Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category:
PAK Honors Jackie Robinson for Black History Month
Born in Cairo, Georgia on January 31, 1919, Jackie Robinson was the youngest of 5 children. In 1935, Robinson graduated from Washington Junior High School and enrolled at John Muir High School (Muir Tech), where he excelled in Basketball, Baseball, track and football. In 1939, while at UCLA, Robinson became the school’s first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track. Baseball was considered his “worst sport” at UCLA, where he hit .097 in his only season.
After a short stint in the military, Robinson (in 1945) received a written offer to play professional baseball in the Negro leagues for the Kansas City Monarchs. Robinson played 47 games at shortstop for the Monarchs, hitting .387 with five home runs, and registering 13 stolen bases. He also appeared in the 1945 Negro League All-Star Game.
After being scouted and interviewed by club president and General Manager Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers, it was publicly announced (on October 23, 1945) that Robinson would be assigned to the Montreal Royals (farm league) for the 1946 season. The following year, six days before the start of the 1947 season, the Dodgers called Robinson up to the major leagues. On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators, including more than 14,000 black patrons. Robinson became the first player since the 1880’s to openly break the major league baseball color line. Black fans began flocking to see the Dodgers when they came to town, abandoning their Negro league teams. Robinson’s major league debut brought an end to approximately sixty years of segregation in professional baseball, known as the baseball color line.
Beginning his major league career at the relatively advanced age of twenty-eight, he played only ten seasons, all of them for the Brooklyn Dodgers. During his career, the Dodgers played in six World Series, and Robinson himself played in six All-Star Games. In 1999, he was posthumously named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. On October 24, 1972, he died of a heart attack at home in Stamford, Connecticut, aged fifty-three
On April 15, 1997, Robinson’s jersey number, 42, was retired by Major League Baseball; no future player on any major league team can wear it. As an exception to the retired-number policy, MLB has recently begun honoring Robinson by allowing players to wear number 42 on April 15, Jackie Robinson Day.
Jackie Robinson Memorial
Jackie Robinson-Negro Leagues
