The Nov. 1, 1945 issue of The Sporting News devoted nearly three full pages to the delicate matter of \u201cJohn Roosevelt (Jackie) Robinson, age 26, Negro,\u201d signing a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers\u2019 minor league affiliate in Montreal, even as writer Dan Daniel protested in the third paragraph of the lead item that it was all much ado about nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is quite conceivable that the story has received far more attention than it is worth,\u201d Daniel wrote, before adding in the next paragraph: \u201cRobinson has not been signed by the Dodgers, and insofar as can be discerned, never will play for the Brooklyn club in the National League.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baseball establishment types quoted in that issue parroted the main talking point of the time when it came to integration: It wasn\u2019t a question of prejudice, they claimed; Black players simply weren\u2019t good enough to play in the majors. That assertion flew in the face of evidence plenty of fans had witnessed personally while watching barnstorming tours that occasionally pitted AL and NL stars against their Negro Leagues counterparts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Robinson hitting a league-leading .349 for Montreal in 1946 further gave lie to that notion. It became a matter of when, not if, he would get the call to Brooklyn and change the game forever. That day arrived on April 15, 1947, when Robinson donned his No. 42 jersey and started at first base for the Dodgers against the Boston Braves, going 0 for 3 and scoring a run. He would be named Rookie of the Year at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was in college I used to think that the time would come when Negroes would be in major league ball as they are in other sports,\u201d he told Sporting News correspondent Ward Morehouse after his debut, \u201cbut I didn\u2019t think it would be in my time and I never dreamed that I would be the first.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But he was, and his courage and resolve changed the game and impacted the United States forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In April 1997, then-National League president Leonard Coleman wrote a piece for The Sporting News commemorating the 50th anniversary of Robinson\u2019s debut. He noted that it came before the United States military, in which Robinson had served during World War II, was desegregated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was seven years before Brown vs. the Board of Education,\u201d Coleman wrote, \u201cEight years before the Montgomery bus boycott, and 17 years before the Johnson Administration passed the Civil Rights Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
Would all of those monumental steps on the path to equality have occurred anyway? Perhaps, but what Robinson did in not merely suiting up in the major leagues but quickly proving himself one of the game\u2019s best players served as a high-profile rebuttal to all of the manufactured excuses that had excluded Blacks from that slice of American life for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cJackie was a true Hall of Famer. There’s no question about that,\u201d Coleman wrote. \u201cBut off the field, he was a Hall of Fame barrier-breaker because he knocked down hurdles and created opportunities for peoples in all walks of life. \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, Jackie Robinson provided the soul of the modern game of baseball. The Robinson ideal\u2014leadership, competitiveness, passion, energy, a quest for justice and Jackie’s challenge to a stained system\u2014should be the foundation upon which the modern game of baseball should be played. \u2026 Jackie’s spirit continues to drive us. Jackie once said, \u2018A life isn’t important unless it impacts another life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
By that measure, it\u2019s easy to see why Jackie Robinson sits atop this list.<\/p>\n
SN ARCHIVE: An appreciation for Jackie Robinson (April 14, 1997)<\/a><\/p>\n