Jackie Robinson a true hero

Major League Baseball honored trailblazer Jackie Robinson Sunday on the 60th anniversary of his big-league debut. Here’s another legend, Henry “Hank” Aaron, on why:
“They say certain people are bigger than life, but Jackie Robinson is the only man I’ve known who truly was. In 1947 life in America — at least my America, and Jackie’s — was segregation. It was two worlds that were afraid of each other. There were separate schools for blacks and whites, separate restaurants, separate hotels, separate drinking fountains and separate baseball leagues. Life was unkind to black people who tried to bring those worlds together. It could be hateful. But Jackie Robinson, God bless him, was bigger than all of that.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield

4 Comments

  1. Mrage
    Posted April 17, 2007 at 2:45 am | Permalink

    10 year player, Minnesota Twin, outfielder, has six Gold Glove Awards for his defensive prowess.

    Torii Hunter said:

    I was honored to wear 42. I really don’t think everybody understands.

    Jackie Robinson was special, (He was great at football, track, basketball and baseball earned a scholarship to UCLA, where he was the first student to play on four varsity teams.)

    I don’t think a lot of players know what they’re wearing his number for. I think some players are wearing it because the teams want them to wear it. I don’t think they know what’s behind the number.

    You don’t have to be African-American to know what he went through. You’ve just got to be a smart person or a person who knows what pain is like.

    For the past 10 years, I’ve been called the N-word, like, 20 times. Not in Minnesota. In Kansas City. In Boston.

    I think Jackie Robinson went through a lot just for us to play this game. Had he not gone through that, we probably wouldn’t be playing this game. I probably wouldn’t be here today.

    —-

    Fans can suck what they say in the stands to sports players.

    Everyone should know his history as example of great American during troubling years.

    Over the decades, I did forget he played for the Dodgers and length of time he was in Major League Baseball. I did learn about his life at an early age and appreciated his sports ability.

    I’m glad he only played for the one team in his MLB career. That’s seems really valuable to his legacy.

    So many players change teams now and that can really mess up their legacy. The fewest players can stay great no matter the team they play for.

  2. kelly
    Posted April 17, 2007 at 5:27 am | Permalink

    Jackie Robinson really was special. No doubt about it. I think it gets lost in history, though, that Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians was the first African-American to play in the BIGS in the American League. It is also not widely known that Doby’s first day on the field was only two and a half months after Robinson – so they both broke the race barrier in the same season. It is also noteworthy that it was the Boston Red Sox who were the last team to promote an African-American onto their team. It took Boston about 10 years to come around.

  3. Ben Huie
    Posted April 17, 2007 at 7:56 am | Permalink

    So true. Growing up in the waning days of Jim Crow I remember Robinson as one of the pioneers bringing the idea of equality of the races to the fore. Looking back over the past half-century it is amazing to see the progress. However, it is also sobering to see how far we still have to go.

  4. GMC70
    Posted April 17, 2007 at 9:06 am | Permalink

    Keep in mind that this progress was some 80 years AFTER the Civil War, fought in large part to end slavery, and 7 years BEFORE Brown v. Board of Education, which laid the legal framework for the dismantleing of legal segregation.

    Our history, as a nation, in this regard has been shameful. There has been enormous progress since; today, a black man is a viable candidate, perhaps a “front runner,” for President. But never forget how we got here, and that there is still much to overcome.