Did you know?
Each year, Major League Baseball honors the memory of Jackie Robinson – and rightly so.
And every year, while every Major League player wears the number 42 to honor him, broadcasters recall the tremendous difficulties Robinson had to overcome before he would be proclaimed one of the greatest players to ever play the game.
There were vicious opposing players, dissenting teammates and fans who may have loved the game, but who didn’t take to Jackie Robinson or his skin color.
But hardly ever do those broadcasters mention the pressure put on Robinson by his fellow black citizens.
He never asked for it, but he’d become the living embodiment of their aspirations.
Baseball, being the national pastime, had opened a path to perceived equality.
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson had become their standard bearer.
Open racism was tough enough. Exceedingly high expectations from adoring fans, must have been unbearable – if not unrealistic.
The man who helped Robinson break through baseball’s (unwritten) “gentleman’s agreement” that had prevented “Negroes” from ever playing in the big leagues, Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey, could clearly see the pressures being placed on his future superstar.
When the Dodgers took the field on April 15, attendance swelled at Ebbets Field to 26,000 fans – 14,000 of whom were black. Many wanting to sit near the Dodgers dugout to get a chance to see their new hero.
On April 17, just two days after Robinson’s debut, Rickey tried to lighten the weight that had been put on Robinson’s broad shoulders.
“Rickey Asks Fans to Let Robinson Alone,” was the headline atop a UPI story about the massive appeal Robinson had ignited, and the fear that he could be consumed by it.
“He’s not a ballplayer the way things are now. He’s a sideshow attraction. If I had my way about it, I would place a cordon of police around him to give him protection so that he might be a ballplayer,” said Rickey.
He also claimed that even though Robinson had officially been a Brooklyn Dodger for little more than a few hours, he’d already received 5,000 invitations to attend social events and to make public appearances.
By now, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with local history.
It doesn’t, unless you consider that the same Branch Rickey (as the general manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates) made a celebrated appearance at the White Swan Hotel in Uniontown, when he and Pirates president John W. Galbreath helped honor Uniontown High School’s undefeated football team in December of 1951.
It was reported that Rickey elicited a “tremendous standing ovation” after his keynote address, in which he extolled the virtues of self-determination.
“It’s great for a man to believe in what he’s doing. Nothing matters but great, uncompromising giving of one’s self.”
Oh, but I’ve truly buried the lead.
While Rickey’s efforts to help break baseball’s color barrier in 1947 were laudable, it should not be overlooked that he helped break another important barrier.
On Nov. 24, 1954, Uniontown’s Evening Standard’s Sports Editor, Tod Trent, reported that Pirates GM Rickey was “chortling up his sleeve” after he picked up a 20 year-old “bonus youngster” from the same Montreal farm team where Jackie Robinson once played.
His name? Roberto Clemente.
On April 17, 1955, Clemente, who would become the first Hispanic superstar to play in the Major Leagues (thanks again to Branch Rickey), took the field for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Ironically, the Pirates played a doubleheader against the Brooklyn Dodgers led by Jackie Robinson that day.
Clemente went 1-4 in the first game, and he got two hits (including a double) in four at bats in the second game.
The following day the Pirates played the New York Giants. They had their own budding superstar named Willie Mays, who hammered out two triples and a single, in helping his team throttle the Pirates – 12-3.
But young Clemente still showed some of the greatness that would become the hallmark of his Hall of Fame career.
He got an inside the park homerun.
So while April 15 is the day the baseball world honors Jackie Robinson’s momentous achievement, it would be nice if Major League Baseball set aside a little time to honor “21” each year on April 17.
But that’s just me.
听