notes on Jackie RObinson
Brooklyn's Ebbets Field to play his first gamein the major leagues, many Americans wereshocked. The grandson of a slave, Jackiewas the first African American to play for amajor league baseball team in the TwentiethLast year, Jackie Robinson again capturedthe imagination and hearts of millions of Americans as the nation celebrated the 50thanniversary of his historic first game in the majors. President Clinton honored Jackieduring a game in New York, and Major League Baseball retired his number, 42.Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia., on January 31, 1919 to Jerry andMallie Robinson. He grew up in Pasadena, California. In high school and at PasadenaJunior College he showed great athletic skill in track, basketball, football, and baseball. He left school in 1941 and was drafted the following year for Army service during WorldWar II. After receiving a medical discharge in 1945, Jackie Robinson decided to tryout forthe Boston Red Sox, but ended up not making the team. He spent a year playing baseballwith the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League. Later he played in the 1946season with the Montreal Royals, a Dodgers farm club, and led the Internatio
He was being traded for a pitcher named Dick Littlefield and $35,000 in cash. From 1964 to1968 he served as special assistant for civil rights to Governor Nelson Rockefeller of NewYork. Robinson burst upon the scene in 1947 as the first African-Americanplayer in modern major league baseball. His firstmanager in the minor leagues, a Southerner named Clay Hopper,wondered aloud whether "niggers" were really humans. In fact, the required silencewas his most difficult sacrifice, as it wentagainst how he had chosen to live his life. Lacy believed thatJackie's early experiences playing and workingwith whites at UCLA and in the Army gave himan understanding many other black players didnot have, as most had only lived and played insegregated arenas. A dozen years before Rosa Parks became famous for refusing to sit at theback of a bus, Robinson was blazing the path she would follow. Throughout the whole experience,especially in his final years in baseball he usedhis athletic stature and popularity, to turnsociety's focus towards humanity and equalityfor blacks and whites. Robinson is heroic, in part, because of theexcellence of his athletic achievement; andequally important, for his political commitmentto racial equality. The greatest athlete of the 20th century is Jackie Robinson. During his first game, Jackie went hitless in three at-bats, butflawlessly handled 11 chances at first base. Athletes in many sports, notably Arthur Ashe and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,have cited Robinson's influence on their careers and in their lives. Manycurrent athletes wear his uniform number, 42, as a tribute. Robinson received letters from people who threatened to kill him if hedared to step on the field with white players in the National League'ssouthernmost cities, St. "Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey are foreverlinked in American history.
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Acceptance Essays
