The
inclement weather ten days ago on Sunday, April 15, tried to put a damper on
Major League Baseball’s Jackie Robinson Day celebrations. All Major League players wore number
“42”, Jackie’s number, on their uniforms during games that day and other activities
were also held at Major League ballparks to honor him. This year marked the 71st
anniversary of April 15, 1947, the day Jackie Robinson became the first African
American in the 20th Century to play Major League baseball. The weather this spring forgot it is supposed
to be the beginning of baseball season.
Six of the scheduled sixteen games on April 15 were cancelled due to
cold, wet weather, even snow. In
addition, four of the games played were in weather conditions more conducive
for football. But recognition of Jackie
Robinson’s place in baseball history cannot be damped by bad weather.
Why
did I delay my Jackie Robinson Day blog post this year? My past April 15th blog posts on
Robinson focused on recapping the game he played in a Brooklyn Dodger uniform
on that April 15 at Ebbets Field against the Boston Braves, and highlighting
the statistical success of his ten year Hall of Fame Major League career. However, this year instead of rushing to just
write anything about Robinson to put on the blog April 15th, I did
more reflecting and have made a more personal post.
I missed Jackie Robinson’s time in baseball. My love for the sport began at the end of his
career. He made history on that April 15
day four years before I opened my eyes for the first time. I know my father and older brothers watched
Robinson in action on our family’s first television, a black and white Philco,
but I cannot recall as a toddler or small child seeing him on the screen. My first TV World Series recollection is Henry
Aaron and the Milwaukee Braves’ defeat of the New York Yankees in 1957. Robinson had retired after the end of the
1956 season. But from what the adults in
my family said about him, I had my first lesson of racial pride in regards to
sports. At six years old I knew of
Jackie Robinson as the first “Negro” to play in the Major Leagues.
I know historically that is not true. William Edward
White, a former slave, played first base one game for the Providence Grays in
1879. The Grays at that time were in the
National League. White has the
distinction of being the first African American to play in the Major
Leagues. In addition Moses Fleetwood
Walker in 1884 played with the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American
Association, considered a Major League at that time. However, by 1890 the color line barring
African Americans and dark-skinned Hispanics from professional baseball in
America became solid until 1947 when Robinson erased it. To the adults in my family, the first Negro
they saw in their lifetime play in the Major Leagues; Jackie Robinson. White and Walker were long before their time.
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| William Edward White |
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| Moses Fleetwood Walker |
As “baby boomers”, my friends and I idolized players
such as Aaron, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson, Orlando Cepeda and
others whose careers began in the late 1950s. And in the early 1960s, Billy Williams,
Willie Stargell, other African American, and dark-skinned Hispanic players came
on the scene. We collected their
baseball cards, knew all of their statistics, and had our favorite players. As much as I admired these other ballplayers,
however; I held Jackie Robinson in a higher esteem.
By the time I reached high school in the mid to late
1960s, some of Robinson’s political actions and opinions were contrary to that
of many African Americans. He came under
stern criticism from my generation at that time. Even though the raised fist and shouts of
“black power” drowned out Robinson’s more practical approach
to racial relations, I did not lose respect for him. I still saw Jackie Robinson as that first
symbol of racial pride in sports I learned as a child.
I love seeing the black and white films showing Robinson in
action like in the documentary shown this past March on PBS; “Jackie Robinson”
by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon.
The daring way he ran the bases, especially stealing home, is still
exciting to me today.
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