The Importance of Jackie Robinson Day
The 1947 reintegration of MLB by the Dodgers should be honoured by all fans
Today is being celebrated as Jackie Robinson Day throughout Major League Baseball. This is the 79th anniversary of the day that, Jackie, the most important, courageous, ground-breaking, Hall-of-Fame pioneer made his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As such, I am pleased to share this column I wrote in recognition of this historic anniversary, last year, April 15, 2025.
I regret that I never was able to meet and shake Jackie Robinson’s hand before he passed away on Oct. 24, 1972, losing a long battle that many believe was related to the stress and diabetes that had combined to shorten his Hall-of-Fame career. Robinson had just delivered to the baseball world, weeks before, in Cincinnati, an impassioned World Series interview at Riverfront Stadium, talking about how far the game had obviously come since he made his debut 26 years earlier, but also how far it had to go, especially with regard to the hiring of African-American managers, of which there were none, at the time.
But despite never meeting the man, I was fortunate enough in 1996, as Toronto Star columnist, to meet, shake hands and interview his widow, then 74-year-old, Rachel Robinson, in the lobby of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, sitting down for a lengthy session in support of my feature, a 50-year celebration of his accomplishments, his one season with the Montreal Royals in 1946. I found myself mesmerized by her charisma, magnetism and the power of her personality.
That encounter with Mrs. Robinson remains in my experience as the most impressive person I have spoken to or interviewed in 54 years as a PR person and columnist. Rachel Robinson recently celebrated her 103rd birthday and is still a vital part of their Foundation, providing youth education opportunities.
Back in ‘96, Rachel was in Montreal for dedication of a statue featuring Jackie, reaching out his hand to children, that the Expos had commissioned at the site of Delorimier Downs, home of the Royals. Montreal had played a major role in the pioneering Robinson journey. He had previewed the first season of his Dodgers’ tenure with the Triple-A Royals, in 1946. In addition, he was an invited CBC TV analyst for a handful of games in 1972, alongside Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Dave Van Horne. However, I missed those moments, as I did not begin my MLB career with the Expos until Opening Day of 1973.
The Montreal Royals season for Robinson was a key tranche of Dodgers’ president Branch Rickey’s plan to integrate “America’s pastime”. He knew about Montreal, that despite any flaws in its historical ranking of social acceptance, this was the best chance to ease his man into the firmament of certain racist resistance to the re-integration of the game that was to come.
Now, rest assured, we are aware there remains an ugly undercurrent of racism throughout North America, that is even more apparent now, perpetrated and encouraged by those that see this despicable behaviour from their leaders.
Montreal was never exempt from that behaviour … but still better than most. Back in ’96, as part of my research, I interviewed the late jazz pianist Charlie Biddle in the nightclub that bore his name. When I let him know the theme I was addressing, he began a slow burn. His dissent, his negative attitude towards my premise included mistreatment of athletes like the hockey pioneer, Willie O’Ree and others that had never made it but that Charlie insisted were equal victims of the quietly racist pro sports fraternity in which he grew up and then lived.
From a personal standpoint, still on that ’96 trip of enlightenment, I observed an example of the quiet attitude that Biddle insisted was still there. It was so subtle it may have been overlooked in other circumstance. The statue dedication press conference was about to get underway in a conference room of the Queen E. I was standing at the back as a reporter. It had been a long day for Rachel as she quietly asked a hotel employee for a glass of water. He shushed her and said the program was about to begin. Moments later, the president’s wife, as he was beginning his turn at the podium, in praise of Jackie, asked that same hotel employee for a glass of wine. He retreated and came back with what I assume was their finest white.
On April 15, all 30 MLB teams celebrate Jackie Robinson Day. In ‘26, this is the 79th anniversary of his debut at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn, with Dodgers president Branch Rickey as the architect of an opening day move that ended the sport’s disgraceful, unofficial 20th Century colour barrier. The couple had been married in California in 1945 in order to begin this lifetime journey together. Rachel was 23-years-old during that historic ’46 season with the Royals.
In past interviews, Mrs. Robinson called Montreal “Heaven on earth.” Without the success of that season, in a city that respected Jackie and Rachel’s privacy, allowing them to regroup between racist body blows in their adopted hometown. It allowed Jackie to take a deep breath, to feel that Rachel was safe when the team was on the road and to feel respected when the team was playing at home, always with an understanding of what they would be up against in the majors. Baseball’s Noble Experiment, might have ended in failure and set the American Civil Rights Movement back for years, if not for the subtle success of Montreal.
Rickey chose Robinson as his man because he believed he had the necessary courage “not” to fight back and the necessary baseball skills to be an all-star. In that one season in Montreal, Jackie hit .349, with 113 runs, 66 RBIs, 25 doubles, eight triples, three homers and 40 steals. He was named International League MVP.
Among the incidents the Royals 27-year-old second baseman endured, was a black cat thrown onto the field in from of the Royals dugout in Syracuse, plus the visitors clubhouse in Baltimore, located as a separate building in deep right field, being surrounded by fans yelling they would lynch Robinson because of a hard slide in the game. They crowd dispersed well after midnight. It should be noted that one of the few teammates to remain with Jackie and confront the AAA-Orioles fans was Al Campanis, who went on to become Dodgers GM. Of course, there were hotels that would not let him stay. restaurants that would not let him eat and countless racial slurs being thrown from the minor-league stands and opposing dugouts.
There is no doubt the Dodgers’ icon is the Most Important Player in major-league history. Certainly, Babe Ruth saved the sport from the gambling crisis of the 1919 World Series, famously labelled the Black Sox Scandal. Cal Ripken’s relentless work ethic and consecutive games played streak saved the game’s reputation coming out of the great strike of ‘94, but Robinson’s contribution in 1947 and beyond was more societal. He was MLB’s vehicle for breaking the unwritten colour barrier that had existed since the late 19th century via a wink-and-a-nod agreement among major-league owners to keep players of obvious colour excluded.
The arrival of Robinson to the NL and of Larry Doby to the Indians in the AL, wasn’t a Road to Damascus enlightening moment for every owner. The integration of the game was gradual. Consider, it took until 1959 before the Red Sox fielded its first black player, utility third-baseman Pumpsie Green.
Fenway Park, after all, had been the place where on April 16, 1945, while still with the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs, Jackie Robinson was offered a tryout in Boston. As he went through his paces, a voice from the deep shadows of the stands, back in the ballpark’s lower deck yelled “Get the N--- off the field.” Who was that? It should be noted that only team employees were in the ballpark at that time.
So, let’s celebrate how far pro sports has come, but also acknowledge how far society has to go. Hopefully players that choose to wear the No. 42 jerseys for Wednesday’s games, understand the significance and feel the responsibility to the man that they honour.
Here’s to you Jackie and here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson.
I lived on Chicago’s South Side from 1963 until 1969. I was age 5 when we moved in. I’ll share what that was like, since most under 50 and those who have never lived in a major city have probably never experienced that sort of racial pressure cooker over a multi year period.
Cubs Hall Of Fame outfielder Billy Williams was one of the first black homeowners in our area when he bought a home at 74th & Constance. White and black Cubs players visited the Williams house regularly, which couldnt have happened before Jackie Robinson’s time. He truly changed society, not just baseball. And this wasnt in the South, it was in Urban Chicago. Mixed neighborhoods werent a thing yet. When a black family bought a home on an all white street there was an immediate reaction, typically harrasment to drive them away and if that didnt work and another black family bought on the street then the whites typically moved away.
It was a bit different with Billy Williams. The fact that he was a Cubs player meant that “White Flight” didnt immediately begin, but when the next black family moved in, well, the For Sale signs started popping up and over a 5 year period our neighborhood went from 100% white to 100% black. We were in the last 20% who moved, after Martin Luther King’s assasination. My younger brother was beaten up by black youths, there were black gangs going down the street damaging whites homes the same way white gangs had damaged and harrassed the original black families when they moved onto an all white street.
I dont have a racist bone in my body. My brother, who was attacked by the black gang as an eight year old, has been blatantly racist his whole life. I have wondered occasionally if I would be as colorblind if I had been the one beaten up. I was robbed at knifepoint by a black teen but if wasnt anything that ever seemed to affect me, for whatever reason, neither with regards to my lack of prejudice nor to my lack of fear in urban areas of being a crime victim. But my brother was definitely affected, imo, for life by that incident. For me, Billy Williams is still my hero.