Seventy-seven years ago, in front of 26,623 fans — more than half of them Black — at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play Major League Baseball.
The 28-year-old Robinson had been the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports at UCLA. He won the 1940 NCAA championship in the long jump but hit only .097 in his one season of baseball.
Robinson served in the Army during World War II, became one of the few Black soldiers admitted to Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a lieutenant. He was nearly kicked out of the Army in 1944 for refusing an order to move to the back of an Army bus. An all-white panel of military judges acquitted him.
He worked briefly as a coach and athletic director before joining the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro baseball leagues, hitting .375 and four home runs in 34 games in 1945.
That’s when Robinson came to the attention of Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey, who was secretly hunting for an African American player with the talent, maturity and temperament to withstand the ugly reaction he was likely to get by breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier.
Robinson was that man. He started out slowly, going hitless in a 5-3 win over the Boston Braves and was still struggling a few weeks later when he was mercilessly insulted from the dugout by the Phillies in Philadelphia. When some teams threatened to boycott games in which Robinson played, Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler countered by promising to suspend striking players.
Robinson’s performance improved over the course of the season. He batted .297 and was named National League Rookie of the Year while the Dodgers finished 94-60 and won their first pennant in six seasons.
Jackie Robinson's Career Major League Stats
Year
Team
G
AB
R
H
HR
RBI
SB
BA
OBP
1947
Brooklyn
151
590
125
175
12
48
29*
.297
.384
1948
Brooklyn
147
574
108
170
12
85
22
.296
.367
1949
Brooklyn
156
593
122
203
16
124
37*
.342*
.432
1950
Brooklyn
144
518
99
170
14
81
12
.328
.423
1951
Brooklyn
153
548
106
185
19
88
25
.338
.429
1952
Brooklyn
149
510
104
157
19
75
24
.308
.440*
1953
Brooklyn
136
484
109
159
12
95
17
.329
.425
1954
Brooklyn
124
386
62
120
15
59
7
.311
.413
1955
Brooklyn
105
317
51
81
8
36
12
.256
.378
1956
Brooklyn
117
357
61
98
10
43
12
.275
.382
* Indicates led the league
In 1949, the Dodgers moved Robinson from first to second base. Robinson went on to lead the league in hitting and in stolen bases that season and was named National League MVP. Robinson went on to play 10 seasons, helping the Dodgers win the 1955 World Series.
By 1956, Robinson was showing his age — 37 — and the effects of diabetes. After he struck out to end Game 7 of the 1956 World Series, Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley traded Robinson to the New York Giants for $35,000 in cash. Robinson declined the trade, retired from baseball and became an executive with the Chock Full o’ Nuts coffee company.
After his departure from the game, Robinson took up high-profile political causes and worked to support civil rights.
He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year of eligibility. He became the first Black TV baseball analyst for ABC Sports in 1965. Robinson died of a heart attack in 1972 at age 53.
In 1987, both the National and American leagues renamed their Rookie of the Year awards after Robinson. In 1997, every MLB club retired Robinson’s jersey number, 42. In 2004, players throughout the league were invited to wear No. 42 on April 15, which became known as Jackie Robinson Day.
The Changing Look of Major Baseball
After Robinson pried the door open for African Americans in the major leagues, the percentage of Black players peaked in 1981. The percentage of Black MLB players has dropped every year since, even as numbers of Latino and Asian players has increased. One theory: Baseball requires expensive equipment, which prices minorities out of the sport at an early age.
Source: Major League Baseball
Sources:
“I Never Had It Made” by Jackie Robinson, “Numbelievable!” by Michael X. Ferraro and John Veneziano, Baseball-Reference.com, Society for American Baseball Research, National Baseball Hall of Fame, Major League Baseball, JackieRobinson.com, Cronkite News, Library of Congress, History.com, Biography.com, Routine.com
