Jackie Robinson and the Story of All Black Baseball

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 restaurants 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. The pressure gets to Jackie. After only a few games he falls into a batting slump. He makes an out twenty times before getting a hit.
But Jackie doesn’t quit. It is hard to take the insults without fighting back. It is hard to be “the first.” But he knows one thing. If other black players are to get a chance in the big leagues, he has to keep quiet and keep playing.
Jackie pulls out of his slump and starts showing what he’s got. By the end of season he is hitting .296. He leads the Dodgers in runs scored and stolen bases. He has belted twelve home runs-the most any Dodger has hit this season.
With every hit, with every stolen base, with every run scored, Jackie wins more fans. Wherever the Dodgers play, the stands are packed with people who want to see Jackie. There is even a train just for fans going to some Dodgers-Reds games in Cincinnati. It is called the Jackie Robinson Special.
By the middle of the season other teams start signing up black players too. It is the beginning of the end for whites-only baseball.