Jackie Robinson - 64 years ago today

[dhermann1]

I just noticed that everybody in the Yankees - Rangers game tonight was wearing number 42. I quickly remembered that I had seen in the news that today was the 64th anniversary of the day the Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play baseball in the Major Leagues.
It has been said that if you would know America you must know baseball. If you're not an American the significance of this event might not be apparent. But it was a major moment in our history.
Great man, great American, great ball player, Jackie Robinson.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I had the pleasure once of interviewing Clyde Sukeforth -- the Dodger scout who was responsible for bringing Robinson and club president Branch Rickey togehter, and who was the only eyewitness to their historic first meeting -- and even forty years after the fact his eyes lit up as he told the story. What impressed him most was not Robinson's skill as a ballplayer, but his absolutely unshakable integrity and character as a man, as a human being. Those are the traits that need most to be remembered today -- I can't help but contrast Robinson's character with that of some of the prominent modern day ballplayers who make more headlines in the courtroom than in the ballfield.

Sukey -- a crotchety old blueberry farmer from Maine -- was also the Dodger manager for Robinson's first game.

 

[dhermann1]

My mom was a big Dodger fan in those days, went to Ebbets Field all the time. She always used to talk about how Jackie would get on base and take a huge lead, and make the pitcher crazy with the threat to steal. It was always exciting with Jackie Robinson in the game.

 

[Tomasso]

There were two ball players who broke the color line in '47 but Jackie reaps all the glory because he started 11 weeks earlier. That little know player was also the second black manager as well. He also had to wait for the veterans committee to get into the Hall.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Even more forgotten than Larry Doby -- a very fine ballplayer who remained in the major leagues until 1962 -- are the third and fourth African-Americans to integrate big-league ball in 1947.

Negro League stars Hank Thompson and Willard Brown joined the St. Louis Browns in July, flopped, and were cut at the end of August. The pressure was simply too much for them, even though they were both fine players -- Thompson went on to become a solid performer for the Giants in the early fifties, and Brown is in the Hall of Fame for his Negro League exploits. One reason why they flopped might be that St. Louis was not Brooklyn or Cleveland in terms of racial openness -- it was the Southernmost city in the major leagues, and the cross-town Cardinals had even threatened to go on strike earlier in the season rather than play on the same field as Robinson. But the Brownies deserve credit, nonetheless, for being willing to take a chance that thirteen other major league clubs were not willing to take in 1947. The Cardinals didn't integrate until 1954.

 

[Tomasso]

And let's not forget Pee Wee Reese...............

At Reese's funeral, Joe Black, another major league baseball black pioneer, said,
"Pee Wee helped make my boyhood dream come true to play in the majors, the World Series. When Pee Wee reached out to Jackie, all of us in the Negro League smiled and said it was the first time that a white guy had accepted us. When I finally got up to Brooklyn, I went to Pee Wee and said, 'Black people love you. When you touched Jackie, you touched all of us.' With Pee Wee, it was No. 1 on his uniform and No. 1 in our hearts."