Here's to you, Mr. Robinson
Sunday was cool.
Major League baseball celebrated the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson taking the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, crossing over the color barrier and paving the way for generations of black baseball players, with “Jackie Robinson Day.”
Scores of modern players — including five entire teams — put on Robinson’s No. 42, a number that was retired league-wide 10 years ago.
The Dodgers and Padres had the national spotlight on Sunday night, and honestly, the game itself was far less important than the occasion.
I enjoyed the ESPN broadcast with Rachel Robinson, the classy, elegant widow of the man she still lovingly calls “Jack.”
Mrs. Robinson, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Don Newcombe and Dave Winfield spent time on the broadcast — carried as always by Jon Miller and Joe Morgan — spinning yarns about the legendary ballplayer who stood in batter’s boxes and infields, listening to the taunts of white fans that didn’t want him around.
Baseball was integrated in 1947 when Robinson, and later that year, Larry Doby had the courage to step out there, take the abuse and just play ball.
To be sure, the national pastime went kicking and screaming into that brave new world. Players threatened to strike, umpires looked the other way when harsh words — or harder spikes — were directed at Robinson and Doby and some owners chose not to integrate their teams until much later.
As painful as it was, it happened seven years before Brown vs. Board, 12 months before the U.S. Army stopped segregation and 16 years before Dr. Martin Luther King shared his dream with the world.
So, what would have happened if Robinson hadn’t kept his cool?
What would have happened if he would have hurled a bat or ball at a heckler? Or if he would have hit .156, like Doby, instead of .297 60 years ago?
It might have served as ammunition for those looking to keep black players out of the game.
Where would we be?
Would the Civil Rights movement have begun when it did?
How would our world look?
Thankfully, we’ll never know.
For that reason, Jackie Robinson’s contributions to baseball deserve all the honor and glory Major League Baseball can give them.
Fans should stand and cheer, as they did Sunday, the memory of a great ballplayer.
But Americans should remember him on a deeper level as a man who, by simply playing a game, changed the course of our nation’s history.
Major League baseball celebrated the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson taking the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, crossing over the color barrier and paving the way for generations of black baseball players, with “Jackie Robinson Day.”
Scores of modern players — including five entire teams — put on Robinson’s No. 42, a number that was retired league-wide 10 years ago.
The Dodgers and Padres had the national spotlight on Sunday night, and honestly, the game itself was far less important than the occasion.
I enjoyed the ESPN broadcast with Rachel Robinson, the classy, elegant widow of the man she still lovingly calls “Jack.”
Mrs. Robinson, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Don Newcombe and Dave Winfield spent time on the broadcast — carried as always by Jon Miller and Joe Morgan — spinning yarns about the legendary ballplayer who stood in batter’s boxes and infields, listening to the taunts of white fans that didn’t want him around.
Baseball was integrated in 1947 when Robinson, and later that year, Larry Doby had the courage to step out there, take the abuse and just play ball.
To be sure, the national pastime went kicking and screaming into that brave new world. Players threatened to strike, umpires looked the other way when harsh words — or harder spikes — were directed at Robinson and Doby and some owners chose not to integrate their teams until much later.
As painful as it was, it happened seven years before Brown vs. Board, 12 months before the U.S. Army stopped segregation and 16 years before Dr. Martin Luther King shared his dream with the world.
So, what would have happened if Robinson hadn’t kept his cool?
What would have happened if he would have hurled a bat or ball at a heckler? Or if he would have hit .156, like Doby, instead of .297 60 years ago?
It might have served as ammunition for those looking to keep black players out of the game.
Where would we be?
Would the Civil Rights movement have begun when it did?
How would our world look?
Thankfully, we’ll never know.
For that reason, Jackie Robinson’s contributions to baseball deserve all the honor and glory Major League Baseball can give them.
Fans should stand and cheer, as they did Sunday, the memory of a great ballplayer.
But Americans should remember him on a deeper level as a man who, by simply playing a game, changed the course of our nation’s history.
posted by Randy Capps at 9:58 PM
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