About Jackie Robinson
American professional baseball player Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) had an estimated $8 million in wealth. A sharecropper’s family, Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia. After his father abandoned the family a year after Jackie’s birth, his mother, siblings, and mom moved the family to California.
Jackie Robinson at UCLA
Even as a young man, Jackie was an exceptional athlete. He went to the University of California-Los Angeles and lettered in baseball, basketball, football, and track.
He received the football All-American honor in 1941 while attending UCLA.
He was compelled to quit UCLA and serve in the Army because of financial difficulties.
He was court-martialed for opposing racial inequity in the U.S. military, thus that career was also cut short.
Robinson received an honorable discharge after the court martial was eventually dismissed.
Jackie participated in the Negro Baseball Leagues with the Kansas City Monarchs for one season in 1945.
But 1947 would forever alter Jackie’s life as well as the Major League Baseball environment.
Jackie Robinson: April 15, 1947
Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, approached Jackie about signing with the team in 1947.
Since the 1880s, there hadn’t been a black baseball player in the Major Leagues because to segregation.
The Dodgers made Robinson’s Major League debut on April 15, 1947, at Ebbets Field.
If Robinson was let to play against them, many clubs and opposition players had threatened to go on strike, but National League President Ford Frick and Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler threatened to punish any player who objected.
Rookie of the Year in Robinson’s First Season
The Dodgers selected Jackie Robinson as their rookie of the year in 1947, making him the first-ever rookie of the year in the history of professional baseball. That year, he hit 12 home runs, swiped 29 bases, and batted.297 overall.
He won the National League MVP in 1949, a year in which he also won the batting title with a.342 average.
Between 1949 and 1954, Robinson was a recurrent All-Star.
In addition, Robinson assisted the Dodgers in guiding them to six World Championship berths and one World Championship over a ten-year period.
What Jackie Robinson Has Achieved
Among his accolades, he received:
6 times an All-Star
*For all time.
311 hit total
*An ongoing front-runner in batting average, runs scored, and bases stolen
In 1957, Jackie Robinson gave up playing baseball.
Eventually, in 1962, during his first season of eligibility, he would be inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
At the age of 53, he passed away in 1972 from complications related to heart disease and diabetes.
Every year, Major League Baseball commemorates Jackie Robinson and continues to promote his legacy by awarding scholarships to eligible students.
Vital Statistics:
- Born: Jan. 31, 1919
- Died: Oct. 24, 1972
- Hometown: Cairo, Ga.
- Height: 5-11
- Weight: 195 pounds
- Bats: Right
- Throws: Right
- Family: Wife, Rachel; son, Jackie Jr.; daughter, Sharon; son, David.
- Primary position: Second base
Ahead of the Bigs:
As a young child, moved to Pasadena, California. Jesse Owens’ older brother Mack Robinson came in second in the 200-yard sprint at the 1936 Olympic Games.
became the first UCLA player to earn four letters while competing in baseball, football, basketball, and track. He was the basketball MVP of the West Coast Conference and the national champion in the long jump in 1939 and 1940, when he played halfback and was regarded as one of the top running backs in the nation. He played shortstop for UCLA for one baseball season, batting.097.
Just before graduating from UCLA, the student left and accepted a position as an assistant athletic director with the National Youth Administration.
played football in 1941, the year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, for the Honolulu Bears, a semi-pro team.
enlisted in the American Army in 1942, and in January 1943 received his appointment as a second lieutenant. served in Texas and was court-martialed for refusing to board a military bus in the back. finally found not guilty by a pantel of nine white policemen. Never participated in combat and received an honorable discharge.
after being discharged, served as the athletic director of Sam Huston College in Austin, Texas, before joining the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs. played shortstop in 47 games while batting.387 with five home runs and 13 stolen bases while also participating in the 1945 Negro League All-Star Game.
Branch Rickey, the president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was impressed by Robinson’s performance and conducted a three-hour interview with him to test his courage in accepting racist insults and becoming the first black player in the major leagues. He committed to a $600 a month contract to play for the top farm team of the Dodgers, the minor league Montreal Royals. He had a.349 batting average, a.985 fielding percentage, and was voted the International League’s MVP in 1946.
Professional Highlights:
He was the first black player to play in the major leagues in the 20th century, as well as the first black winner of the Rookie of the Year, All-Star, MVP, and Hall of Fame selections, making him the most important player in baseball history. The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was aided by his popularity. one of the best second basemen of all time as well as one of the greatest players in Dodgers history.
He was promoted to the main leagues in 1947, and on April 15, 1947, at the age of 28, he made his big-league debut at Ebbets Field as the first baseman for the Dodgers. Robinson played in 151 games in 1947, hitting.297 with 12 home runs, 48 RBI, and a National League-best 29 stolen bases while taking racist taunts and abuse from rival players and fans. was selected as the first Rookie of the Year and finished fifth in the MVP voting. .259 batting average in the World Series, which the New York Yankees won in seven games.
shifted in 1948 to second base.
He hit.342 with 16 home runs, 124 RBI, and a league-best 37 stolen bases in 1949, the year he won the National League batting title and was chosen as the league’s MVP. But the Dodgers fell to the Yankees in the World Series once more, this time in a five-game series. was additionally chosen by the audience to start at second base for the 1949 All-Star Game. a member of the All-Star squad in each of the following five seasons.
He hit.328 in 1950 and.338 with a career-high 18 home runs in 1951. In 1952, when he led the National League in on-base percentage with.440, he matched that number.
He switched to playing multiple positions, including third base and left field, but he still managed to bat.329 and score 109 runs while leading the Dodgers to a title in 1953.
He hit.256 as a third baseman and outfielder at age 37, which was his statistically worst year. By defeating the Yankees in seven games, the Dodgers captured their first World Series title. Robinson didn’t participate in Game 7, though.
stole 19 times throughout his career. One of his most infamous moments was in Game 1 of the 1955 World Series when he evaded Yogi Berra’s tag.
aged 37, retired following the 1956 campaign, hitting.275 with 10 home runs in 117 games.
In six of his ten seasons, the Dodgers won the pennant.
Off the field:
In 1962, his first year of eligibility, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 77.5 percent of the vote. Since Lou Gehrig in 1939, Robinson and Bob Feller became the first to be elected to the Hall of Fame on the first vote.
was Chock Full O’Nuts’ vice president of personnel from 1957 through 1964.
He was politically engaged and served on the NAACP board. He initially supported Republicans, but following the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was opposed by conservative Republicans, he switched his party support to the Democrats.
played himself in the 1950 biographical picture “The Jackie Robinson Story,”
In 1987, the Rookie of the Year award was established in his honor.
A few months before his passing, the Dodgers retired his No. 42 in 1972. In 1997, Major League Baseball removed the number 42 from regular use, allowing players to don it solely on April 15 in honor of Jackie Robinson. Players who have worn No. 42 in the past were permitted to continue. Pitcher Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees, who has announced he would retire after the 2013 season, was the last player to wear the number.
