ Eig, p. 11.
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  37. ^ Violett, B.J. (1997). "Teammates Recall Jackie Robinson's Legacy". UCLA Today. http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/970425TeammatesRecall.aspx. Retrieved October 12, 2008. 
  38. ^ "Kenny Washington". Encyclopædia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-9389095. Retrieved October 12, 2008. 
  39. ^ Demas, Lane (2007). "Beyond Jackie Robinson: racial integration in American college football and new directions in sport history". History Compass 5 (2): 675–690. doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2007.00412.x. 
  40. ^ a b "Jackie Robinson UCLA Biography". UCLA Athletics. http://spotlight.ucla.edu/alumni/jackie-robinson/. Retrieved April 13, 2009. 
  41. ^ Robinson, Jackie, pp. 10–11.
  42. ^ Sources point to various reasons for Robinson's departure from UCLA. Family sources cite financial concerns. "Biography". Official Site of Jackie Robinson. http://www.jackierobinson.com/about/bio.html. Retrieved April 9, 2009.  In addition, Robinson himself cited his growing disillusionment about the value of a college degree for a black man of his era. Robinson, Jackie, p. 11. Other sources suggest that Robinson was uninterested in academics, and behind on class work at the time he left UCLA. Falkner, p. 45; Eig, p. 13.
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  44. ^ Linge, p. xiii.
  45. ^ a b Robinson, Jackie, p. 12.
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  51. ^ Rampersad, p. 91.
  52. ^ Editors of Time for Kids; with Patrick, Denise Lewis (2005). Jackie Robinson: Strong Inside and Out. New York: HarperCollins. p. 11. ISBN 0060576014. 
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  71. ^ Bryant, p. 30.
  72. ^ Robinson, Jackie, p. 25.
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  75. ^ a b Bryant, p. 31.
  76. ^ Simon, pp. 46–47.
  77. ^ "The Boston Red Sox and Racism with New Owners, Team Confronts Legacy of Intolerance". National Public Radio. 2002. http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/oct/redsox/. Retrieved April 10, 2008. 
  78. ^ O'Connell, Jack (April 13, 2007). "Robinson's many peers follow his lead". MLB.com. http://mlbnetwork.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070412&content_id=1895202&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb. Retrieved July 6, 2009. 
  79. ^ Povich, Shirley (March 28, 1997). "The Ball Stayed White, but the Game Did Not". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/general/povich/launch/jackier.htm. Retrieved October 12, 2008. 
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  81. ^ a b Robinson, Jackie, p. 33.
  82. ^ Rampersad, p. 127.
  83. ^ a b Robinson, Jackie, p. 34.
  84. ^ Rampersad, pp. 127–128.
  85. ^ Lamb, p. 43.
  86. ^ Rampersad, p. 129.
  87. ^ Tygiel, p. 79.
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  91. ^ Tygiel (2002), p. 28.
  92. ^ Robinson, Jackie, p. 37.
  93. ^ Linge, p. 49.
  94. ^ Robinson, Jackie, p. 38.
  95. ^ Lamb, p. 93.
  96. ^ Robinson, Jackie, p. 41.
  97. ^ McNeil, pp. 358–359.
  98. ^ Lamb, p. 88.
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  102. ^ Lamb, p. 140.
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  106. ^ Tygiel (1983), pp. 3, 7
  107. ^ Simon, p. 97.
  108. ^ Linge, p. 54.
  109. ^ a b Swaine, Rick. "SABR Biography of Jackie Robinson". Society for American Baseball Research. http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=2379&pid=12074. Retrieved May 27, 2009. 
  110. ^ Tygiel, pp. 163–164.
  111. ^ Rampersad, pp. 158–159.
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  199. ^ Robinson, Rachel, p. 200.
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  209. ^ "The Way to Sweet Unity". NMH Magazine. http://www.nmhschool.org/magazine/2005_fall/david_robinson.php. Retrieved May 27, 2009. 
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  215. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). "Jackie Robinson". 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, NY: Prometheus. pp. 264–267. ISBN 1573929638. 
  216. ^ "African-American Subjects on United States Postage Stamps" (PDF). United States Postal Service. 2008. http://www.usps.com/postalhistory/_pdf/AfricanAmericanStampSubjects.pdf. Retrieved May 24, 2009.  Images: 1982, 1999, 2000.
  217. ^ "Arroyo Seco". PasadenaHeritage.org. http://www.pasadenaheritage.org/site_info.php?siid=3&id=36. Retrieved September 12, 2009. 
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  219. ^ "Bronze Busts Unveiled in Tribute to Robinson Brothers". Los Angeles Times. November 7, 1997. http://articles.latimes.com/1997/nov/07/local/me-51230. Retrieved May 27, 2009. 
  220. ^ Lehr, Dick (May 20, 1997). "Jackie's still larger than life; Newton sculptor creates 9-foot tribute". Boston Globe. 
  221. ^ "Scorecard: 'Nicely Done'". Sports Illustrated. July 27, 1987. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1066214/index.htm. Retrieved September 13, 2009. 
  222. ^ Bloss, Bob (2005). Rookies of the Year. Temple University Press. pp. 6–7. ISBN 9781592131648. 
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  224. ^ Smith, Claire (April 16, 1997). "A Grand Tribute to Robinson and His Moment". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/specials/baseball/robinson-0416-smith.html. Retrieved October 11, 2008. 
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  226. ^ Stone, Larry (April 15, 2009). "Ken Griffey Jr. on Jackie Robinson and the decline of African-Americans in baseball". Seattle Times. http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/stone/2009/04/15/griffey_on_jackie_robinson_day.html. Retrieved May 27, 2009. 
  227. ^ "Griffey, Jr., others to wear No. 42 as part of Jackie Robinson Day Tribute". MLB.com. April 5, 2007. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20070404&content_id=1879309&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb. Retrieved April 7, 2007. 
  228. ^ Pennington, Bill (April 13, 2007). "A measure of respect for Jackie Robinson turns into a movement". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/sports/baseball/13jackie.html. Retrieved September 13, 2009. 
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  231. ^ "Jackie Robinson Rotunda dedicated at Citi Field". Associated Press. 04-16-2009. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4072441. Retrieved May 27, 2009. 
  232. ^ "Mets honor Robinson at new home". New York Daily News. November 14, 2006. http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2006/11/14/2006-11-14_mets_honor_robinson_at_new_h.html. Retrieved June 30, 2009. 
  233. ^ "Plans Unveiled for Robinson Museum". MLB.com. March 4, 2008. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080304&content_id=2403980&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb. Retrieved July 6, 2009. 
  234. ^ "Announcement of the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. February 21, 1984. http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1984/22184b.htm. Retrieved September 13, 2009. 
  235. ^ "Jackie Robinson receives Congressional Gold Medal". USA Today. March 2, 2005. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2005-03-02-jackie-robinson-medal_x.htm. Retrieved September 13, 2009. 
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References

  • Bigelow, Barbara Carlisle, ed (1994). Contemporary Black Biography: Profiles from the International Black Community. 6. Detroit: Gale Research. p. 225. ISBN 0810385589. 
  • Bryant, Howard (2002). Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston. New York: Routledge. ISBN 041592779X. 
  • Dorinson, Joseph; Warmund, Joram, eds (1999). Jackie Robinson: Race, Sports, and the American Dream. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0765603179. 
  • Eig, Jonathan (2007). Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743294602. 
  • Falkner, David (1995). Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson, from Baseball to Birmingham. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671793365. 
  • Gutman, Dan (1999). Jackie & Me: A Baseball Card Adventure. New York: Avon. p. 146. ISBN 0380800845. 
  • Kirwin, Bill (2005). Out of the Shadows: African American Baseball from the Cuban Giants to Jackie Robinson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 080327825X. 
  • Lamb, Chris (2006). Blackout: The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson's First Spring Training. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803280475. 
  • Linge, Mary Kay (2007). Jackie Robinson: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313338280. 
  • Long, Michael G., ed (2007). First Class Citizenship: the Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0805087109. 
  • McNeil, William F. (2000). The Dodgers Encyclopedia. Sports Publishing. ISBN 1582613168. 
  • Nemec, David; Flatow, Scott (2008). Great Baseball Feats, Facts & Firsts (expanded & updated ed.). New York: Signet. ISBN 0451223632. 
  • Rampersad, Arnold (1997). Jackie Robinson: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0679444955. 
  • Robinson, Jackie; as told to Duckett, Alfred (1995) [1972]. I Never Had It Made. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060555971. 
  • Robinson, Rachel; with Daniels, Lee (1996). Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0810937921. 
  • Robinson, Sharon (2001). Jackie's Nine: Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By. New York: Scholastic. ISBN 0439237645. 
  • Robinson, Sharon (2004). Promises To Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America. New York: Scholastic. ISBN 0439425921. 
  • Simon, Scott (2002). Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball. Hoboken: Wiley. ISBN 047126153X. 
  • Stout, Glenn; Richard A. Johnson (phot. ed.) (2004). The Dodgers: 120 Years of Dodgers Baseball. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780618213559. 
  • Tygiel, Jules (1983). Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195033000. 
  • Tygiel, Jules (2002). Extra Bases: Reflections on Jackie Robinson, Race, and Baseball History. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803294479. 
  • Williams, Pat; with Sielski, Mike (2005). How to Be Like Jackie Robinson: Life Lessons from Baseball's Greatest Hero. Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI. ISBN 0757301738. 

External links

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Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Pete Reiser
Richie Ashburn		 National League Stolen Base Champion
1947
1949		 Succeeded by
Richie Ashburn
Sam Jethroe
Preceded by
First Winner		 Major League Rookie of the Year
1947		 Succeeded by
Alvin Dark
Preceded by
Stan Musial		 National League Most Valuable Player
1949		 Succeeded by
Jim Konstanty
Preceded by
Stan Musial		 National League Batting Champion
1949		 Succeeded by
Stan Musial
v • d • e
Brooklyn Dodgers 1955 World Series Champions
1 Pee Wee Reese | 4 Duke Snider | 6 Carl Furillo | 8 George Shuba | 10 Rube Walker | 12 Frank Kellert | 14 Gil Hodges | 15 Sandy Amorós | 17 Carl Erskine | 19 Jim Gilliam | 23 Don Zimmer | 30 Billy Loes | 32 Sandy Koufax | 34 Russ Meyer | 36 Don Newcombe | 37 Ed Roebuck | 39 Roy Campanella | 40 Roger Craig | 41 Clem Labine | 42 Jackie Robinson | 43 Don Hoak | 45 Johnny Podres (World Series MVP) | 46 Don Bessent | 48 Karl Spooner | 52 Dixie Howell
Manager 24 Walter Alston
Coaches: 22 Billy Herman | 31 Jake Pitler | 33 Joe Becker
Regular season
v • d • e
National League Rookie of the Year Award
1947: J. Robinson | 1948: Dark | 1949: Newcombe | 1950: Jethroe | 1951: Mays | 1952: Black | 1953: Gilliam | 1954: Moon | 1955: Virdon | 1956: F. Robinson | 1957: Sanford | 1958: Cepeda | 1959: McCovey | 1960: F. Howard | 1961: B. Williams | 1962: Hubbs | 1963: Rose | 1964: Allen | 1965: Lefebvre | 1966: Helms | 1967: Seaver | 1968: Bench | 1969: Sizemore | 1970: Morton | 1971: E. Williams | 1972: Matlack | 1973: Matthews | 1974: McBride | 1975: Montefusco | 1976: Metzger / Zachry | 1977: Dawson | 1978: Horner | 1979: Sutcliffe | 1980: Howe | 1981: Valenzuela | 1982: Sax | 1983: Strawberry | 1984: Gooden | 1985: Coleman | 1986: Worrell | 1987: Santiago | 1988: Sabo | 1989: Walton | 1990: Justice | 1991: Bagwell | 1992: Karros | 1993: Piazza | 1994: Mondesi | 1995: Nomo | 1996: Hollandsworth | 1997: Rolen | 1998: Wood | 1999: Williamson | 2000: Furcal | 2001: Pujols | 2002: Jennings | 2003: Willis | 2004: Bay | 2005: R. Howard | 2006: Ramírez | 2007: Braun | 2008: Soto
v • d • e
National League MVP Award
1931: Frisch | 1932: Klein | 1933: Hubbell | 1934: Dean | 1935: Hartnett | 1936: Hubbell | 1937: Medwick | 1938: Lombardi | 1939: Walters | 1940: McCormick | 1941: Camilli | 1942: Cooper | 1943: Musial | 1944: Marion | 1945: Cavarretta | 1946: Musial | 1947: Elliott | 1948: Musial | 1949: J. Robinson | 1950: Konstanty | 1951: Campanella | 1952: Sauer | 1953: Campanella | 1954: Mays | 1955: Campanella | 1956: Newcombe | 1957: Aaron | 1958: Banks | 1959: Banks | 1960: Groat | 1961: F. Robinson | 1962: Wills | 1963: Koufax | 1964: Boyer | 1965: Mays | 1966: Clemente | 1967: Cepeda | 1968: B. Gibson | 1969: McCovey | 1970: Bench | 1971: Torre | 1972: Bench | 1973: Rose | 1974: Garvey | 1975: Morgan | 1976: Morgan | 1977: Foster | 1978: Parker | 1979: Hernandez & Stargell | 1980: Schmidt | 1981: Schmidt | 1982: Murphy | 1983: Murphy | 1984: Sandberg | 1985: McGee | 1986: Schmidt | 1987: Dawson | 1988: K. Gibson | 1989: Mitchell | 1990: Bonds | 1991: Pendleton | 1992: Bonds | 1993: Bonds | 1994: Bagwell | 1995: Larkin | 1996: Caminiti | 1997: Walker | 1998: Sosa | 1999: Jones | 2000: Kent | 2001: Bonds | 2002: Bonds | 2003: Bonds | 2004: Bonds | 2005: Pujols | 2006: Howard | 2007: Rollins | 2008: Pujols
v • d • e
Major League Baseball All-Century Team
Pitchers
Infielders
Outfielders
v • d • e
Los Angeles Dodgers retired numbers
#1 Pee Wee Reese • #2 Tommy Lasorda • #4 Duke Snider • #19 Jim Gilliam • #20 Don Sutton • #24 Walter Alston • #32 Sandy Koufax • #39 Roy Campanella • #42 Jackie Robinson • #53 Don Drysdale
v • d • e
Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1962
BBWAA Vote
Bob Feller (93.75) • Jackie Robinson (77.5%)
Veterans Committee
v • d • e
Second basemen in the National Baseball Hall of Fame
Carew • Collins • Doerr • Evers • Fox • Frisch • Gehringer • Gordon • Grant • Herman • Hornsby • Lajoie • Lazzeri • Mazeroski • McPhee • Morgan • Robinson • Sandberg • Schoendienst
v • d • e
Major League Baseball on ABC
Related programs
Related articles
Commentators
Key figures
Lore
League Championship Series
1976 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1978 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1980 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1982 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1984 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1986 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1988 (ALCS/NLCS) · 1995 (ALCS/NLCS)
League Division Series
1981 (ALDS) · 1995 (ALDS/NLDS)
All-Star Games
1976 · 1978 · 1980 · 1982 · 1984 · 1986 · 1988 · 1995
World Series
1948 · 1949 · 1977 · 1979 · 1981 · 1983 · 1985 · 1987 · 1989 · 1995

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