Remembering Jackie Robinson
He
was born in Cairo, Georgia on the last day of January in 1919, and died on
October 24, 1972 in Stamford, Connecticut. Robinson attended UCLA, where he won
letters in three sports.
He
was in the Army during World War II and then played briefly in the Negro
Leagues when the war ended. He was signed to a minor league contract with the
Montreal Royals in 1946 by Branch Rickey, and the following year came up to the
Brooklyn Dodgers and broke baseball's age-old color line.
He
played in the major leagues for a decade. He won the inaugural Rookie of the
Year Award in 1947, the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, and
he helped the Dodgers win six pennants and one world championship.
Despite
all the pressure he played under, he was still able to record a lifetime
batting average of .311. His base-stealing ability and hustle won many games
for the Dodgers. He set several records for fielding for second basemen.
His
influence on sports is immeasurable. His breaking of baseball's color line
against the greatest of odds is still one of the most dramatic stories in all
of sports history. And there are those who still have special memories of the
man and the legend. Here is how one from that time still remembers the great
player Brooklyn Dodger fans called "Robby".
When
school was out, I sometimes went with my father in his taxi. One summer
morning, we were driving in East Flatbush in Brooklyn down Snyder Avenue. My
father pointed to a dark red brick house with a high porch.
“I
think Jackie Robinson lives there,” my father said. He parked across the street
and we got out of the cab, stood on the sidewalk and looked at the house.
Suddenly, the front door opened. A black man in a short-sleeved shirt stepped
out. I didn't believe it. Here we were on a quiet street on a summer morning
with no one else around.
The
man was not wearing the baggy, ice-cream-white-uniform of the Brooklyn Dodgers
that accentuated his blackness. He was dressed in regular clothes, coming out
of a regular house in a regular Brooklyn neighborhood, a guy like anyone else
going out for a bottle of milk and a newspaper.
Then,
incredibly, he crossed the street and came right toward me. Seeing that
unmistakable pigeon-toed walk, the rock of the shoulders and hips that I had
seen so many times before on the baseball field, I had no doubt who it was.
“Hi
Jackie, I'm one of your biggest fans," I said self-consciously. “Do you
think the Dodgers are going to win the pennant this year?”
"His
handsome face looked sternly down at me. “We'll try our best,” he said.
“Good
luck,” I said.”
“Thanks,”
he replied.”
He
put his big hand out, and I took it. We shook hands and I felt the strength and
firmness of his grip. I was a nervy kid, but I didn't ask for an autograph or
try to prolong the conversation. I just he walked away down the street.
That
was my first personal contact with Jackie Robinson. Years later I came across
him in downtown Brooklyn in a Chock Full O Nuts coffee shop. He was the
company’s vice
president and director of personnel. Now he was heavier, gray-haired, slowed,
sitting at the counter. We chatted a bit but the meeting was sadder, even
poignant for me to see how this great athlete had been slowed by time and
illness. He did not remember our chance meeting that long ago summer day but I
did. Ironically, that coffee shop on Montague Street was close by what had been
the offices of the Brooklyn Dodgers where Robinson had his first meeting with
Branch Rickey who helped him shatter baseball’s color line.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was my first real hero and one of the most
important figures in the history of sports. Two of my favorite books I have
written are about him.
One of the most prolific and respected sports journalists
and oral historians in the United States, author of the autobiographies of
legends Nolan Ryan,Tony Dorsett, and Red Holzman, Dr. Harvey Frommer is an
expert on the New York Yankees and has arguably written more books, articles
and reviews on the New York Yankees than anyone.
A professor for more
than two decades in the MALS program at Dartmouth College, Frommer was dubbed
“Dartmouth’s Mr. Baseball” by their alumni magazine. He’s also the founder of www.HarveyFrommerSports.com. His ULTIMATE YANKEE BOOK can be
instantly purchased from AMAZON: http://www.frommerbooks.com/ultimate-yankees.html or from the author.
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