Useful Notes / Jackie Robinson

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Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American baseball player who was a second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1947 to 1956. Although an amazing athlete in many respects, he is most remembered for being the first African-American player to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

Although black players had appeared in top-level professional baseball in the 1870s and '80s,^note William Edward White is typically recognized as the true first black baseball player, though he passed as white, while Moses Fleetwood Walker was the first openly black player. and may have done so very briefly in the 1930s,^note There is some evidence that the cellar-dwelling Washington Senators of the 1930s played a couple of Cuban journeymen for a few games—players who, though not "African-American," would have been regarded as "black" in either the 1930s or the 1920s, some 10 years or so before Jackie Robinson. The rest of the MLB owners, realizing the Senators were desperate to avoid bankruptcy in those Depression years, chose to look the other way, and the incidents were mostly memory-holed. an informal but rigidly-enforced "color line" emerged in the major leagues, which led to the creation of the Negro Leagues in the early 20th century.

Robinson, who was a four-sport star at UCLA (baseball, basketball, football, track), actually began his professional sports career in football, which had already started to integrate at its lower levels. However, World War II intervened; Robinson was drafted into the Army, and due to his college education^note He had technically dropped out of UCLA, but only just short of graduation. subsequently qualified to enter Officer Candidate School — one of several Black draftees who fought for and won this right in 1942–43. He was eventually commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 761st Tank Battalion (the "Black Panthers"). He never saw combat, however, due to an an incident where he had nonviolently resisted a racist bus driver's instruction to move to the back of the bus. This led to a Court Martial for insubordination; he was acquitted (by an all-White jury, no less), but not before he missed out on the chance to join the Black Panthers at the Western Front.

After an honorable discharge, Robinson started his professional baseball career playing in the Negro Leagues, but soon thereafter was recruited by Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey for his organization. Robinson was the first African-American player to break into the majors in defiance of the color line, albeit only after a preliminary season with Brooklyn's farm team the Montreal Royals.

As revolutionary as his initial signing was, Robinson arguably changed the game even more once he actually took the field. For instance, in his first game with Montreal against the Jersey City Giants, he had four hits, including a three-run home run. He also scored four runs, drove in three, and stole two bases in the Royals' 14–1 victory, spectacular play you'd expect from a Hollywood movie like The Natural.

Unfortunately, Robinson also endured unending racial abuse, which hit particularly hard in his season with Montreal; he was almost driven to a nervous breakdown, but the local fans helped him weather it as their summertime hero, and that city on an island proved an oasis he was forever grateful to have had. It didn't affect his play any, as he helped lead the Royals to a league championship that season. The challenge was no less daunting after Robinson moved up to play for Brooklyn, but he gradually won the doubters over, to the frustration of the bigots, and even had the support of opposing players like Hank Greenberg (who, being Jewish, was all too familiar with bigotry himself).

On top of being a skilled, versatile fielder who could play practically anywhere on the infield and outfield, Robinson defied the pure-slugging approach of his contemporaries, instead combining power with incredible speed and plate discipline for a more well-rounded offensive approach, thereby setting a template which generations of ballplayers have followed since. He was the inaugural major-league Rookie of the Year, racked up six All-Star appearances and an NL MVP award, and iconically stole home plate in the 1955 World Series to help the Dodgers finally win their first World Series after 40 years of coming up short.

His impact was so great that his jersey number, 42, is retired across all of MLB. His alma mater of UCLA retired the number—which he never actually wore at the school—in all sports.^note UCLA had previously retired the number in a couple of sports, including men's basketball, for other greats. Robinson was added to the honorees in those sports. April 15, the anniversary of his major league debut, is celebrated yearly by the MLB as Jackie Robinson Day.

He's the Trope Namer for Jackie Robinson Story.

Appears in the following works:

• Brooklyn Bridge (TV show)
• The Jackie Robinson Story, a Non-Actor Vehicle biopic starring Jackie As Himself.
• The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson, a TV biopic covering Robinson's Army service in World War II, starring Andre Braugher in the title role.
• Soul of the Game, an HBO original movie, about the decision to choose Robinson as the first African-American in Major League Baseball, instead of Satchel Paige or Josh Gibson. Robinson is played by Blair Underwood.
• 42, a biopic about Robinson, named after his jersey number, and starring Chadwick Boseman in the central role.
• A fictional counterpart of him named Rackie Jobinson serves as the basis for an extensive quest chain in Fallout Shelter, with various factions searching for his legendary jersey in the ruins of post-nuclear America. The item is one of the most powerful in the game and explicitly references his number 42 in its description.
• He appeared in an episode of Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum, where he teaches the gang that everyone should be treated fairly no matter what and in the remade episode where he teaches the gang that when something isn't right, it takes courage to create change.

Also see:

• Jackie Robinson (2016), a biographical documentary created for PBS by Ken Burns, featuring Jamie Foxx as the voice of Robinson.