MLB Honors an American Hero

By: Ryan Plinske

Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 5:30pm

April 15th isn't just Tax Day but on a larger scale to most baseball players it is known as Jackie Robinson Day. On this date way back in 1947 an African-American man named Jackie Robinson was called up to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

He was drafted into the army during World War II (1942) and right away was rejected to start officer training and immediately fought for his right to be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. During an interview with ESPN, Truman Gibson an aid to Secretary of War from 1941-1945, helped relive one of Jackie's experiences during his time in the Army. "During the last phases of officer candidate training, a senior officer referred to a Black soldier as a 'stupid n***** son of a b****.' And Jackie said, 'Just a minute, that man is a soldier in the U.S. Army," said Gibson. "So the senior officer told Jackie, 'that goes for you too.' Well all of a sudden, that senior officer had no teeth." This sums up just what kind of person Robinson was even at such a young age. He was later court marshaled for insubordination when he refused to sit in the back of a military base bus, but he was later acquitted of the charge. Later a man named Branch Rickey; General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers decided that he was going to make Jackie Robinson the very first African-American in Major League Baseball. However he was to hold back his rage to retaliate against racism.

He went through so much controversy and racial slurs growing up that it only made him that much stronger of a person when he entered the league as the first African-American player. He received very many hate mail and death threats that involved him or his family. Another thing that stands out about him is that he kept on fighting for blacks everywhere. He was called every name you could think of by people just because of the color of his skin. How ridiculous is this statement..., very because it doesn't matter what color, gender, or race you are but what really matters is how you play the game and how much talent, heart, and determination you have in order to bring a championship for your team despite the racism amongst the situation.

What made Jackie Robinson stand out to me was that his character and determination was as outstanding as anyone. During the 1972 World Series Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and MLB had set up an event to honor Jackie Robinson but he refused due to the lack of an African-American manager in baseball. During an interview that asked what the conversation between himself and Jackie Robinson Kuhn said, "I told him, 'Supposed if I told you I'm working very hard on that right now and I promise I will get that done...it's just a matter of time, I will get it done, will that make a difference,' and he said 'I'll think about it'" "And the next day he called me and said he'd do it because of that promise." Robinson attended the World Series despite all of this going down but spoke that day just how he felt, which was very familiar to all who followed Jackie and his free spirit personality. Robinson gave a speech that day and said, "I'm extremely proud and pleased to be here this afternoon," Robinson said during the '72 World Series ceremony, "but must admit I'm going to be tremendously more pleased and more proud when I look at that third base coaching line one day and see a Black face managing in baseball." He would be very pleased to see that as of right now there are 6 African American managing a club today.

When Jackie attended UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) he was the very first four sport varsity letter winner. He played football, track, basketball, and baseball. Robinson was an outstanding athlete and excelled in all areas of every one of these sports. He was awarded as the Pacific Coast Conference (now known as the Pac-10) leading scorer in 2 seasons as a basketball player, NCAA champion in the broad jump (25 feet, 6.5 inches) and also becoming an All-American in football.

Many of Jackie's achievements throughout his career was being awarded the 1947 MLB Rookie of the Year, 1949 MLB MVP, World Series champion in 1955, 6 time MLB All-Star selection (1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954), and he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 when he received 77.5% of the vote and was a first ballot hall of famer. However one accomplishment that Robinson would say makes him the most proud of his number (42) being retired throughout all of MLB in 1997 to honor the 50th anniversary of his first major league game. He finished his career in the 1956 season on October 10th. The very talented second-basemen finished his career with 1,518 hits, 137 home runs, 734 RBI's, 197 stolen bases to go along with a MLB record of 19 stolen bases of home, 740 walks, 291 strikeouts, and a batting average of .311.

As we look back into history we will all be reminded what this day really stands for and how much inspiration one man had to free a whole culture of people. Jackie Robinson isn't just the man who broke the color barrier in sports but in fact he's so much more, a true American Hero.