Almost 79 years since he signed his contract to play baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson still impacts the game.
Every April, all the players in the major leagues don his number 42 in his honor. His number is retired across all of major league baseball, and his impact on players of color is there for all to see.
He has a statue outside of Dodger Stadium at the pavilion entrance along with another Dodger icon, Sandy Koufax. There are actually 8 statues of Robinson around the country. There is one at UCLA where he went to college.
Two of the more famous to Dodger fans are the one in Youngstown Ohio, which depicts Jackie being greeted at home by George Shuba, and one in Brooklyn showing Jackie and Pee Wee caught in the moment Pee Wee put his arm around Jackie at Crosley Field.
For those who do not know that story, Jackie was getting death threats if he tried to play in Cincinnati. Pee Wee came over, put his arm around Jack letting him know he was not alone.
The other day, a statue of Jackie in Wichita Kansas was stolen and then melted down. Donations to replace the statue are pouring in. He still stirs controversy today.
I only saw clips of him playing in the World Series. But you could see the determination and desire to beat you on his face. He played hard. I cannot fathom the amount of abuse he had to endure.
I believe it is a shame he left the game and went into business instead, but he always marched to his own drum. He could have taught young players a lot.
You can name the number of players who have impacted the game like he has on the fingers of one hand. Players who virtually changed the game.
Babe Ruth changed the game from finesse to power with his homers. Robinson paved the way for players of color to become MLB stars.
Roberto Clemente was the first Latino star, and in many ways I feel his number should be retired too. Not only for his extraordinary skills on the field, but his humanitarian efforts also.
Maury Wills brought back the stolen base, and Ricky Henderson turned it into a lethal weapon. How many runners have stolen 100 or more bases in a season? Four. Wills, Brock, Vince Coleman, 3 times, and Henderson, three.
With Jackie, it wasn’t how many steals he had, 37 was his top mark, and he had 200 in his career. He was also caught 76 times, so his percentage was around 3-1. It was when and the way he did it. He could get in a pitchers head to where he wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the hitter.
He also loved stealing home. He did it 19 times. He was also caught stealing home 12 times. And many forget, he was a natural SS, but because the Dodgers had Reese, he began his career playing first base. He stayed there until Hodges took over and then moved to second.
He would also play some third base and outfield for the Dodgers. It was a disappointment for him that he was not on the field when the Dodgers clinched their first championship. Don Hoak was playing third.
I have a baseball card of Jackie in a SF Giants uniform. It is one of those what if cards. Topps did a lot of them. I did not realize for many years that there was no Duke Snider Topps 1951 card. But there is a 51 Snider by Bowman.
Jackie as a Giant is a copy of a 1959 Topps. They did a Campy 59 too, but he is shown as a Dodger coach. One of the reasons Jackie’s performance declined his last two seasons was the onset of diabetes. Many players today can control the disease, but in the mid-50’s, it was not so.
After his worst season, he was traded to the Giants for Dick Littlefield, but the trade never went through. The Dodgers did not know it, but Robinson had already agreed to retire and take an executive position with Chock full o’Nuts.
He had also sold the rights to any retirement story to Look magazine, so his retirement was announced through Look and not the Dodgers.
One of the reasons he did not retire and work for the Dodgers had to be his dislike of owner Walter O’Malley. That started in 1950 after Branch Rickey was bought out by O’Malley. Walter had referred to Robinson as Rickey’s prima donna. That was because Jackie had gone to Hollywood and played himself in the movie, “The Jackie Robinson Story”.
Even though his career was relatively short, 10 years, he was named to the All-Century team in 1999. Jackie was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, 1962 with 77.5% of the vote. Bob Feller went in with him.
His jersey, 42, was retired in a ceremony at Dodger Stadium on June 4, 1972, along with Sandy Koufax and Roy Campanella.
Jackie was active in many different areas after he retired. But his work for civil rights was a passion of his. The ROY in the major leagues is called the Jackie Robinson Award.
Jackie has had one of the more lasting impacts on the sport of baseball. It is recognition earned the hard way.
Thanks for another good one, Bear.
Jackie is one of the most important athletes of all time. Perhaps the most important. When SI was doing it’s “Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century” thing, I would argue it should be between Jackie and Ali. How do we define “greatness”? (I think SI took a narrow path and chose Michael Jordan, who failed at baseball.)
It’s not really fair to judge Jackie’s career stats. He was 28 when he debuted in Brooklyn and played 10 years–but if not for institutional racism he could have played for 16-17 years. He and other stars who transitioned from the Negro Leagues are shortchanged (of course) by the record books.
But a “what if?” with Jackie is tricky. What if he didn’t go to UCLA and went straight to pro ball? What if he didn’t serve in WWII? The war cost a lot great players some career stats–but for a just cause, not an unjust one.
I read somewhere that Duke Snider, who grew up in Compton when it was a white suburb of LA, talked about how he and friends traveled to UCLA to witness Jackie in action. It was said that Jackie wore his track silks under his baseball jersey. He warmed up for baseball, then stripped down to quickly win the long jump, and then got back to the baseball field. (A lot people forget that his big brother Mack finished second to Jesse Owens in the ’36 Hitler Olympics)
As a ballplayer, Jackie was probably the most disruptive force of his time. It’s hard to imagine the pressure he faced (though “42” with the late Chadwick Boseman did a pretty good job.) Maury and Ricky Henderson later took on that disruptive role.
Jackie’s legacy is one of reason why it’s nice to be a Dodgers fan. So glad it was Branch Rickey and Dodgers, not the Giants or any other team, that had the vision and cojones to sign Jackie. And he proved to be perfect in the role.
In other matters, I wonder if Jackie would go after Adames and Devin Williams….
“He still stirs controversy today.”
How in the world can that possibly be? I think we know why.
He was the right man for that assignment. But a lot of hate was directed at this good and decent man for many years. He died at age 53.
Bear always intersting insights any chance you do one on Wills?
On another matter, I just now learned that, according to Jacob DeGrom, both he and Scherzer expect to return to the Rangers at midseason.
Just another reason to think that Kershaw will be back with the Dodgers.
I don’t buy players jerseys anymore, as players tend to leave. As of now I’ve not purchased an Ohtani, or ever even had a Kersh (greatest LA Dodger ever).
So, the only 4 jerseys of my teams that I have, and wear, are Jackie Robinson, Kobe Bryant, Walter Payton, and Wayne Gretzky.
I saw TONS of new Ohtani jerseys yesterday amongst the 35,000 at Dodgerfest. I also saw way more Freemans than I thought i would. I had my #42 on, along with a brand new pair of Hoka’s which I swear are the most comfy shoes I’ve ever worn!
I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” –
JACKIE ROBINSON
There was some trade talk yesterday and while I don’t like to get involved in trade scenarios, I wanted to put in my two cents. The Dodgers need young controllable players because they can’t keep buying talent at the price it has been going for.
Swapping Adames for Lux seems very short sighted. Including Outman in a Lois Robert trade might help get Robert but that would give the Dodgers one outfielder for 2025.
If the Dodgers really want to improve the left side defense then they should start with third base and not shortstop. Third baseman made 8932 assists and were involved in 921 double plays in 2023. Shortstops had 11,913 assists and involved in 2535 double plays in 2023.
Unless most of the worry is about Lux being able to turn a double play it looks like with the ball being hit to third about the same amount of times as it is hit to short that defense at 3rd is meaningful.
Somewhat random notes. Forgive me if already posted, but I couldn’t read another silly post about Adames.
ESPN says Kershaw widely expected to sign a 2-year deal if/when he next signs. Dave Roberts seems to imply there’s no urgency for him to sign.
@Dodgerfest Ohtani said he’s been hitting soft toss and off of a tee at Dodger Stadium, and plans to start hitting in the cages once he reports to spring training in Arizona. “If very confident that I’m right on schedule — not ahead or behind schedule,” Ohtani said at the Saturday event and went on with, “As long as there’s no setbacks going forward, I should be ready.”
Also @Dodgerfest Roberts let it be known that Buehler will start the season on the IL. He added, “… but the rehab work looks great.”
When there is not a lot of interesting LAD or baseball going on, I check in on twitter to see what baseball could be trending. Here are a few I felt like posting. Enjoy…or not.
I don’t think Mookie wanted to take a full polar plunge.
How about this for an athletic move?
Bobby Miller is 6’5” 220 pounds. Even next to Miller, Tyler Glasnow is a BIG boy.
https://twitter.com/THEREAL_DV/status/1754197803889496216?s=20
And then check him out near Jason Heyward and Freddie.
A lot of neck up farmers’ tans, especially Outman.
And then one of my all-time favorite Dodgers:
I liked the Ken Burns treatment of Robinson, and for baseball fans here, if you haven’t had the opportunity to watch his Baseball documentary, I can’t encourage you enough to do it. Once upon a time I taught high school History. I actually showed it and used it a lesson. Burns, IMO, did a masterful job of showing the parallel developments in baseball as reflections of the broader changes in American society. Showing Baseball was a good way, I thought, in getting young minds to think laterally and recognize larger trends versus just looking at History in an individual vacuum.
Robinson was not a wallflower. Prejudice made him angry, and he often showed his anger. Both Rickey and he understood that, for this experiment to work, he had to suppress that anger and turn the other cheek. They both understood that he was going to be subject to incredible amounts of abuse, and he had to rise above it.
Also, he wasn’t a stereotype. He grew up in Southern California. He went to UCLA. He wasn’t easy to typecast as a typical Southern negro by typical Southern racists, and he carried himself with dignity. He was serendipitously the right person at the right time.
Al McBean has passed away at the age of 85. McBean was the first pitcher, and just one of 15 players who have come from the Virgin Islands. He pitched for the Pirates mostly, but spent parts of two seasons, 69-70 with the Dodgers. He pitched in 32 games and had a 2-6 record.
One of the reasons I picked the painting of Jackie is that it really shows his intensity. The man came to win.
From MLB All underrated team:
“Relief pitcher: Brusdar Graterol, Dodgers
Look at how Graterol’s numbers over the past four seasons compare to one of the most heralded, decorated (and well-compensated) relievers in the sport:
Graterol: 158 ERA+, 173 2/3 innings, 1.05 WHIP, 3.5 K/BB
Josh Hader: 160 ERA+, 184 innings, 1.05 WHIP, 3.5 K/BB
Graterol does not possess Hader’s strikeout stuff, but he’s been every bit as effective thanks to his extreme ground-ball and weak-contact tendencies and his ability to limit walks at an elite rate.”
Anthony Castrovince
Per Jon Heyman Caleb Ferguson going to the Yankees. Terms and player(s) to follow.
Two morning notes:
Caleb Ferguson being traded to the NYY.
• Return is (according to Joel Sherman, pretty good with Yankee info IMO): Haven’t been told the names of the prospects, but were described to me as a faraway prospect who has pitched in the Dominican Summer League the past few years and a Quadruple-A type pitcher. (Matt Gage being the latter, I think.)
•That leaves Vesia, Yarborough and Paxton as the only lefties?
•Has to be opening a spot for some lefty, somewhere.
Keith Law released his top 100 prospects. ($$$)
• https://theathletic.com/5245693/2024/02/05/top-100-mlb-prospects-2024-keith-law/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mlbtw&source=mlbtw
• He’s high on River Ryan and De Paul1
• Five (5) Dodgers made the list.
There’s been a disconnect between Caleb and the front office ever since they sent him down in 2022. I really don’t think he’s been happy here. It was time for a divorce. I know Mark is expecting big things from Fergie this year, but now the Yankees will reap the benefit (if you’re right about that, Mark).
Considering Sherman’s description of what we’re getting back, this definitely looks like a move to clear space for an incoming reliever. Williams? Brassier? A lefty to take Fergie’s place? Stay tuned.
Welcome back Mr. Brassier!
Dodgers re-signing Brasier and trading Ferguson to the Yankees for two prospects.
Brasier
2 years – $9m
One of the players they are receiving for Ferguson is LHRP Matt Gage, Gage is 30 years old and has 16 games of big-league experience with Toronto and Houston. He is 0-1 with a 1.83 ERA in those games. His WHIP is 1.068. He has 20 K’s and 9 walks in 19.2 innings in the majors.
The Dodgers are re-signing right-hander Ryan Brasier, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s a two-year, $9MM deal for the ALIGND Sports Agency client, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, with the possibility for Brasier to earn a total of $13MM via incentives.
One pitcher coming back to LAD is LHRP Matt Gage who NYY just picked up off waivers from Houston. So that means that another spot has to be cleared since Gage needs to go onto the 40 man.
Sorry Bums, but Bobby Witt just signed an 11 year, $288mil deal with KC.
The two pitchers the Dodgers received in the Caleb Ferguson trade.
A little of Matt Gage:
A little of Christian Zazueta:
Good swap. Ferguson out, Brasier in. Ferguson is not good under pressure. Considering the good swap, even if the return is not good it’s worth it.
I don’t know if it was necessary or not to trade Ferguson because of the 40 man roster crunch, I haven’t looked. Even if it wasn’t necessary, maybe something good for the bullpen is coming.
I’d like to see a spot for Hurt in the bullpen. I don’t know if it’s there or not.
And please go to a 6 man rotation, because I’m high on Sheehan.
Just my 2 cents.
It does not bother me one bit that they traded Ferguson. He imploded a few times last season and when he got in trouble, he seemed to throw pitches right down the middle of the plate. Bullpen is loaded with some really good arms. Now trade for Williams and we are set. Marlins are still looking to upgrade at SS.
Andrew Friedman deserves an A grade for his offseason moves big time. Great job.