A 70-Year Memory: When Baseball Changed!

April 15, 1947

# 42 made his Major League debut.

Baseball helped lead the way 

into a new United States.

Thanks, Jackie Robinson!

# 42/April 15 - Jackie Robinson Day

Jackie Robinson, # 42, played in his first major league game on April 15, Opening Day, 1947.


The United States was forever changed.


Integration, Civil Rights, hinted at as a burning need when the African-American soldiers came home from World War II with fewer freedoms than  the countries they helped free.

Now baseball, the American National Pastime, was integrated.
Just his playing skills would have been enough to get him into the Hall of Fame. Being the first to break the "color barrier" in MLB made it more than about baseball. His character as a human being, unwilling to bend and lower himself, yet never resorting to returning hatred for hatred, shines through these 69 years later.

If you didn't get to see the Ken Burns produced program on PBS on Mr. Robinson, do so. It's more than baseball; it shows what makes the United States who we are- for both better and worse- and calls us to be more than we have been before.

He Made a Big Differemce

April 15 was Opening Day in 1947, Jackie Robinson's first season in the Major Leagues. The festivity is a result of Robinson's memorable career, best known for becoming the first black major league baseball player of the modern era in 1947. His debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended approximately eighty years of baseball segregation, also known as the baseball color line, or color barrier. He also was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, remembered for his services with the number 42 jersey. (Link)

Add This One To The Baseball Movie List

42

A number. Jackie Robinson's number.

The title of the movie about Robinson's year as a rookie with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Mr. Rickey- Branch Rickey- General Manager who took the chance to change the American world.

And succeeded.

It is also about what many of us continue to believe is an American original sin- racism.

We see it at its ugliest as Robinson, the first African-American to play Major League Baseball, makes his way around the country quietly changing the world. He was by all accounts a heroic individual who suffered and sacrificed personally to do what needed to be done. He died in 1972 at the young age of 53 from complications from heart problems and diabetes.

The movie "42" is a classic baseball movie. The good guys win. It makes you feel good. It is all the more astonishing because it's true. In 1947 the hatred (a kind word for it) was more than many could have been able to bear. Even some of his own teammates didn't like what was happening. What a lonely year that must have been. There is one scene where Mr. Rickey (portrayed by Harrison Ford) tries to get his young star back onto the field. It all could have ended at that moment. Our nation should be forever grateful that it didn't.

We can't forget Mr. Rickey either. He had wanted to do this for 40 years after what he saw happen to a Black member of a college team. He planned it, worked for it, and finally made it happen, come hell or high water. He didn't face the pressures that Robinson did, of course, and he would be the first to admit it. But the two of them were an unbeatable team.

Don't forget Pee Wee Reese and Ralph Branca and some of the other Dodgers who stepped up and did what was the right thing to do. They are portrayed well in the movie, too.

Baseball is often used as a paradigm, a metaphor, for life. In this case it was more than that. It was what helped change life for the better.

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Sidenote:

FYI: Here is the list of first African-American players on each of the teams. The four highlighted have been elected to the Hall of Fame. It is sad, but true that the Yankees took 8 years, Phillies 10, Tigers 11 and Red Sox 12 years to integrate. It makes the story of Jackie Robinson all the more astounding as he was retired by the time the last three teams integrated! (from Wikipedia.)

Player	Team	Date
Jackie Robinson †	Brooklyn Dodgers, NL	April 15, 1947
Larry Doby †	Cleveland Indians, AL	July 5, 1947
Hank Thompson	St. Louis Browns, AL	July 17, 1947
Monte Irvin †	New York Giants, NL	July 8, 1949
Hank Thompson	New York Giants, NL	July 8, 1949
Sam Jethroe	Boston Braves, NL	April 18, 1950
Minnie Miñoso	Chicago White Sox, AL	May 1, 1951
Bob Trice	Philadelphia Athletics, AL	September 13, 1953
Ernie Banks †	Chicago Cubs, NL	September 17, 1953
Curt Roberts	Pittsburgh Pirates, NL	April 13, 1954
Tom Alston	St. Louis Cardinals, NL	April 13, 1954
Nino Escalera	Cincinnati Reds, NL	April 17, 1954
Chuck Harmon	Cincinnati Reds, NL	April 17, 1954
Carlos Paula	Washington Senators, AL	September 6, 1954
Elston Howard	New York Yankees, AL	April 14, 1955
John Kennedy	Philadelphia Phillies, NL	April 22, 1957
Ozzie Virgil, Sr.	Detroit Tigers, AL	June 6, 1958
Pumpsie Green	Boston Red Sox, AL	July 21, 1959

No Better Example

Jackie Robinson
National Baseball Hall of Fame

More of History

Another day for #42, Jackie Robinson

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Cooperstown, NY

8/23/2012

Jackie Robinson Day

April 15, 1947- # 42, Jackie Robinson, took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers making history and changing America forever- for the better.

Mr. Rickey, executive of the Dodgers, fulfilled a lifelong dream to integrate baseball.

At the front entrance to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY is this plaque on character and courage. It honors three remarkable baseball players. On the left is Lou Gehrig. On the right, Roberto Clemente. In the center, Jackie Robinson.