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Today commemorates the baseball debut of my childhood hero, Jackie Robinson. I got to watch him in his later years as a kid in Brooklyn. One memory was me coming home from school just in time to see him steal home in the 1955 World Series, in the first and only championship for Brooklyn. Supposedly, whenever catcher Yogi Berra saw Jackie's widow, he used to say, "He was out, Rachel." "He was safe, Yogi," came the inevitable response.
Jackie's impact: one player can't really effect a whole team, can they? Jackie arrives in 1947, leaves after 1956, when traded to the hated Giants. ("We wuz robbed!" said Brooklynites.). Dodgers hadn't won a pennant since I believe 1941. Then they won pennants in 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, finishing second in the years they didn't win, failing on the last day of the season in 1950 and 1951. Then they didn't win til 1959.
Jackie's style of play: Leo Durocher described it as only Leo the Lip could, "He comes to play, he comes to win, he comes to shove the ****ing bat up your ass!" There were a few on the Dodgers who didn't want a black guy on the team. Supposedly Carl Furillo was one of them. Yet early in that first season, there was a clip I saw that showed the change in his atttitude. Jackie, playing with his customary subtlety, had trampled the opposing pitcher as the latter covered first in a grounder to the right side. In the ensuing pushing and shoving, the first Dodger on the scene from the bench to defend Robinson was Furillo. In another game, Willie Mays crashed into a wall after catching a fly ball, knocking himself almost unconscious. Robinson rushes out to see his fallen friend. Asked if he wanted to see if Willie was ok, Jackie supposedly said, "No, I wanted to see if he held on to the ball."
His leadership: Each year, at the national Jerry Lewis muscular dystrophy Labor Day telethon, there were local events in Brooklyn the station might switch to, like one I saw on TV from a theater in Brooklyn. Jackie came by, having taken up a collection from Dodger players. He also brought a baseball he had the players autograph, which he tossed into the crowd. In 1944 while in the army, Jackie refused to move to the back of a Texas bus. He was court martialed. There is a 1990 film that describes the incident and trial.
His talent: he lettered in four sports at UCLA, baseball, football, basketball and track. He may have been the only man ever to do so, and given the nature of college athletics, I doubt it will happen again.
His political journey: Robinson, like many blacks in the South, Jackie was a republican. He changed in 1964, as the GOP candidate Barry Goldwater had opposed civil rights legislation. His journey perhaps symbolized the migration of blacks away from the GOP.
His death: his heart gave out at age 53. Small wonder. He had given it away too many times.
Jackie's impact: one player can't really effect a whole team, can they? Jackie arrives in 1947, leaves after 1956, when traded to the hated Giants. ("We wuz robbed!" said Brooklynites.). Dodgers hadn't won a pennant since I believe 1941. Then they won pennants in 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, finishing second in the years they didn't win, failing on the last day of the season in 1950 and 1951. Then they didn't win til 1959.
Jackie's style of play: Leo Durocher described it as only Leo the Lip could, "He comes to play, he comes to win, he comes to shove the ****ing bat up your ass!" There were a few on the Dodgers who didn't want a black guy on the team. Supposedly Carl Furillo was one of them. Yet early in that first season, there was a clip I saw that showed the change in his atttitude. Jackie, playing with his customary subtlety, had trampled the opposing pitcher as the latter covered first in a grounder to the right side. In the ensuing pushing and shoving, the first Dodger on the scene from the bench to defend Robinson was Furillo. In another game, Willie Mays crashed into a wall after catching a fly ball, knocking himself almost unconscious. Robinson rushes out to see his fallen friend. Asked if he wanted to see if Willie was ok, Jackie supposedly said, "No, I wanted to see if he held on to the ball."
His leadership: Each year, at the national Jerry Lewis muscular dystrophy Labor Day telethon, there were local events in Brooklyn the station might switch to, like one I saw on TV from a theater in Brooklyn. Jackie came by, having taken up a collection from Dodger players. He also brought a baseball he had the players autograph, which he tossed into the crowd. In 1944 while in the army, Jackie refused to move to the back of a Texas bus. He was court martialed. There is a 1990 film that describes the incident and trial.
His talent: he lettered in four sports at UCLA, baseball, football, basketball and track. He may have been the only man ever to do so, and given the nature of college athletics, I doubt it will happen again.
His political journey: Robinson, like many blacks in the South, Jackie was a republican. He changed in 1964, as the GOP candidate Barry Goldwater had opposed civil rights legislation. His journey perhaps symbolized the migration of blacks away from the GOP.
His death: his heart gave out at age 53. Small wonder. He had given it away too many times.