What happened the day Jackie Robinson made his major league debut
As Jackie Robinson prepared to hit the field as the first black player in modern baseball history on Opening Day 75 years ago this Friday, an Associated Press reporter asked if he had children. Any butterflies in the belly?
“Not one,” replied Robinson, with a grin. “I wish I could say I did because maybe I would have an alibi if I didn’t do so well. But I won’t be able to take that as an alibi.”
Two years earlier, in 1945, Brooklyn Dodgers Branch President Rickey signed Robinson to a minor league, after Robinson played a single season in the Negro Leagues. After a stellar year with the team’s top minor division in Montreal, where he Leading the International League with an average polish of 0.349Robinson was promoted to the Dodgers as a 28-year-old rookie in 1947.
Ahead of his MLB debut on a chilly spring day in Brooklyn, Robinson posed for a photo in front of the Dodgers yacht park shaking the interim manager’s hand Clyde Sukeforth – the scout brought him to see Rickey in 1945. Both Robinson and Sukeforth were smiling, but flanked by the blank-faced Dodgers players and coach.
Some of Robinson’s teammates organized a petition against playing with him. Rickey quickly quashed the objection, letting the players know he would trade anyone who wasn’t on board. It was in that pressure cooker atmosphere that Robinson stepped out on the diamond on April 15 to break the color barrier of a baseball.
As the team’s first keeper that day, he saw the action from the start. Boston Braves offensive player Dick Culler led the game with a ball on the ground for third-man John “Spider” Jorgensen, who threw for Robinson. When the ball hit his glove, fans cheered for this historic practice.
That challenging first season, Robinson will face a lot of swearing and worse from fans across the country, but this Tuesday afternoon at Ebbets Field, where half of the 26,000 fans are As a black man, he received a warm welcome. Among his champions at the small ballpark was his wife, Rachel Robinson.
“Black fans were so nervous and overzealous – their expectations were so high and their aspirations were so high that they just reacted to everything,” she recalls in the Ken Burns documentary. , “Baseball”.
Many fans wore the “I’m for Jackie” button.
In the New York Times that morning, journalist Arthur Daley Written that “Robinson almost had to be another DiMaggio in doing well from the opening whistle,” referring to legendary Yankees quarterback Joe DiMaggio. “It’s not fair to him, but no one can do that but himself. Pioneers never had it easy and Robinson, the task force, was a pioneer. … That is his burden from now on and he has to bear it alone. ”
Second hit In the Brooklyn line-up, Robinson finished the first half to more enthusiastic cheers. Fans shouted, “Come on Jackie” and “We’re with you, boy,” the Baltimore-American reported.
Faced with one of the game’s best pitchers, Johnny Sain, who went 20-14 with an ERA of 2.21 in 1946, Robinson came in third. Two innings later, he flew to the left court. At the end of the fifth inning, there was more futility, as he began to pull off a rally-killing doubles match.
“With each setback, a groan resounded in the stands as if every man, woman, and child was trying their best,” the Baltimore-American wrote.
The dynamic rookies finally made it to the bottom of seventh place. When he was led by the Dodgers, 3-2, he made a mistake after making a well-placed sacrifice, and eventually scored the winning goal that led to a 5-3 victory in Brooklyn. But his final vote count of the day was upstream – 0 to 3.
“I worked a miserable job,” Robinson wrote in his 1972 autobiography, “I’ve never had it done“If fans” expected any miracles from Robinson, they were sorely disappointed. ”
Despite the historic date, major newspapers downplayed it. For example, The New York Times and The Washington Post both covered Robinson’s debut in the paper, with the Times story barely mentioning him, focusing instead on the game. The Times column, also by Daley, is titled “Opening day at Ebbets Field“doesn’t mention Robinson until the ninth paragraph, describing him as a ‘muscled black man … who is soft spoken and intelligent when spoken to'”.
“Having Jackie on the team is still a bit strange, like anything else is new,” said an unnamed veteran teammate in the column. “We just don’t know how to act on him. But he will be accepted in time. “
Robinson would face a string of abuses that year – including death threats, players intentionally hitting him and racist symbols from fans and opponents. But he did help lead the Dodgers to the National League pennant with an average hit score of 0.297 and the league’s best 29 stolen bases. He also won Rookie of the Year – an award now name him in both National and American leagues.
“He is the sitter before sitting, the freerider before the free ride,” Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1962after Robinson’s introduction to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
David McMahon, co-writer and co-director of the PBS documentary Jackie Robinson, said in an email that Robinson was “really himself” on opening day. “I don’t think he has friends in the mainstream press or in the team. No enemies, but no widespread support. ”
“We think it’s a watershed moment now – and it absolutely is – but the whole country didn’t stop that day to see how Robinson’s debut went,” he added. . “The game didn’t sell out. There are 6,000 empty seats. I don’t think coverage in the white press is overwhelmed by design. These are different times. “
at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here
