Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day on April 15 in honour of Robinson’s pro debut in 1947, when he became the first African American player to play in the majors.
The league honoured Robinson by retiring his iconic jersey number 42 across the majors on April 15, 1997. Jackie Robinson Day started to be officially celebrated in 2004, and players and on-field personnel started to wear number 42 on Jackie Robinson Day every year since 2009.
Jackie Robinson was born on Jan. 31, 1919, in Cairo, Ga. He was the youngest of five children and was raised by a single mother. His athletic career began at Pasadena Junior College in California as a four-sport athlete, excelling in basketball, football, track and field, and baseball.
He enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1939 as a four-sport athlete. According to NCAA.com, Robinson excelled at every sport he played and had the potential to compete in the 1940 and 1944 Olympics as a track and fielder if it wasn’t cancelled due to the Second World War.
Robinson served in the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant from 1942 to 1944. During boot camp, he was arrested and court-martialled in 1944 for refusing to give up his seat and move to the back of the segregated bus. After the public was aware of the situation, combined with Robinson’s good reputation, he was acquitted of the charges and was honourably discharged.
Robinson’s ability to stand up to racial segregation would prove to have a major impact on the game of baseball.
After Robinson’s military career was over, he began to play baseball professionally. In 1945, he joined the Negro Baseball League and played for the Kansas City Monarchs. He would only play five months in the league before the Brooklyn Dodgers’ President, Branch Rickey, scouted and signed him to the organization.
Before playing for the Dodgers, Robinson’s journey took him to Canada. He spent one season with the Montreal Royals, the Triple-A International League affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers. In his season with the Royals in 1946, he had a .349 batting average, 25 doubles, eight triples, three home runs, 66 runs batted in, and 40 stolen bases in 124 games.
Robinson recalled in a 1964 CBC interview that fans in Montreal treated him better than American fans.
After a great first professional season, it was time for Robinson to make his major league debut. The following season, on April 15, 1947, he became the first African-American player to play in the MLB when he played his first game against the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.
Throughout Robinson’s rookie season, he faced a lot of racist comments by fans, opposing teams, and even some of his teammates threatened to sit out the season. According to the Philadelphia Baseball Review, the Philadelphia Phillies manager Ben Chapman and a few Phillies players were screaming racial slurs towards Robinson.
Robinson finished his dominant rookie season by winning MLB’s first-ever Rookie of the Year award and finished fifth in the National League MVP voting. He finished the year with 12 home runs, 31 doubles, five triples, 48 RBIs, and 29 stolen bases.
Robinson had an amazing 10-year career with the Dodgers, winning the National League MVP in 1949, was a six-time all-star, and helped the Dodgers win a World Series title in 1955. He retired hours after being traded to cross-town rivals, the New York Giants. Robinson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
Jackie Robinson died on Oct. 24, 1972, at the age of 53 years old. Robinson’s legacy will forever be remembered not only on April 15, but every day because of the colour barriers he broke, which created a path for so many African-American players to pursue the game of baseball and will continue to pursue baseball to this day.
