Robinson in baseball

“Jackie Robinson Day,” established by Commissioner Bud Selig in 2024, commemorates the arrival in the modern major leagues of the first black player, on April 15, 1947, who ended the repugnant racial barrier in baseball and opened the doors for, in addition to African Americans, all the other minorities who today are part of the beautiful melting pot that is MLB.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson, born in Cairo, Georgia, on January 31, 1919, was the fifth child of Mallie McGriff and Jerry Robinson, who were the children of slaves. Mrs. McGriff moved with her children to Pasadena, California, shortly after Jackie’s birth.

Here are some of the key moments in the story of the sports hero and social symbol called Jackie Robinson.

1- THE MEETING THAT DEFINED A TRANSCENDENTAL CHANGE
Catcher Moses Fleetwood “Fleet” Walker was the first African-American to play in one of the “Major League” circuits, which by a sort of agreement of its executives, were exclusively for white men.

Moses, and later his brother Weldy, played with the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association (AA) league in the 1884 season. Bill White, who appeared in a game for the Providence Grays in 1879, was African American, but because he was light-skinned he acted white for most of his life and thus was able to make the Grays roster.

For a long time, more than one team conceived the idea of drafting some of the best ballplayers in the Negro Leagues, but none had the courage to face all that it would entail. Until Branch Rickey, the visionary co-owner, president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, decided it was time to end the ominous “apartheid” in baseball.

Rickey knew that the first black major leaguer had to be a great ballplayer, but also a superior human being who had the mettle not to crack under the mistreatment he would suffer for daring to invade the white leagues.

On August 28, 1945, Rickey met with Robinson and put him through an endurance test, acting like the bullies the ballplayer and former second lieutenant in the Navy would face, on and off the field.

“Mr. Rickey, do you want a baseball player who is afraid to fight back?” asked Robinson at one point. Rickey replied, “I want a player with enough guts not to fight back.”

2- SIGNING WITH BROOKLYN
The Dodgers officially signed Robinson on October 23, 1945, when they announced that the ballplayer would be assigned to the Montreal Royals branch of the International League (AAA) for the 1946 season. He was 26 years old.

The Dodgers, however, did not immediately report that they were also drafting black pitcher Johny Wright, who was also assigned to Montreal. More than a pitcher, the Dodgers saw in Wright someone who would make Robinson’s load less of a burden.

3- LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
After training in Daytona Beach, Florida, Robinson arrived in Montreal, Canada, for his first season in white professional ball. Although Rickey and the Dodgers were confident that Robinson had the talent to play adequately in the Major Leagues, his performance in AAA would be crucial to the project.

In her book “TRUE: The Four Seasons Of Jackie Robinson,” Kostya Kennedy describes the immediate impact Jackie made for the Royals and the International League:

“By the end of his first stay in Montreal, the Royals had won nine of 10 games. They led the league with a 16-8 record. Robinson, playing every day, was batting .326. He had 13 stolen bases and 26 runs scored, more than one per game.”

At season’s end, Robinson was batting .349 with 40 steals, 92 walks and 113 runs scored. The Royals (100-54) won the league by 18.5 games and captured the championship, beating the Syracuse Chiefs in five games in the finals.

4- MLB DEBUT
On April 15, 1947, at the age of 28, Robinson lined out at second bat and first base for the Dodgers on Opening Day against the Boston Braves in front of 26,623 fans at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. Jackie batted 3-0 with a run scored against Johnny Sain in the Dodgers 5-3 win.

Robinson hit his first hit in the next game, an infield hit by third base in the fifth inning against Glenn Elliott, to begin a string of five-hit games. He finished the season batting .297 with 125 hits, the steals leader (29) and earning the first Rookie of the Year award in both majors.

5- THE GREAT STARDOM

Playing against the best and in uniquely adverse conditions, Robinson put up good numbers in his first two seasons, while still in the process of learning to play professional ball for the Whites. But in 1949, his third season with the Dodgers, he went on to be the best player in baseball.

Robinson won the batting (.342) and steals (37) leaders, scored 122 runs, connected 203 hits (38 doubles, 16 home runs and 12 triples), was elected to his first All-Star Game and won the Most Valuable Player award.

6- BROOKLYN’S ONLY WORLD SERIES
Robinson led the Dodgers to the World Series in four (1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953) of his first seven seasons in the Major Leagues, but unfortunately his team was on the losing side each time, always to the hated neighboring New York Yankees.

It wasn’t really anything new. Despite being one of baseball’s most popular and successful regular-season clubs, the Dodgers slipped in eight of their nine trips to the World Series while in Brooklyn. They also lost in 1916, 1920, 1941 and 1956.

The exception? The 1955 season, masterfully portrayed by reporter and writer Roger Kahn in his 1972 book “The Boys of Summer.”

After going to the All-Star Game for six straight years and contending for MVP each time in his first eight seasons, age and infirmities began to take their toll on Robinson in 1955, when he batted .256 (albeit with a fine .378 OBP) in 105 games.

But the Dodgers won the National League with a 98-55 record, 13 games ahead of the Milwaukee Braves, and again clashed with the Yankees in the fall classic. Robinson hit just 22-4 in the World Series, but his steal of the plate in the eighth inning of Game 1 at Yankee Stadium (which the home team won 6-5) is one of the most memorable images in history.

The Yankees won the first two games at home, but the Dodgers swept the next three in Brooklyn, forcing a return to the Bronx. The Yankees won Game 6 with great pitching by Whitey Ford, sending the series to a seventh and deciding game, in which Johnny Podres pitched an eight-hit shutout to give the Dodgers a 2-0 win in front of 62,465 fans.

The Dodgers lost the World Series the following year to the Yankees in what would be Robinson’s last season in the majors and the team’s penultimate in New York. The Dodgers and their rival New York Giants moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, after 1957.

7- COOPERSTOWN CALL-UP
After the first Hall of Fame election in 1936 (the first ceremony didn’t occur until 1939), no first-year candidates had been elected to Cooperstown, but that changed in 1962, when Robinson and pitcher Bob Feller were endorsed by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA).

Feller, who missed three years of his prime to serve in the military, was named on 93.8% of the ballots, at the time the fourth-highest percentage in history. Robinson received 77.5% of the vote.

8- RETIREMENT OF NUMBER 42
In 1997, on the 50th anniversary of the breaking of the racial barrier, Commissioner Selig announced that Robinson’s number 42 would be retired for life in baseball, although players who wore it at the time would be allowed to continue to do so until their retirements.

Panamanian relief pitcher Mariano Rivera of the Yankees was the last Major League Baseball player to wear No. 42. Rivera, who retired in 2013, is the only player elected to the Hall of Fame with 100% of the vote.

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In 2007, outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. requested permission to be allowed to wear No. 42 on April 15 to celebrate Robinson’s 60th debut birthday. Two years later, all players on all teams began wearing the number 42 to celebrate the historic feat.

9- JACKIE ROBINSON DAY
Commissioner Selig definitively established a day of celebration throughout baseball in memory of Robinson in 2004.