Jackie Robinson demonstrated beyond doubt, in a time when there was doubt, that blacks and whites could play sports together and also work together.
“What he did was very important, not just for baseball but for the nation,” New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine said in the most accurate and appropriate observation Tuesday night, summing up the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Hall of Fame baseball pioneer’s shattering of the game’s racial barrier.
A Shea Stadium crowd of between 35,000 and 40,000, which included President Clinton, paid tribute to the ferocious competitor who, much more than any other athlete, changed the face of American professional sports.
“We never knew there would be a celebration like this,” insisted Joe Black, who was among Robinson’s teammates with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Obviously touched by the memories, Black spoke slowly and reflected, “Jackie was my friend, my hero and warrior. He was a great man.”
The son of a sharecropper and the grandson of slaves, Robinson was a natural all-around athlete. Born in Georgia but raised by his mother in California, he was a a collegiate All-American in football and basketball. He quite likely would have been on the Olympic track team if World War II hadn’t erupted. When he left the Army, he became a professional baseball player and in 1947 began a 10-year major-league career that was without precedent.
Robinson died in 1972 at 53. He was 28 when he broke in with the Dodgers and retired after the 1956 season with a .311 lifetime batting average. But statistics, and there are many other brilliant ones, can’t measure his effect on the game.
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Pigeon-toed and with a muscular physique, he was among the best fielders and baserunners of his time. He stole home 20 times, including once in the World Series. He also won the game’s top honors, Rookie of the Year in ’47 and Most Valuable Player in ’49. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year of eligibility.
“To do what he did had to be the most tremendous thing I’ve seen in sports,” said Pee Wee Reese, the Dodgers’ Hall of Fame shortstop. Reese, born and raised in Louisville, placed his arm on Robinson’s shoulder several times when fans were particularly hostile as if to say, “I’m proud he’s among my teammates.”
The official ceremonies Tuesday night lasted about 20 minutes and took place between the fifth and sixth innings of the game between the Mets and Dodgers.
Bud Selig, baseball’s acting commissioner, opened the program with the ultimate tribute: He announced Robinson’s uniform number, 42, will be retired, never to be issued again by a major-league club to any player, manager or coach. Those currently wearing 42 will be allowed to do so until the end of their careers.
“Number 42 belongs to Jackie Robinson for the ages,” Selig said. “Major-league baseball has operated under the premise that no single person is greater than the game. But Jackie Robinson was bigger than the game.”
He also described Robinson’s April 15, 1947 big-league debut as baseball’s “proudest moment . . . which helped make us a better country.”
Selig then introduced President Clinton.
“It’s hard to believe that 50 years ago at Ebbets Field, a 28-year-old rookie changed the face of baseball and the face of America forever,” the president said. “Jackie Robinson scored the go-ahead run (driven in by Gene Hermanski) that day, and we have been trying to catch up ever since.
“Every American should say a special word of thanks to Jackie Robinson, because he proved that America is a better, stronger, richer country when we all work together. And we should remember that Jackie Robinson’s legacy did not end with baseball.
“Afterward, he spent the rest of his life trying to open other doors and keep them open for all kinds of people. He knew that education, not sports, was the key to success. And he took that message to young people wherever he went.
“Had he been here tonight, he would tell us, `We’ve done a lot of good in the last 50 years. but we can do better.’ “