The Legacy of Jackie Robinson – He Still Impacts the Game

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.