Jack Roosevelt Robinson made a historic entrance into Major League Baseball in 1947 as the first African-American player in the history of the game.
His outstanding debut season netted him the inaugural Rookie of the Year award, which now bears his name, and spring-boarded him to a stellar 10-season career in which he was part of six Brooklyn Dodger pennant-winners, among them the World Championship club of 1955.
In 1949, The six-time all-star won the National League batting title (.342) en route to earning MVP honors. Robinson, a first baseman as a rookie, starred as a second baseman for the next five seasons, before moving on to play third base and the outfield.
He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
Dodgers Club House
Jackie Robinson #42 1947 Brooklyn 1956
Jackie Robinson #42
June 4, 1972
Jack Roosevelt Robinson made his historic entrance in 1947 as the first Black player in MLB's history.
His outstanding debut season netted him the inaugural Rookie of the Year award, which now bears his name.
In 1949, the six-time All-Star won the NL batting title en route to earning MVP honors.
Jackie RobinsonThere's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.
Jackie RobinsonI'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.
Jackie RobinsonA life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era.
Jackie Robinson:
Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
When the Dodgers signed Robinson, it heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s.
Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
During his 10-year MLB career, Robinson won the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, was an All-Star for six consecutive seasons from 1949 through 1954, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949-the first black player so honored.
Robinson played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Series championship.
In 1997, MLB retired his uniform number 42 across all major league teams; he was the first professional athlete in any sport to be so honored.
MLB also adopted a new annual tradition, "Jackie Robinson Day", for the first time on April 15, 2004, on which every player on every team wears No. 42.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919. After Robinson's father left the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena, California. The extended Robinson family established itself on a residential plot containing two small houses at 121 Pepper Street in Pasadena.
1935 Robinson enrolled at John Muir High School (Muir Tech). At Muir Tech, Robinson played numerous sports at the varsity level and lettered in four of them: football, basketball, track, and baseball.
After Muir, Robinson attended Pasadena Junior College, where he continued his athletic career by participating in basketball, football, baseball, and track.
1940 After graduating from PJC in spring 1939, Robinson enrolled at UCLA, where he became the school's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track. In track and field, Robinson won the 1940 NCAA championship in the long jump at 24 ft 10 1⁄4 inches.
1942 Robinson was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit at Fort Riley (in Kansas).
1944 After his discharge, Robinson then accepted an offer from his old friend and pastor Rev. Karl Downs to be the athletic director at Samuel Huston College in Austin.
1945 while Robinson was at Sam Huston College, the Kansas City Monarchs sent him a written offer to play professional baseball in the Negro leagues. In all, 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 East–West All-Star Game.
1946 Robinson arrived at Daytona Beach, Florida, for spring training with the Montreal Royals of the Class AAA International League. Robinson proceeded to lead the International League that season with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage, and he was named the league's Most Valuable Player.
1947 the Dodgers called Robinson up to the major leagues six days before the start of the season.
Robinson made his debut in a Dodgers uniform wearing number 42 on April 11, 1947, in a preseason exhibition game against the New York Yankees at Ebbets Field with 24,237 in attendance. On April 15, Robinson made his major league debut at the relatively advanced age of 28 at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators. Robinson became the first player since 1884 to openly break the major league baseball color line.
Robinson finished the season having played in 151 games for the Dodgers, with a batting average of .297, an on-base percentage of .383, and a .427 slugging percentage. He had 175 hits (scoring 125 runs) including 31 doubles, 5 triples, and 12 home runs, driving in 48 runs for the year. Robinson led the league in sacrifice hits, with 28, and in stolen bases, with 29. His cumulative performance earned him the inaugural Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award (separate National and American League Rookie of the Year honors were not awarded until 1949)
1948 Robinson took over second base, where he logged a .980 fielding percentage that year (second in the National League at the position, fractionally behind Stanky). Robinson had a batting average of .296 and 22 stolen bases for the season.
1949 Robinson raised his batting average from .296 in 1948 to .342 in 1949. In addition to his improved batting average, Robinson stole 37 bases that season, was second place in the league for both doubles and triples, and registered 124 runs batted in with 122 runs scored. For the performance Robinson earned the Most Valuable Player Award for the National League. Baseball fans also voted Robinson as the starting second baseman for the 1949 All-Star Game-the first All-Star Game to include black players.
Jackie RobinsonBatting HelpIn the spring of 1949, Robinson had turned to Hall of Famer George Sisler, working as an advisor to the Dodgers, for batting help.
At Sisler's suggestion, Robinson spent hours at a batting tee, learning to hit the ball to right field. Sisler taught Robinson to anticipate a fastball, on the theory that it is easier to subsequently adjust to a slower curveball.
Robinson also noted that "Sisler showed me how to stop lunging, how to check my swing until the last fraction of a second".
1950 Robinson led the National League in double plays made by a second baseman with 133. His salary that year was the highest any Dodger had been paid to that point: $35,000. He finished the year with 99 runs scored, a .328 batting average, and 12 stolen bases.
1951 Robinson led the National League in double plays made by a second baseman for the second year in a row, with 137. He finished the season with 106 runs scored, a batting average of .335, and 25 stolen bases.
1952 Robinson had what was an average year for him in 1952. He finished the year with 104 runs, a .308 batting average, and 24 stolen bases. He did, however, record a career-high on-base percentage of .436.
1953 Robinson had 109 runs, a .329 batting average, and 17 steals
1954 Robinson had 62 runs scored, a .311 batting average, and 7 steals.
1955 Robinson won his only championship when the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series. Although the team enjoyed ultimate success, 1955 was the worst year of Robinson's individual career. He hit .256 and stole only 12 bases. Robinson, then 36 years old, missed 49 games.
1956 Robinson had 61 runs scored, a .275 batting average, and 12 steals.
Jackie RobinsonRetired from baseball at age 37 Since Robinson had sold exclusive rights to any retirement story to Look magazine two years previously, his retirement decision was revealed through the magazine, instead of through the Dodgers organization.
Robinson's career is generally considered to mark the beginning of the post–"long ball" era in baseball, in which a reliance on raw power-hitting gave way to balanced offensive strategies that used foot speed to create runs through aggressive base running. Robinson exhibited the combination of hitting ability and speed which exemplified the new era. He scored more than 100 runs in six of his ten seasons (averaging more than 110 runs from 1947 to 1953), had a .311 career batting average, a .409 career on-base percentage, a .474 slugging percentage, and substantially more walks than strikeouts (740 to 291).
Robinson was one of only two players during the span of 1947–56 to accumulate at least 125 steals while registering a slugging percentage over .425 (Minnie Minoso was the other). He accumulated 197 stolen bases in total, including 19 steals of home. None of the latter were double steals (in which a player stealing home is assisted by a player stealing another base at the same time).
Jackie RobinsonRobinson has been referred to by author David Falkner as "the father of modern base-stealing"
In his first year of eligibility for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, he was elected on the first ballot, becoming the first black player inducted into the Cooperstown museum.
On June 4, 1972, the Dodgers retired his uniform number, 42.
On October 24, 1972, Robinson died of a heart attack at his home on 95 Cascade Road in North Stamford, Connecticut; he was 53 years old.
After his death in 1972, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his achievements on and off the field.
121 Pepper Street, Pasadena Ca
95 Cascade Road, North Stamford, Connecticut
