When Jack Roosevelt Robinson was growing up in Pasadena, California as one of four children being raised by a single mother, he had little idea of the tremendous impact his life would have on the game of baseball, and on America itself.
Robinson’s path to professional baseball was a winding one. His athletic prowess became obvious in high school, where he competed in football, basketball, track, and baseball. At UCLA, he became the first athlete to letter in the four aforementioned sports, though baseball was purportedly his “worst sport” while he was there.
He enrolled in the Army in 1942 during World War II, and served until he was honorably discharged in 1944 after being court-martialed for protesting racial discrimination in the service. In early 1945, while serving as the athletic director at Sam Huston college in Austin, Texas, Robinson accepted an offer to play baseball for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues.
That same year, he began pursuing opportunities to play in the Major Leagues. When the Boston Red Sox held tryouts for black players in 1945 (generally viewed as a farce from the start), Robinson attended, and was subjected to racial taunts and epithets. It wasn’t until two years later that the legendary story of Major Leaguer Jackie Robinson most baseball fans already know began.
Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey secretly signed Robinson to a contract in late 1945 after scouting the Negro Leagues for a player who could withstand the cruel, racist abuse that would undoubtedly be hurled his way by both players and fans alike. Famously, Robinson asked him, “Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?” to which Rickey replied that he was looking for a player with the “guts not to fight back.”
After spending a season in the minors, Jackie Robinson made his major league debut at Ebbets Field on April 15, 1947, “breaking the color barrier” and ending over 60 years of racial segregation in baseball. He walked and scored a run in the Dodgers’ 5-3 victory over the Boston Braves.
Over his 10 seasons in baseball (all with the Brooklyn Dodgers) which ended with Game 7 of the 1956 World Series, Robinson’s accomplishments were almost too many to count, though they included:
- 1947 inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year (he hit .297 with 12 HR and 48 RBI in 151 games)
- 1949 NL MVP (he hit .342 with 12 HR and 124 RBI, and led the majors in SB with 37)
- 1949 Batting Title
- 1955 World Series Champion
- 6-time All-Star
- 6 World Series appearances
- An infamous 20 steals of home plate, including one against Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra in Game 1 of the 1955 World Series
- In 1382 games, he posted a career .311 BA, scoring 947 runs on 1518 hits
Robinson famously retired in 1956 after refusing a trade to the New York Giants (making him even more of a hero to Dodgers fans everywhere, both then and now). In 1962, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot, the first black player to be elected.
Robinson died in 1972, mere days after throwing out the first pitch before Game 2 of the 1972 World Series. He was posthumously awarded both the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his accomplishments both on and off the field.
In 1997, MLB retired his number, 42, across all of baseball. Mariano Rivera, allowed to keep wearing 42 until he retired in 2013 (as were all other players who were wearing it at the time) is the last player to ever officially wear it.
However, in 2008, MLB instituted “Jackie Robinson Day,” celebrated across the majors every April 15. For one day each year, every single player embodies an indelible quote from Jackie’s teammate Pee Wee Reese: “Maybe tomorrow, we’ll all wear 42 so they won’t tell us apart.”
Amanda Powers is a writer for Dodgers-LowDown. Follow her on Twitter @geekpowers.
(Photo Credit: Bob Sandberg / Public Domain Image)