1986 Sportflics Decade Greats Jackie Robinson

 

The player: By the numbers, Jackie Robinson was an excellent player with impressive achievements for someone who didn't play their first full major league season until the age of 28. In 1,416 games, he hit .313 with 286 doubles, 55 triples and 141 HR, mostly as a second baseman, in an era when most middle infielders were not good hitters, and especially did not hit for power. His best season was his MVP year of 1949, when he led the NL with a .324 batting average and drove in 124 runs. Impressively, he walked 756 times while only striking out 291 times. Like most Brooklyn Dodgers he struggled in October, however. In six World Series, all against the Yankees, Robinson hit just .234 with 2 HR and 12 RBI. By the time the Dodgers finally won a series near the end of Robinson's career in 1955, he was benched for Game Seven after hitting .182 over the first six games.

The man: As impressive as Robinson's numbers were, they barely cover the importance of the man. No single player, not even Babe Ruth, was more important to the history of baseball, and the greater American society beyond. Early on, at Pasadena Junior College and in the US Army, he stood up to segregation and racism, enduring arrests and court-martials. Dodgers owner Branch Rickey, looking to integrate his team, and by extension the major leagues, saw Robinson as someone with both the skills to succeed on the field and the fortitude to endure with dignity the racist actions he would face. Robinson's success proved to many white Americans the folly of segregation, and the numerous instances of white players and league management supporting Robinson, were important examples of how integration could be achieved. Robinson remained a visible supporter of civil rights after his career, both by actions and by example. He was also the first Black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock Full O'Nuts, where he served as VP of Personnel (the NY-area coffee shop chain had a predominantly Black workforce). He left the company in 1964 to found Freedom National Bank in Harlem (the bank went out of business in 1990) and in 1966 became Special Assistant for Community Affairs to New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller. (A supporter of Rockefeller and Nixon, Robinson stayed with the Republican Party well after most other notable civil rights activists left the party.) Robinson died at the age of 53 in 1952 of a heart attack after years of struggling with diabetes. His widow, Rachel Robinson, who will turn 100 years old in June, as been instrumental in keeping his legacy alive for the past 50 years.

My collection: I do not have any playing-days cards of Robinson. His last card as an active player was 1956 Topps #30.