The few days back American baseball celebrated Jackie Robinson Day, #42 to honor the first Black major league baseball player. Most folks have heard about Jackie but many do not know how truly amazing he was, as a person, ballplayer, and American citizen. Although I was never really a baseball player, I grew up fully aware and in awe of this young man who revolutionized the “American Pastime.” Most people do not know that Robinson was a truly outstanding all-around three-sport athlete at UCLA before breaking into fully segregated American baseball right after serving in the army during World War Two.
It is often surprising for some to learn that West Coast universities were largely integrated in the 1930s before the war. At the first of his baseball career Jackie played for a minor league team, the Montreal Royals. But then the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Ricky, signed him to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1941. Although Robinson had already established himself as a great athlete (he long-jumped over 25 feet in college and played varsity football, basketball, as well as baseball. Nonetheless, there had never been a Black player in the Major Leagues. Before the that Jackie served in the Army during World War Two
Branch Ricky made Robinson understand that he would simply have to ignore and swallow all the abuse he would receive from rival players and fans. He was abused greatly as a Negro both off and on the field, but basically, he learned to swallow and endure all the racial slurs and monkey imitations, etc.
Robinson found this very difficult, but he tried his best to do so, in spite of being razzed and ridiculed by rival players, he simply went out and played very outstanding baseball, which earned him the “Rookie of the Year” award. He was faster than almost all the other players and drove the rival pitchers crazy with his antics on the basepaths. I once saw a newsreel account of the time he turned a bunt into a homerun. He was so fast that the other team’s players kept throwing the ball to the base he had just left in trying to throw him out. He made it all the way home without being tagged.
From then on it was just better and better baseball, and Robinson became a favorite of the Brooklyn fans. As the years went bye he was regularly chosen on the All-Star teams and received many other awards. Jackie Robinson became the most popular Black sport star in America. Along the way he also became a strong spoke-person for national civil rights all over the country. A number of years back the Major League teams set aside a special day every year as “Jackie Robinson Day”, a day on which all the players in both the National and American Leagues wear Jackie’s number, 42, on their uniforms.
Jackie retired after ten years of baseball and devoted his extra time to political activities. He suffered from diabetes and was slowed greatly in his last years. I grew up having great respect for Jackie Robinson, taking his as one of my boy-hood heroes, along with Jesse Owens and the Harlem Globetrotters. There were no black people in my hometown, and I never had any black friends through my school days. It’s funny because I never even played baseball. But for me Jackie Robinson was and stood for everything I was taught to honor and admire. He was then and still is one of my all-time heroes.