jJackie Robinson makes it to the major leagues.

QUOTE from an email: "I believe....That heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences."

I LEARNED about Jackie Robinson's rise to the major leagues.

Yesterday I wrote about Branch Rickey, the man responsible for breaking the major league color barrier. In 1945, as General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Rickey was looking for the right black man to be the first to play major league baseball since the 1880s. The man he chose was Jackie Robinson.

Jackie was the fifth child born to a black family in 1919 in the state of Georgia. When father left the family in 1920 mother and five kids moved to Pasadena, California. He was raised in poverty as Mom had to do odd jobs to support the family. He went to John Muir High School where he played football, basketball, track and baseball. Then it was to Pasadena Junior College and on to UCLA in 1939. He participated in all four sports at both of them. There were four black players on the UCLA team which made it the most integrated team in the U.S. at that time. Baseball was his "worst sport" at UCLA - he hit only .097 in his only season. However, he won the NCAA long jump in 1940 with 24'10.5".

In 1942 he was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas. After graduating from OCS he was sent to Fort Hood, Texas, in January, 1943. This is where he was court-martialed. On July 6, 1944 he boarded an army bus, the bus driver ordered him to move to the back of the bus. He refused. The driver then summoned the military police and he was taken into custody. He faced multiple charges, including public drunkenness - even though he didn't drink. The end result was he was acquitted by an all-white panel of nine officers.He received an honorable discharge  in November, 1944.
His black unit went to Europe to be in combat but Robinson couldn't go because of his court-martial.

In 1945 he played baseball for the Kansas City Monarchs, an all-black team playing in the Negro Leagues.
 Branch Rickey, in 1945, was seriously looking for the "right" black man to play in the major leagues. Rickey had scouted the Negro Leagues for the right guy. He selected Robinson from a list of promising black players and interviewed Robinson. Rickey was especially interested in making sure his eventual signee could withstand the inevitable racial abuse that would be directed at him. In a famous three-hour exchange on August 28, 1945, Rickey asked  Robinson if he could face the racial animus without taking the bait and reacting angrily - a concern given Robinson's prior arguments with law enforcement at Junior College and in the army,
Robinson was aghast: "Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?"
Rickey replied that he needed a Negro player "with guts enough not to fight back."
After obtaining a commitment from Robinson to "turn the other cheek" to racial antagonism, Rickey agreed to sign him to a contract for $600 a month, equal to $7,322 a month today. Rickey required Robinson to keep quiet until the actual signing on October 23, 1945. He would be assigned to the Montreal Royals (the AAA alliliate of the Dodgers)  for the 1946 season. Actually Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson were upset because they felt they were better than Robinson.

IN 1946 Robinson arrived at Daytona Beach, Florida, for spring training with the Montreal Royals. His presence was controversial in racially charged Florida. He was not allowed to stay at the team hotel so he lived with a local black politician. Some towns refused to play any exhibition games because of Robinson and Johnny Wright, another black player signed by Rickey. In Sanford, Florida, the police chief threatened to cancel games if Robinson and Wright did not cease training activities there. In Jacksonville, the stadium was padlocked shut without warning on game day. In DeLand, a scheduled DAY game was called off, ostensibly because of faulty electrical lighting. On opening day in Montreal on April 18, 1946, against the Jersey City Giants, Robinson made his professional debut. Robinson had four hits, a three run homer, scored four runs, had three RBI, and stole two bases. Robinson led the International League that season with a .349 average, a .985 fielding percentage (as a second baseman), and was named the MVP. He did face racial taunts on road trips but was enthusiastically received in Montreal. In fact, attendence in Montreal was over a million, an amazing figure for an International League team in 1946. The next year, 1947, it was time for the big leagues.

Tomorrow, I'll explore Robinson's major league career.