the Jackie Robinson thread

this section in Empire Strikes Out (Elias, 2012) on Jackie Robinson being used by cold warriors as a counter to Paul Robseon then later regretting it is interesting to me--the last paragraph, especially. The amount of pressure he was under to be The Good Black Man was incredible. pic.twitter.com/mDzod5GmJt

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) January 31, 2019

http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2019/01/jackie-robinson-in-celebration-of-his-100th-birthday-six-sites-to-visit-in-brooklyn-and-queens.html

Happy 100th Birthday Jackie! #JR100 pic.twitter.com/CBXC8ZmY4j

— Dick Allen (@DickAllen_15) January 31, 2019

I mentioned this in one of the Dock Ellis threads: in the DE documentary there's audio of Ellis reading an encouraging letter Robinson wrote to him at the height of Dock's notoriety, around 1971, and Ellis just bursts out in sobs. It's tremendously moving, and a hint of how much he meant to black players who were kids in the '40s and '50s.

I imagine someone's done this (post a link if you know of anything): what might his career stats have been if he'd debuted at 20 or 21 instead of 28? I'd estimate 250 HR, 2,700 hits, 350 SB (when that would have been a huge total), 80 or 85 WAR.

Jay Jaffe did this for SI

https://www.si.com/mlb/2016/04/15/jackie-robinson-statistics-hall-of-fame

other baseball greats born on january 31:
ernie banks (1931)
nolan ryan (1947)
yuniesky betancourt (1982)

I wanted to show my class 42, but a quick check of IMBD and, as expected, lots of language. So I showed them The Jackie Robinson Story instead, which had been sitting on my shelf unwatched for many years.

"N______" turns up once, much to my surprise. (I stopped the film and we talked for a minute.) Other than that, the story is watered down in the way you'd expect (but which is good for kids...or at least good for teachers if you're answerable to a principal and parents). Robinson is okay playing himself. That sounds bizarre, but that's about all you can say; he's okay. I've never heard Branch Rickey talk, but the guy who plays him doesn't look remotely like Rickey, nor does he come across in the way that I always envisioned Rickey to be. Subjective impression--I could be totally wrong. I didn't expect the bulk of the film (we've still got six minutes to go) would be pre-Dodgers.

The thing that's hardest to adjust to--I asked the class if they picked up on this; amazingly, no one seemed to--is how unbelievably slow and stilted the film is. (Typically, they were more concerned about the fact that it's black and white.) It's pretty much on a level with Ed Wood in the pacing department. It eschews corny Hollywood theatrics for big dead empty spaces.

it’s good that they recognize him, and i honestly think mlb does good things regarding diversity (even if the ultimate goal is further profit)

but man they really drive the jackie robinson thing into the ground, as if everything was solved 73 years ago

I think Jackie Robinson said exactly that, standing beside a very agitated Bowie Kuhn 48 years ago.

One of the other volunteers at a Statford vaccination clinic yesterday went to school with Robinson's son David, and he also attended a commencement address given by Robinson a few years later. (He's American, his wife is Canadian.) Also: saw Koufax pitch in Shea Stadium. The only thing he remembers is that he thinks the Mets didn't score, which would narrow it down to one of these three games:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN196207120.shtml
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN196307120.shtml
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN196506120.shtml

I watched 42 today! Some very uncomfortable viewing, I mentioned the Pee Wee Reese moment in my thread maybe, which is supposedly maybe apocryphal but in the context of the film was genuinely heartening ofc.

What Mookieproof says re the unsolved nature of racism in the game was on my mind reading this thread. I liked that the film showed that his teammates didn’t accept him, that there is that scene with Rickey & Reese in the office where the latter is complaining about the hate mail and Rickey just takes out sheafs of hate mail sent to Robinson and hands it to him.

I enjoyed when he was shifting back and forth to fuck with the pitchers on 2nd, but I was also reminded in doing so of something I had read about the play in the Negro Leagues being faster and less staid than the major leagues - and that to this day you will still hear about black players described as being “showboating” or other coded phrases because there is still a lot of thinking that bat flipping, celebrating and fun isn’t playing the game the white way.

It is enraging when you are watching the Phillies manager loudly and clearly repeatedly hurling racial slurs at Robinson, and the announcer was brushing it off as “chirping.”

I thought about how tough he was to live all that, and the bat smashing scene in the dugout is great because it brings the person to life, and for a modern audience it is just underlining how hard it must have been to live with all that hate just for existing and playing the game. It was showing the pain behind the icon, what being the first meant. It’s a decent film, I liked Boseman very much. I would have liked to have seen more of his reactions to all the hate he received, because as tough as he was, it seemed pretty fucking unbearable.

105. I've got a grade 3 kid today who's seen 42 and wanted to tell the class all about him, so that was nice.

I love that. It’s a wonderful film. Watched it again recently.

I still haven't seen it because the Ken Burns documentary set the bar so high I'm resigned to being disappointed. My brother-in-law says I have to see it.

It’s obviously not remotely documentary but it captures the importance of the event and it’s visceral. The film as I saw it very much encourages you to draw parallels between “controversial” contemporary parts of the game, like bat flipping and showmanship, and the whole thing with playing the game the “right” way. I’m not explaining it very well, but Boseman is a wonderful Jackie.

and Alan Tudyk is pretty great at being the ermmm, the thing he had to be.