Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Makes History April 15, 1947 It is opening day at Ebbets Field, the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Today they are playing the Boston Braves. The crowd is excited. The crowd is always excited on opening day. But this day is special for another reason. All along the third-base line fans peer across the bright green diamond. They try to see the new player that the whole country has been talking about. He is over in the Dodgers’dugout. He sits by himself. He looks nervous, and his teammates leave him alone.

Soon the announcer begins to call out the Dodgers'names. One by one the players run out onto the field. The stands erupt with a deafening roar. Finally the new player's name is called. Someone pats him on the back. Then he jogs to first base with a funny pigeon-toed stride that soon will be famous everywhere. Who is this player? And why is this day so special?

He is Jackie Robinson. He's twenty- seven years old. And he's just become the first black man to play major-league baseball in the twentieth century. Today about a quarter of all major-league ballplayers are black. But in 1947 the world is a very different place. Many hotels will not give rooms to black people. Many restau- rants will not serve food to black people. In the South there are separate schools for white children and black children. Even drinking fountains have signs. They say “For whites only.”

For more than fifty years major-league baseball has been for whites only too. But not anymore. Not with Jackie Robinson in the Dodger lineup. Black fans have their hopes riding on Jackie. They know it is not easy being the first man to cross the“color line” in baseball. During the season Jackie is booed by people in the stands. They call him awful names. They tell him to go back to the cotton fields, where he belongs. On the field it isn't any better. Pitchers throw bean balls--balls aimed right at Jackie's head. Runners try to spike him with the sharp cleats on their shoes. At home he gets hate mail. There are letters that threaten to kill him, beat up his wife, and kidnap their baby son.