Major League Baseball Honors the First African-American Jackie Robinson - Hall of Famer from the Brooklyn Dodgers on Jackie Robinson Day Thursday

It was Jackie Robinson Day in Major League Baseball Thursday where all players wore #42 to honor the Hall of Fame infielder and sometimes outfielder from the Brooklyn Dodgers Jackie Robinson, the first African-American player in the Major Leagues. Branch Rickey was responsible for signing and bringing Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Most people don’t know this but Rickey wanted to bring up starting pitcher Don Newcombe first but Rickey felt Newcombe would not be able to control his temper and handle the onslaught of garbage that would inevitably ensue. Robinson came up as a first baseman and wasn’t accepted on the team until captain Pee Wee Reese, a southerner, stepped up and welcomed him on the team. While playing the Reds on the road in May of 1947 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati captain Pee Wee Reese put his arm around the shoulder of Jackie Robinson. Robinson had to deal with death threats, racial taunts from the crowds where ever he played and had to take it the first year per Rickey’s orders. The worst place to play was at Sportsman’s Park against the St. Louis Cardinals. Ironically enough that’s where Rickey was so successful before Larry MacPhail brought Rickey to the Dodgers. There was even a petition going around the Brooklyn Dodger team that was passed around by Dixie Walker threatening management that they’d boycott if Robinson wasn’t removed from the team. With Reese sticking his neck out and welcoming Robinson to the club that began the process of Jackie being a real teammate. Walker stopped the petition and that ended that. The Dodger players also saw how good Robinson was as a player. This opened the door for Roy Campanella to come up in 1948 and Don Newcombe in 1949.

I love the Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese Monument which stands in front of MCU Park (formerly Keyspan Park) in Coney Island, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones. Baseball was brought back to Brooklyn in 2001 with the Mets Short Season A affiliate Cyclones coming to Coney Island and we’ve gone since then. Each season for the past few years my cousin gets a bunch of tickets to a game and we all have a great time at the ballpark. By the way Jackie Robinson was told after the 1956 season that he’d been traded to the hated New York Giants. Robison said he’d rather retire from baseball than play for the Giants, and he did.

Here are some quotes from Branch Rickey that I thought were interesting:

"It (a baseball box score) doesn't tell how big you are, what church you attend, what color you are, or how your father voted in the last election. It just tells what kind of baseball player you were on that particular day."

"Jackie (Robinson), we've got no army. There's virtually nobody on our side. No owners, no umpires, very few newspapermen. And I'm afraid that many fans will be hostile. We'll be in a tough position. We can win only if we can convince the world that I'm doing this because you're a great ballplayer, a fine gentleman."

And a quote from Robinson about Rickey:

"The thing about him was that he was always doing something for someone else. I know, because he did so much for me."