Jack "Jackie" Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, GA, USA in 1919 and grew up in Pasadena, CA, USA.
Jackie's older brothers Frank and Matthew "Mack" Robinson inspired him to pursue athletics when he was in high school (notably Mack Robinson was a silver medalist at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin in the 200 meters sprint). In December 1941, Jackie was a running back for the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the minor professional American football league, the Pacific Coast Football League when he was drafted to the World War II United States Army in which he served from 1942 to 1944. Later after the war in early 1945, Jackie signed with the Kansas City Monarchs of the professional baseball league, the Negro American League.
In November 1945, Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Major League Baseball (MLB) Brooklyn Dodgers signed Jackie to join the Brooklyn Dodgers organization. Before playing with this organization, he played with the "post-season barnstorming" California Winter League team at the time called the Kansas City Royals (same name, different franchise as current MLB Kansas City Royals). On February 10, 1946, Jackie and his fiance Rachel Isum were married.
In the 1946 season, Jackie played for the Brooklyn Dodgers' affiliate, the Montreal Royals, of the minor professional league, the Class AAA International League. In the off-season in Fall 1946, he played minor professional basketball for the Los Angeles Red Devils.
Jackie made his Major League Baseball preseason exhibition game debut at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, NY, USA on April 11, 1947 against the cross-city rival the New York Yankees, then his regular season MLB debut, also at Ebbets Field on April 15, 1947 against the Boston Braves.
Over his 10-season MLB career, in 1382 regular season games, Jackie had a regular season .311 batting average, .409 on-base percentage, and .474 slugging percentage with 734 Runs Batted In ("RBI"s), 137 Home Runs, 54 Triples, 273 Doubles, and 197 Stolen Bases. In the six seasons his team made the postseason/playoffs, in 38 games, Jackie had a postseason .234 batting average, .335 on-base percentage, and .343 slugging percentage with 12 Runs Batted In ("RBI"s), 2 Home Runs, 1 Triple, 3 Doubles, and 6 Stolen Bases.
Notably, 19 of Jackie's career stolen bases (both regular season and postseason) were of home plate, including in Game 1 of the 1955 World Series against the New York Yankees of which Yogi Berra was catcher for.
1955 was the one season Jackie and the Brooklyn Dodgers won the World Series in his career. Jackie also was a 6-time MLB All-Star, was the 1947 MLB Rookie of the Year, the 1949 National League Batting Champion and MVP, and was the NL Stolen Base Leader in 1947 and 1949.
Jackie is a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, and his number 42 is retired by all current MLB teams. Since 2004, every April 15 is considered "Jackie Robinson Day" in the MLB with all MLB players playing that day wearing number 42 on their jerseys.
Jackie and his wife Rachel had three children who were born between the years 1946 and 1952. On November 19, 1965, their eldest son Jackie Robinson Jr. was wounded in action as part of the United States Army serving in the Vietnam War. Back in USA civilian life, on June 17, 1971, at the age of 24, Jackie Robinson Jr. was killed in a single-vehicle automobile crash on Merritt Parkway near Route 123 in the state of Conneticut.
On October 24, 1972, Jackie Robinson Sr. died of a heart attack at his home in North Stamford, CT at the age of 53. He had suffered a previous heart attack in 1968 and complications of heart disease and diabetes had made him almost blind before his death.
Jonathan's Past Reading on Jackie Robinson:
- Stealing Home: The Jackie Robinson Story (biography, 1990) by Barry Denenberg
- Stealing Home (fiction novel, 2006) by Ellen Schwartz
- The Boys of Summer (non-fiction novel, 1972) by Roger Kahn
- 42: The True Story of an American Legend (film, 2013)
1 分