"JACKIE ROBINSON".- Baseball Player

Story of jackie robinson he is baseball player

Jackie Robinson, byname of Jack Roosevelt Robinson, (born January 31, 1919, Cairo, Georgia, U.S.—died October 24, 1972, Stamford, Connecticut), the first Black baseball player to play in the American major leagues during the 20th century. On April 15, 1947, Robinson broke the decades-old "colour line" of Major League Baseball when he appeared on the field for the National LeagueBrooklyn Dodgers. He played as an infielder and outfielder for the Dodgers from 1947 through 1956.

Robinson led that league in batting average in 1946 and was brought up to play for Brooklyn in 1947. He was an immediate success on the field. Leading the National League in stolen bases, he was chosen Rookie of the Year. In 1949 he won the batting championship with a .342 average and was voted the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP).

His personal experiences were quite different. Fans hurled bottles and invectives at him. Some Dodger teammates openly protested against having to play with an African American, while players on opposing teams deliberately pitched balls at Robinson's head and spiked him with their shoes in deliberately rough slides into bases. Not everyone in baseball was unsupportive of Robinson. When players on the St. Louis Cardinals team threatened to strike if Robinson took the field, commissioner Ford Frick quashed the strike, countering that any player who did so would be suspended from baseball. Dodger captain Pee Wee Reese left his position on the field and put an arm around Robinson in a show of solidarity when fan heckling became intolerable, and the two men became lifelong friends. However, with the ugly remarks, death threats, and Jim Crow laws that forbade a Black player to stay in hotels or eat in restaurants with the rest of his team, Robinson's groundbreaking experience in the major leagues was bleak. Of this period Robinson later stated

His career in baseball was stellar. His lifetime batting average was .311, and he led the Dodgers to six league championships and one World Seriesvictory. As a base runner, Robinson unnerved opposing pitchers and terrorized infielders who had to try to prevent him from stealing bases.

Jackie Robinson:-Plenty of times I wanted to haul off when somebody insulted me for the color of my skin, but I had to hold to myself. I knew I was kind of an experiment. The whole thing was bigger than me.