Jackie Robinson makes it to major leagues.

QUOTE from an email. "I believe....That sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel."

I LEARNED about Jackie Robinson's major league career.

Branch Rickey decided Jackie Roninson was ready for the big show in Brooklyn. So six days before the start of the 1947 season he called him up to the Dodgers. His debut was on April 15, 1947. Eddie Stanky was entrenched at second base so Robinson played first base.There were 26,623 spectators, including more than 14,000 black patrons. He didn't get a hit but the Dodgers won anyway by 5-3.

Racial tensions existed in the Dodger clubhouse and existed with other teams. Some Dodger players insinuated they would sit out rather than play alongside Robinson. The potential mutiny ended when manager, Leo Durocher, informed the team, "I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a fuckin' zebra. I'm the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What's more, I say he can make us all rich. And if any of you cannot use the money, I will see that you are all traded." Mutiny ended.

Other teams were hard on Robinson, especially the St. Louis Cardinals. They threatened to strike if Robinson played. They were informed they would be suspended if they did - the message came from Commissioner Happy Chandler and National League President Ford Frick. The Phillies called him a "nigger" from the dugout and told him to "go back to the cotton fields." Branch Rickey said that the abuse from the Phillies did more than anything else to unite and solifidy the thirty men on the Dodger team.

The one Dodger who was Robinson's biggest supporter was shortstop PeeWee Reese. Reese said, "You can hate a man for many reasons. Color in not one of them." In 1948, Reese put his arm around Robinson in response to fans who shouted racial slurs at Robinson before a game in Cincinnati. Robinson finished the season with 12 home runs, 29 steals, .297 betting average, .427 slugging percentage and 125 runs scored. At age 28, his performance earned him the inaugural Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award.

Racial pressure on Robinson eased in 1948 as a number of other black players entered the major leagues. Larry Doby (who broke the color barrier  in the American League on July 5, 1947) and Satchel Paige played for the Cleveland Indians, and the Dodgers had three other black players besides Robinson. In February, 1948, Robinson signed a contract for $12,500 (equal to $114, 043 today). In the spring of 1949 Robinson turned to Hall of Famer George Sisler, for batting help. Sisler taught Robinson how to hit to right field, how to quit lunging, and how to check his swing until the last fraction of a second. As a result he had his best season in the major leagues. He raised his batting average to .342, stole 37 bases, was second in the league for both doubles and triples, had 124 RBIs, and 122 runs scored. For his performance Robinson earned the 1949 Most Valuable Player award for the National League. He was also voted  the starting second baseman on the National League All-Star team - the first All-Star Game to include black players. He helped the Dodgers get to the World Series in 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956. They finally won a World Series in 1955 when they defeated the Yankees, 4 games to 3.

Jackie Robinson retired from baseball in February of 1957.. He had been traded to the New York Giants after the 1956 season but decided to hang it up and not play for the Giants. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. He is the only player in the history of Major Leauge Baseball to have his number, #42, retired from every major league team. Nobody wears #42 and never will.

His leagcy is that he was the first black man to play Major League Baseball. His legacy also is that he took Branch Rickey's advice and kept his mouth shut through all the racial taunts and threats on his life during that 1947 season. Mr. Rickey made a good choice. 

Robinsom died in 1972 at the age of 53. He was a diabetic and had heart problems.  With complications from diabetes he was nearly blind in his last year. He died of a heart attack at his home in Connecticut.

HUMOR for today: In primitive society, when native tribes beat the ground with clubs and yelled, it was called withcraft; today, in civilized society, it is called golf.