Ebbets Field, Brooklyn New York
Jack Roosevelt Robinson became the first African-American to play modern major league baseball, and the first to do openly (there had been a few black players until the 1880s)
He was 28 years old.
In high school he had lettered in five sports: football, basketball, baseball, track and tennis. In 1936 he won the junior boys tennis singles championship for the Pacific Coast Negro Tennis Tournament. He was also on the Ponoma baseball tournament all-star team, which also included Ted Williams and Bob Lemon, themselves also future hall of famers in baseball. 1936 was also the year his older brother Mac won the Silver medal by finishing 2nd to Jesse Owens in the 200 Meters at the Berlin Olympics, and who along with Owens replaced two Jews (Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller) on the gold medal winning 4x100 meter relay team because Avery Brundage did not want to further embarrass Hitler.
After attending Pasadena Junior College, he went to UCLA where he dropped tennis but earned letters in the other four sports, becoming the first Bruin ever to do so He was one of four blacks on the football team in 1939, his first year, three of whom started in the backfield (one of the others was actor Woody Strode, whom some here would remember as the black gladiator in Spartacus who would not kill the character played by Kirk Douglas). He won the 1940 NCAA long jump with a leap of 24 ft 10 1⁄4 . Baseball was his worst sport that year.
Robinson had a history of challenging segregation. While a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army he was courtmartialed for refusing to move to the back of a bus — he was acquitted at the trial (of lesser charges) by a panel of 9 white officers, although the trial caused him to miss going to Europe with his unit, which saw combat service.
He had played one year in the Negro Leagues for the Kansas City Monarchs , hitting .387 with five home runs, and stole 13 stolen bases in 47 games with the team. Although he became the first to be signed to play for a farm team, most in the Negro Leagues recognized that he was not the best player, catcher Josh Gibson was.
He played one year for the Montreal Royals, then the top farm team for the Dodgers, in the International League. He hit .349 and was the league’s most valuable player.
His rookie year with the Dodgers Robinson had a batting average of .297, a .427 slugging average gained by 175 hits including 31 doubles, 5 triples and 12 home runs. He score 125 runs and drove in 48, and lead the league with 28 sacrifices and 29 stolen bases. He was named the Major League Rookie of the year (it was not until 1949 that there were separate awards for each league.
Most Americans do not realize that Robinson was not the only Black player in the majors that year: Larry Doby joined the Cleveland Indians almost three months later. Robinson would be joined on the Dodgers by catcher Roy Campanella, who would win three MVPs, in 1948, and by pitcher Don Newcombe (who would win 1, before there was a Cy Young Award) in 1949.
Robinson himself was the National League MVP in 1949, batting .342 with 124 runs batted in and 122 runs scored, finishing 2nd in doubles and triples, and stealing 37 bases. He made the 1st of his five all-star games in his ten year career — remember, he was already 28 when he made his major league debut.
Robinson was on the first Dodger team to win a World Series in 1955, sparking the team by stealing home in the first game. That was actually at the end of his worst season in the majors, where his batting average dropped to .255.
Robinson retired after ten years, and as a result the proposed trade to the Giants never happened.
He finished with a career batting average of .311, having broken .300 six consecutive times, after having batted .297 and .296 in his first two seasons.
He was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1962.
Each year, on one day, all of major league baseball honors Robinson by wearing his number 42, which is no longer worn by any other major leaguer.
Today is a day to remember Jack Roosevelt Robinson