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Revision as of 15:04, 3 November 2001 by 203.37.81.xxx (talk) (link fix)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Jack Roosevelt Robinson was the baseball player who broke the color line in organized baseball in 1947. The significance of this event in U.S. history is such that every major league baseball team has retired his number, 42.
- Born January 31, 1919, Cairo, Georgia, USA
- Died October 24, 1972, Stamford, Connecticut
- Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962
Jackie Robinson was a football and baseball star at the University of California in Los Angeles, where he played with Kenny Washington, who would become one of the first black players in the National Football League. After serving in the military during World War II, Robinson played baseball for a while for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues. There, he was noticed by a scout working for Branch Rickey.
Rickey was the club president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and had the secret goal of signing a group of black ballplayers for the Dodgers. Previous attempts at signing black ballplayers had been thwarted by league officials and rival clubs in the past, however, and so Rickey operated under cover. His scouts were, supposedly, scouting for a new all-black league Rickey was forming. Even the scouts themselves did not know the true objective.
Rickey selected Robinson from a list of promising candidates, signed him, and assigned him to play for the Dodgers' minor-league affiliate in Montreal in 1946.
Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, was one of the most eagerly-awaited events in baseball history, and one of the most profound in the history of the U.S. civil rights movement.
(yes, more needs to be said here.. much more)
Robinson was awarded the Rookie of the Year award in 1947, and the National League Most Valuable Player award in 1949. He was not only contributed to Brooklyn pennants in both years, but his determination and hustle kept the Dodgers in pennant races in 1950 and 1951 when they rightly should have been eliminated much sooner.
Robinson retired from the game in 1956. He had wanted to manage or coach in the major leagues, but received no offers. He became a vice-president for the Chock Full O' Nuts Corporation instead.
As a tribute to Robinson, in 1997 all major-league baseball teams agreed to retire Robinson's jersey number, 42 (though players currently wearing the number could continue to do so).
For details, see Jules Tygiel's excellent book, Baseball's Great Experiment.