Red Barber
Born	February 17, 1908 Columbus, Mississippi
Died	October 22, 1992(1992-10-22) (aged 84) Tallahassee, Florida
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Florida
Occupation	American sportscaster

Walter Lanier "Red" Barber (February 17, 1908 – October 22, 1992) was an American sportscaster.

Barber, nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds (1934–38), Brooklyn Dodgers (1939–1953), and New York Yankees (1954–1966). Like his fellow sports pioneer Mel Allen, Barber also gained a niche calling college and professional football in his primary market of New York City.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Barber was born 1908 in Columbus, Mississippi. He was a distant relative of poet Sidney Lanier and writer Thomas Lanier Williams. The family moved to Sanford, Florida in 1918 and, at the age of 21, he hitchhiked to Gainesville and enrolled at the University of Florida, majoring in education. During his first year he worked at various jobs including part-time janitor at the University Club. There in January 1930 Barber got his start in broadcasting.

An agriculture professor had been scheduled to appear on WRUF, the university radio station, to read a scholarly paper over the air. When the professor's absence was discovered minutes before the broadcast was to begin, janitor Barber was called in as a substitute. Thus the future sportscaster's first gig was reading "Certain Aspects of Bovine Obstetrics".^[1] After those few minutes in front of a microphone, Barber decided to switch careers. He became WRUF's director and chief announcer and covered Florida football games that autumn. Then he dropped out of school to focus on his radio work. After four more years at WRUF he landed a job broadcasting the Cincinnati Reds on WLW and WSAI when Powel Crosley, Jr., purchased the team in 1934.

On Opening Day 1934 (April 17), Barber attended his first major league game and broadcast its play-by-play, as the Reds lost to the Chicago Cubs 6-0. He called games from the stands of Cincinnati's renamed Crosley Field for the next five seasons.

Brooklyn Dodgers[link]

Barber had been hired by Larry MacPhail, then president of the Reds. When MacPhail moved on to be president of the Dodgers for the 1939 season, he took the play-by-play man along. In Brooklyn, Barber became an institution, widely admired for his folksy style. He was also appreciated by people concerned about Brooklyn's reputation as a land of "dees" and "dems".

Barber became famous for his signature catchphrases, including these:

• "They're tearin' up the pea patch" – used for a team on a winning streak.
• "The bases are F.O.B. (full of Brooklyns)" – indicating the Dodgers had loaded the bases.
• "Can of corn" – describing a softly hit, easily caught fly ball.
• "Rhubarb" – any kind of heated on-field dispute or altercation.
• "Sittin' in the catbird seat" – used when a player or team was performing exceptionally well. This expression was the title of a well-known story by James Thurber. According to a character in Thurber's story, the expression came from Red Barber, but according to Barber's daughter, her father did not begin using the expression until after he had read the story.
• "Walkin' in the tall cotton" – also used to describe success.
• "Slicker than boiled okra" – describing a ball that a fielder was unable to get a grip on.
• "Easy as a bank of fog" – describing the graceful movement of a fielder.
• "Tighter than a new pair of shoes on a rainy day" – describing a closely contested game.
• "Tied up in a croker sack" – describing a one-sided game where the outcome was all but decided.

To further his image as a Southern gentleman, Barber would often identify players as "Mister", "big fella", or "old" (regardless of the player's age):

• "Now, Mister Reiser steps to the plate, batting at .344."
• "Big fella Hatten pitches, it's in there for strike one."
• "Old number 13, Ralph Branca, coming in to pitch."

A number of play-by-play announcers including Chris Berman have adopted his use of "back, back, back" to describe a long fly ball with potential to be a home run. Those other announcers are describing the flight of the ball^{[citation needed]} but Barber was describing the outfielder in this famous call from Game 6 of the 1947 World Series. Joe DiMaggio was the batter:

• "Here's the pitch, swung on, belted ... it's a long one ... back goes Gionfriddo, back, back, back, back, back, back ... heeee makes a one-handed catch against the bullpen! Oh, Doctor!"

The phrase "Oh, Doctor" was also picked up by some later sportscasters, most notably Jerry Coleman, who was a New York Yankee infielder during the 1940s and 50s and later worked alongside Barber in the Yankees' radio and TV booths.

In Game 4 of that same 1947 Series, Barber memorably described Cookie Lavagetto's ninth-inning hit to break up Bill Bevens' no-hitter and win the game at once:

• "Wait a minute ... Stanky is being called back from the plate and Lavagetto goes up to hit ... Gionfriddo walks off second ... Miksis off first ... They're both ready to go on anything ... Two men out, last of the ninth ... the pitch ... swung on, there's a drive hit out toward the right field corner. Henrich is going back. He can't get it! It's off the wall for a base hit! Here comes the tying run, and here comes the winning run! ... Well, I'll be a suck-egg mule!"

In 1939 Barber broadcast the first major-league game on television, on experimental NBC station W2XBS. In 1946 he added to his Brooklyn duties a job as sports director of the CBS Radio Network, succeeding Ted Husing and continuing through 1955. There his greatest contribution was to conceive and host the CBS Football Roundup, which switched listeners back and forth between broadcasts of different regional college games each week.

For most of Barber's run with the Dodgers, the team was broadcast over radio station WMGM (later WHN) at 1050 on the AM dial. From the start of regular television broadcasts until their move to Los Angeles, the Dodgers were on WOR-TV, New York's Channel 9. Barber's most frequent broadcasting partner in Brooklyn was Connie Desmond.

Barber developed a severe bleeding ulcer in 1948 and had to take a leave of absence from broadcasting for several weeks. Dodgers president Branch Rickey arranged for Ernie Harwell, the announcer for the minor-league Atlanta Crackers, to be sent to Brooklyn as Barber's substitute in exchange for catcher Cliff Dapper.

As head of CBS Sports and host of his television program, Red Barber's Club House, 1949.

While running CBS Sports, Barber became the mentor of another redheaded announcer. He recruited the Fordham University graduate Vin Scully for CBS football coverage, and eventually invited him into the Dodgers' broadcast booth to succeed Harwell in 1950 (after the latter's departure for the crosstown New York Giants).

Barber was the first person outside the team's board of directors to be told by Branch Rickey that the Dodgers had begun the process of racial desegregation in baseball, which led to signing Jackie Robinson as the first black player in the major leagues after the 1880s. As a Southerner, having lived with racial segregation as a fact of life written into law, Barber told Rickey that he wasn't sure he could broadcast the games, but he said he would try. Observing Robinson's skill on the field and the way Robinson held up to the vicious abuse from opposing fans, Barber became an ardent supporter of him and the black players who followed, including Dodger stars Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe. (This story is told in Barber's 1982 book, 1947: When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball.)

During this period, Barber also broadcast numerous World Series for Mutual radio and in 1948 and 1952 for NBC television, frequently teaming with Yankees announcer Mel Allen. He also called New York Giants football from 1942 to 1946, as well as several professional and college football games on network radio and TV, including the NFL Championship Game, Army-Navy Game, and Orange Bowl.

New York Yankees[link]

Barber wanted a higher fee from Gillette, sponsor of the 1953 World Series on television, than was originally offered. When Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley refused to back him, Barber declined Gillette's fee and Vin Scully partnered with the Yankees' Mel Allen during the series. According to baseball historian Curt Smith, it was O'Malley's lack of support that led to Barber resigning from the Dodgers later that October.

Soon afterward the crosstown Yankees hired Barber. Just before the start of the 1954 season, surgery resulted in permanent deafness in one ear. In 1955 he took his long-running television program Red Barber's Corner from CBS to NBC. It ran from 1949 until 1958.

With the Yankees, Barber strove to adopt a strictly neutral, dispassionately reportorial broadcast style, avoiding not only partisanship but also any emotional surges that would match the excitement of the fans. He'd already had a reputation as a "fair" announcer while with the Dodgers, as opposed to a "homer" who openly rooted for his team from the booth. Some fans and critics found this later, more restrained Barber to be dull, especially in contrast with Mel Allen's dramatic, emotive style.

Barber described the ways they covered long fly balls as one of the central differences between Allen and himself. Allen would watch the ball. Thus his signature call, "That ball is going, going, it is GONE!", sometimes turned into, "It is going ... to be caught!" or "It is going ... foul!" Barber would watch the outfielder, his movements and his eyes, and would thus be a better judge whether the ball would be caught. This is evident in his famous call of Gionfriddo's catch (quoted above). Many announcers say "back, back, back" describing the ball's flight. On the Gionfriddo call Barber is describing the action of the outfielder, not the ball.

Curt Smith, in his book Voices of Summer, summarized the difference between Barber and Allen in these words: "Barber was white wine, crepes suzette, and bluegrass music. Allen was hot dogs, beer, and the U.S. Marine Corps Band. Like Millay, Barber was a poet. Like Sinatra, Allen was a balladeer. Detached, Red reported. Involved, Mel roared."

Under the ownership of CBS in 1966, the Yankees finished tenth and last, their first time at the bottom of the standings since 1912 and after more than 40 years of dominating the American League. On September 22, paid attendance of 413 was announced at the 65,000-seat Yankee Stadium.^[2] Barber asked the TV cameras to pan the empty stands as he commented on the low attendance. Although denied the camera shots on orders from the Yankees' head of media relations, he said, "I don't know what the paid attendance is today, but whatever it is, it is the smallest crowd in the history of Yankee Stadium, and this crowd is the story, not the game." By a horrible stroke of luck, that game was the first for CBS executive Mike Burke as team president. A week later, Barber was invited to breakfast where Burke told him that his contract wouldn't be renewed.

Later life[link]

After his dismissal by the Yankees in 1966, Barber retired from baseball broadcasting. He wrote several books, including his autobiography, Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat; contributed to occasional sports documentary programs on radio and television; and from 1981 until his death made weekly contributions to National Public Radio's Morning Edition program. He would talk to host Bob Edwards about sports or about other topics including the flora at his home in Tallahassee, Florida. Barber would call Edwards "Colonel Bob", referring to the Kentucky Colonel award to Edwards by his native state.

Red Barber died in 1992 in Tallahassee, Florida. In 1993, Edwards' book Fridays with Red: A Radio Friendship (ISBN 0-671-87013-0), based on his Morning Edition segments with Barber, was published.

Honors[link]

Barber with wife Lylah and daughter Sarah, 1950.

The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association inducted Barber into its Hall of Fame in 1973. In 1978, Barber joined former colleague Mel Allen to become the first broadcasters to receive the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. In 1979, he was recognized with a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Florida, given a Gold Award by the Florida Association of Broadcasters, and inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame. In 1984, Barber was part of the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame’s inaugural class which included sportscasting legends Don Dunphy, Ted Husing, Bill Stern and Graham McNamee. Barber was given a George Polk Award in 1985 and a Peabody Award in 1990 for his NPR broadcasts, and in 1995 he was posthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

The Red Barber Radio Scholarship is awarded each year by the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications to a student studying sports broadcasting.

A WRUF microphone used by Barber during the 1930s is part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's collection. It has been displayed in the museum's "Scribes and Mikemen" exhibit, and from 2002 to 2006 it was featured as part of the "Baseball as America" traveling exhibition.

See also[link]

Biography portal

• List of University of Florida honorary degree recipients

Bibliography[link]

• Barber, Red (1954). The Rhubarb Patch: The Story of the Modern Brooklyn Dodgers. New York: Simon and Schuster. 
• Barber, Red; Creamer, Robert (1968). Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-8032-6136-5. 
• Barber, Red (1969). Walk in the Spirit. New York: Dial Press. 
• Barber, Red (1970). The Broadcasters. New York: Dial Press. ISBN 0-306-80260-0. 
• Barber, Red (1971). Show Me the Way to Go Home. Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox. ISBN 0-664-20901-7. 
• Barber, Red (1982). 1947: When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-17762-3. 
• Edwards, Bob (1993). Fridays with Red: A Radio Friendship. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-87013-0. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• Red Barber at the National Radio Hall of Fame
• Baseball Memories: The Red Barber Centennial - NPR Morning Edition Feb. 15, 2008
• Fan essay on Red Barber
• Baseball Hall of Fame - Frick Award recipient
• Red Barber at Find a Grave
• Red Barber Collection at University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries
• Red Barber Radio Scholarship
• Red on the Phil Silvers Show
• Audio: Barber calls Cookie Lavagetto's base hit in Game 4 of the 1947 World Series
• Audio: Barber calls Al Gionfriddo's catch in Game 6 of the 1947 World Series

Jackie Robinson
Second baseman
Born: (1919-01-31)January 31, 1919 Cairo, Georgia, U.S.
Died: October 24, 1972(1972-10-24) (aged 53) Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 15, 1947 for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Last MLB appearance
October 10, 1956 for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Career statistics
Batting average	.311
Hits	1,518
Home runs	137
Runs batted in	734
Stolen bases	197
Teams
Negro leagues Kansas City Monarchs (1945) International League Montreal Royals (1946) Major League Baseball Brooklyn Dodgers (1947–1956)
Career highlights and awards
6× All-Star (1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954) Negro League All-Star selection (1945) World Series champion (1955) 1949 NL MVP 1947 MLB Rookie of the Year Jersey number 42 retired by all MLB teams Major League Baseball All-Century Team
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction	1962
Vote	77.5% (first ballot)

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American baseball player who became the first black Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era.^[1] Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As the first black man to play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for six decades.^[2] The example of his character and unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation, which then marked many other aspects of American life, and contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement.^[3][4]

In addition to his cultural impact, Robinson had an exceptional baseball career. Over ten seasons, he played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Championship. He was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games from 1949 to 1954,^[5] was the recipient of the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949—the first black player so honored.^[6] Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams.

Robinson was also known for his pursuits outside the baseball diamond. He was the first black television analyst in Major League Baseball, and the first black vice-president of a major American corporation. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American-owned financial institution based in Harlem, New York. In recognition of his achievements on and off the field, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.

Early life[link]

Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, into a family of sharecroppers in Cairo, Georgia, during a Spanish flu and smallpox epidemic. He was the youngest of five children, after siblings Edgar, Frank, Matthew (nicknamed "Mack"), and Willa Mae.^[7][8] His middle name was in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt, who died twenty-five days before Robinson was born.^[9][10] After Robinson's father left the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena, California.^[11][12][13] The extended Robinson family established itself on a residential plot containing two small houses at 121 Pepper Street in Pasadena. Robinson's mother worked various odd jobs to support the family.^[14] Growing up in relative poverty in an otherwise affluent community, Robinson and his minority friends were excluded from many recreational opportunities.^[15] As a result, Robinson joined a neighborhood gang, but his friend Carl Anderson persuaded him to abandon it.^[15][16][17]

John Muir High School[link]

In 1935, Robinson graduated from Washington Junior High School and enrolled at John Muir High School (Muir Tech).^[18] Recognizing his athletic talents, Robinson's older brothers Mack (himself an accomplished athlete and silver medalist at the 1936 Summer Olympics)^[17] and Frank inspired Jackie to pursue his interest in sports.^[19][20] At Muir Tech, Robinson played several sports at the varsity level and lettered in four of them: football, basketball, track, and baseball.^[13] He played shortstop and catcher on the baseball team, quarterback on the football team, and guard on the basketball team. With the track and field squad, he won awards in the broad jump. He was also a member of the tennis team.^[21]

In 1936, Robinson won the junior boys singles championship in the annual Pacific Coast Negro Tennis Tournament and earned a place on the Pomona annual baseball tournament all-star team, which included future Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Bob Lemon.^[22] In late January 1937, the Pasadena Star-News newspaper reported that Robinson "for two years has been the outstanding athlete at Muir, starring in football, basketball, track, baseball and tennis."^[23]

Pasadena Junior College[link]

After Muir, Robinson attended Pasadena Junior College (PJC), where he continued his athletic career by participating in basketball, football, baseball, and track.^[24] On the football team, he played quarterback and safety. He was a shortstop and leadoff hitter for the baseball team, and he broke school broad jump records held by his brother Mack.^[13] As at Muir High School, most of Jackie's teammates were white.^[22] While playing football at PJC, Robinson suffered a fractured ankle, complications from which would eventually delay his deployment status while in the military.^[25][26] Also while at PJC, he was elected to the Lancers, a student-run police organization responsible for patrolling various school activities.^[27] In 1938, he was elected to the All-Southland Junior College Team for baseball and selected as the region's Most Valuable Player.^[20][28] That year, Robinson was one of ten students named to the school's Order of the Mast and Dagger (Omicron Mu Delta), awarded to students performing "outstanding service to the school and whose scholastic and citizenship record is worthy of recognition."^[29]

An incident at PJC illustrated Robinson's impatience with authority figures he perceived as racist—a character trait that would resurface repeatedly in his life. On January 25, 1938, he was arrested after vocally disputing the detention of a black friend by police.^[30] Robinson received a two-year suspended sentence, but the incident—along with other rumored run-ins between Robinson and police—gave Robinson a reputation for combativeness in the face of racial antagonism.^[31] Toward the end of his PJC tenure, Frank Robinson (to whom Robinson felt closest among his three brothers) was killed in a motorcycle accident. The event motivated Jackie to pursue his athletic career at the nearby University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he could remain closer to Frank's family.^[20][32]

UCLA and afterward[link]

Robinson in his UCLA track uniform

After graduating from PJC in spring 1939,^[33] Robinson transferred to UCLA, where he became the school's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track.^[34][35] He was one of four black players on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team; the others were Woody Strode, Kenny Washington, and Ray Bartlett. Washington, Strode, and Robinson made up three of the team's four backfield players.^[36] At a time when only a handful of black players existed in mainstream college football, this made UCLA college football's most integrated team.^[37][38] In track and field, Robinson won the 1940 NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship in the Long Jump, jumping 24'10.5".^[39] Belying his future career, baseball was Robinson's "worst sport" at UCLA; he hit .097 in his only season, although in his first game he went 4-for-4 and twice stole home.^[40]

While a senior at UCLA, Robinson met his future wife, Rachel Isum, a UCLA freshman who was familiar with Robinson's athletic career at PJC.^[41] In the spring semester of 1941, despite his mother's and Isum's reservations, Robinson left college just shy of graduation.^[42] He took a job as an assistant athletic director with the government's National Youth Administration (NYA) in Atascadero, California.^[43][44][45]

After the government ceased NYA operations, Robinson traveled to Honolulu in fall 1941 to play football for the semi-professional, racially integrated Honolulu Bears.^[43][45] After a short season, Robinson returned to California in December 1941 to pursue a career as running back for the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the Pacific Coast Football League.^[46] By that time, however, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had taken place, drawing the United States into World War II and ending Robinson's nascent football career.^[43]

Military career[link]

Robinson in his Army uniform, ca. 1943, during a visit to his home in Pasadena, California, receiving a military salute from his nephew Frank

In 1942, Robinson was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas. Having the requisite qualifications, Robinson and several other black soldiers applied for admission to an Officer Candidate School (OCS) then located at Fort Riley. Although the Army's initial July 1941 guidelines for OCS had been drafted as race-neutral, practically speaking few black applicants were admitted into OCS until after subsequent directives by Army leadership.^[47] As a result, the applications of Robinson and his colleagues were delayed for several months.^[48] After protests by heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis (then stationed at Fort Riley) and the help of Truman Gibson (then an assistant civilian aide to the Secretary of War),^[49] the men were accepted into OCS.^[43][48][50] This common military experience spawned a personal friendship between Robinson and Louis.^[51][52] Upon finishing OCS, Robinson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in January 1943.^[35] Shortly afterward, Robinson and Isum were formally engaged.^[48]

After receiving his commission, Robinson was reassigned to Fort Hood, Texas, where he joined the 761st "Black Panthers" Tank Battalion. While at Fort Hood, 2LT Robinson often used his weekend leave to visit the Rev. Karl Downs, President of Sam Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson University) in nearby Austin, Texas; Downs had been Robinson's pastor at Scott United Methodist Church while Robinson attended PJC.^[30][53]

An event on July 6, 1944 derailed Robinson's military career.^[54] While awaiting results of hospital tests on the ankle he had injured in junior college, Robinson boarded an Army bus with a fellow officer's wife; although the Army had commissioned its own unsegregated bus line, the bus driver ordered Robinson to move to the back of the bus.^[55][56][57] Robinson refused. The driver backed down, but after reaching the end of the line, summoned the military police, who took Robinson into custody.^[55][58] When Robinson later confronted the investigating duty officer about racist questioning by the officer and his assistant, the officer recommended Robinson be court-martialed.^[55][59] After Robinson's commander in the 761st, Paul L. Bates, refused to authorize the legal action, Robinson was summarily transferred to the 758th Battalion—where the commander quickly consented to charge Robinson with multiple offenses, including, among other charges, public drunkenness—even though Robinson did not drink.^[55][60]

By the time of the court-martial in August 1944, the charges against Robinson had been reduced to two counts of insubordination during questioning.^[55] Robinson was acquitted by an all-white panel of nine officers.^[55] Although his former unit, the 761st Tank Battalion, became the first black tank unit to see combat in World War II, Robinson's court-martial proceedings prohibited him from being deployed overseas, thus he never saw combat action.^[61]

After his acquittal, he was transferred to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, where he served as a coach for army athletics until receiving an honorable discharge in November 1944.^[62] While there, Robinson met an ex-player for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League, who encouraged Robinson to write the Monarchs and ask for a tryout.^[63] Robinson took the ex-player's advice and wrote Monarchs' co-owner Thomas Baird.^[64]

Post-military[link]

After his discharge, Robinson briefly returned to his old football club, the Los Angeles Bulldogs.^[46] Robinson then accepted an offer from his old friend and pastor Rev. Karl Downs to be the athletic director at Sam Huston College in Austin, then of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.^[65] The job included coaching the school's basketball team for the 1944–45 season.^[53] As a fledgling program, few students tried out for the basketball team, and Robinson even resorted to inserting himself into the lineup for exhibition games.^[65][66] Although his teams were outmatched by opponents, Robinson was respected as a disciplinarian coach,^[53] and drew the admiration of, among others, Langston University basketball player Marques Haynes, a future member of the Harlem Globetrotters.^[67]

Baseball career[link]

Negro leagues[link]

Robinson in uniform for the Kansas City Monarchs

In early 1945, while Robinson was at Sam Huston College, the Kansas City Monarchs sent him a written offer to play professional baseball in the Negro leagues.^[53][68] Robinson accepted a contract for $400 ($5,164 in 2012 dollars^[69]) per month, a boon for him at the time.^[43][70] Although he played well for the Monarchs, Robinson was frustrated with the experience. He had grown used to a structured playing environment in college, and the Negro leagues' disorganization and embrace of gambling interests appalled him.^[71][72] The hectic travel schedule also placed a burden on his relationship with Isum, with whom he could now only communicate by letter.^[73] In all, Robinson played 47 games at shortstop for the Monarchs, hitting .387 with five home runs, and registering 13 stolen bases.^[74] He also appeared in the 1945 Negro League All-Star Game, going hitless in five at-bats.^[75]

During the season, Robinson pursued potential major league interest. The Boston Red Sox held a tryout at Fenway Park for Robinson and other black players on April 16.^[76] The tryout, however, was a farce chiefly designed to assuage the desegregationist sensibilities of powerful Boston City Councilman Isadore Muchnick.^[77] Even with the stands limited to management, Robinson was subjected to racial epithets.^[78] Robinson left the tryout humiliated,^[76] and more than fourteen years later, in July 1959, the Red Sox became the last major league team to integrate its roster.^[79]

Other teams, however, had more serious interest in signing a black ballplayer. In the mid-1940s, Branch Rickey, club president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, began to scout the Negro leagues for a possible addition to the Dodgers' roster. Rickey selected Robinson from a list of promising black players, and interviewed Robinson for possible assignment to Brooklyn's International League farm club, the Montreal Royals.^[80] Rickey was especially interested in making sure his eventual signee could withstand the inevitable racial abuse that would be directed at him.^[4][81] In a famous three-hour exchange on August 28, 1945, Rickey asked Robinson if he could face the racial animus without taking the bait and reacting angrily—a concern given Robinson's prior arguments with law enforcement officials at PJC and in the military.^[43] Robinson was aghast: "Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?"^[81][82] Rickey replied that he needed a Negro player "with guts enough not to fight back."^[81][82] After obtaining a commitment from Robinson to "turn the other cheek" to racial antagonism, Rickey agreed to sign him to a contract for $600 a month, equal to $7,746 today.^[83][84]

Although he required Robinson to keep the arrangement a secret for the time being, Rickey committed to formally signing Robinson before November 1, 1945.^[85] On October 23, it was publicly announced that Robinson would be assigned to the Royals for the 1946 season.^[43][84][86] On the same day, with representatives of the Royals and Dodgers present, Robinson formally signed his contract with the Royals.^[87] In what was later referred to as "The Noble Experiment",^[43][88] Robinson was the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s.^[89] Robinson was not necessarily the best player in the Negro leagues,^[90] and black talents Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson were upset when Robinson was selected first.^[91]

Rickey's offer allowed Robinson to leave the Monarchs and their grueling bus rides behind, and he went home to Pasadena. That September, he signed with Chet Brewer's Kansas City Royals, a post-season barnstorming team in the California Winter League.^[92] Later that off-season, he briefly toured South America with another barnstorming team, while his fiancée Isum pursued nursing opportunities in New York City.^[93] On February 10, 1946, Robinson and Isum were married by their old friend, Rev. Karl Downs.^[43][94][95]

Minor leagues[link]

In 1946, Robinson arrived at Daytona Beach, Florida, for spring training with the Montreal Royals of the Class AAA International League (the designation of "AAA" for the highest level of minor league baseball was first used in the 1946 season). Robinson's presence was controversial in racially charged Florida. As he was not allowed to stay with his teammates at the team hotel, he lodged instead at the home of a local black politician.^[96][97] Since the Dodgers organization did not own a spring training facility (the Dodger-controlled spring training compound in Vero Beach known as "Dodgertown" did not open until spring 1948),^[98] scheduling was subject to the whim of area localities, several of which turned down any event involving Robinson or Johnny Wright, another black player whom Rickey had signed to the Dodgers' organization in January. In Sanford, Florida, the police chief threatened to cancel games if Robinson and Wright did not cease training activities there; as a result, Robinson was sent back to Daytona Beach.^[99][100] In Jacksonville, the stadium was padlocked shut without warning on game day, by order of the city's Parks and Public Property director.^[101][102] In DeLand, a scheduled day game was called off, ostensibly because of faulty electrical lighting.^[103][104]

Robinson (30) playing in Montreal, exact date unknown

After much lobbying of local officials by Rickey himself, the Royals were allowed to host a game involving Robinson in Daytona Beach.^[105][106] Robinson made his Royals debut at Daytona Beach's City Island Ballpark on March 17, 1946, in an exhibition game against the team's parent club, the Dodgers. Robinson thus simultaneously became the first black player to openly play for a minor league team and against a major league team since the de facto baseball color line had been implemented in the 1880s.^[2] Later in spring training, after some less-than-stellar performances, Robinson was shifted from shortstop to second base, allowing him to make shorter throws to first base.^[60] Robinson's performance soon rebounded. On April 18, 1946, Roosevelt Stadium hosted the Jersey City Giants' season opener against the Montreal Royals, marking the professional debut of the Royals' Jackie Robinson. In his five trips to the plate, Robinson had four hits, including a three-run home run. He also scored four runs, drove in three, and stole two bases in the Royals' 14–1 victory.^[107] Robinson proceeded to lead the International League that season with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage,^[19] and he was named the league's Most Valuable Player.^[108] Although he often faced hostility while on road trips (the Royals were forced to cancel a Southern exhibition tour, for example),^[60] the Montreal fan base enthusiastically supported Robinson.^[109][110] Whether fans supported or opposed it, Robinson's presence on the field was a boon to attendance; more than one million people went to games involving Robinson in 1946, an amazing figure by International League standards.^[111] In the fall of 1946, following the baseball season, Robinson returned home to California and briefly played professional basketball for the short-lived Los Angeles Red Devils.^[112][113]

Major leagues[link]

Breaking the color barrier (1947)[link]

The following year, six days before the start of the 1947 season, the Dodgers called Robinson up to the major leagues. With Eddie Stanky entrenched at second base for the Dodgers, Robinson played his initial major league season as a first baseman.^[81] On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators, including more than 14,000 black patrons.^[114] Although he failed to get a base hit, the Dodgers won 5–3.^[114] Robinson became the first player since 1880 to openly break the major league baseball color line.^[115] Black fans began flocking to see the Dodgers when they came to town, abandoning their Negro league teams.^[91]

Robinson's promotion met a generally positive, although mixed, reception among newspapers and white major league players.^[111][116] However, racial tension existed in the Dodger clubhouse.^[117] Some Dodger players insinuated they would sit out rather than play alongside Robinson. The brewing mutiny ended when Dodgers management took a stand for Robinson. Manager Leo Durocher informed the team, "I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a fuckin' zebra. I'm the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What's more, I say he can make us all rich. And if any of you cannot use the money, I will see that you are all traded."^[118]

Robinson was also derided by opposing teams. Some, notably the St. Louis Cardinals, threatened to strike if Robinson played. After the threat, National League President Ford Frick and Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler let it be known that any striking players would be suspended.^{[119][120][121]} Robinson nonetheless became the target of rough physical play by opponents (particularly the Cardinals). At one time, he received a seven-inch gash in his leg.^[122] On April 22, 1947, during a game between the Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies, Phillies players called Robinson a "nigger" from their dugout and yelled that he should "go back to the cotton fields".^[123][124] Rickey later recalled that Phillies manager Ben Chapman "did more than anybody to unite the Dodgers. When he poured out that string of unconscionable abuse, he solidified and united thirty men."^[125]

Robinson received significant encouragement from several major league players. Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese once came to Robinson's defense with the famous line, "You can hate a man for many reasons. Color is not one of them."^[126] In 1948, Reese put his arm around Robinson in response to fans who shouted racial slurs at Robinson before a game in Cincinnati.^[127] A statue by sculptor William Behrends, unveiled at KeySpan Park on November 1, 2005, commemorates this event by representing Reese with his arm around Robinson.^[128] Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg, who had to deal with racial epithets during his career, also encouraged Robinson. After colliding with Robinson at first base on one occasion, Greenberg whispered a few words into Robinson's ear, which Robinson later characterized as "words of encouragement."^[129] Greenberg had advised him that the best way to combat the slurs from the opposing players was to beat them on the field.^[129]

Robinson finished the season having played in 151 games for the Dodgers, with a batting average of .297, an on-base percentage of .383, and a .427 slugging percentage. He had 175 hits (scoring 125 runs) including 31 doubles, 5 triples, 12 home runs, driving in 48 runs for the year. Robinson led the league in sacrifice hits, with 28, and in stolen bases, with 29.^[130] His cumulative performance earned him the inaugural Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award (separate National and American League Rookie of the Year honors were not awarded until 1949).^[131]

MVP, Congressional testimony, and film biography (1948–1950)[link]

Following Stanky's trade to the Boston Braves in March 1948, Robinson took over second base, where he logged a .980 fielding percentage that year (second in the National League at the position, fractionally behind Stanky).^[132] Robinson had a batting average of .296 and 22 stolen bases for the season.^[133] In a 12–7 win against the St. Louis Cardinals on August 29, 1948, he hit for the cycle—a home run, a triple, a double, and a single in the same game.^[134] The Dodgers briefly moved into first place in the National League in late August 1948, but they ultimately finished third as the Braves went on to win the league title and lose to the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.^[135]

Racial pressure on Robinson eased in 1948 as a number of other black players entered the major leagues. Larry Doby (who broke the color barrier in the American League on July 5, 1947) and Satchel Paige played for the Cleveland Indians, and the Dodgers had three other black players besides Robinson.^[132] In February 1948, he signed a $12,500 contract (equal to $120,914 today) with the Dodgers; while a significant amount, this was less than Robinson made in the off-season from a vaudeville tour, where he answered pre-set baseball questions, and a speaking tour of the South. Between the tours, he underwent surgery on his right ankle. Because of his off-season activities, Robinson reported to training camp 30 pounds (14 kg) overweight. He lost the weight during training camp, but dieting left him weak at the plate.^[136]

In the spring of 1949, Robinson turned to Hall of Famer George Sisler, working as an advisor to the Dodgers, for batting help. At Sisler's suggestion, Robinson spent hours at a batting tee, learning to hit the ball to right field.^[137] Sisler taught Robinson to anticipate a fastball, on the theory that it is easier to subsequently adjust to a slower curveball.^[137] Robinson also noted that "Sisler showed me how to stop lunging, how to check my swing until the last fraction of a second".^[137] The tutelage helped Robinson raise his batting average from .296 in 1948 to .342 in 1949.^[137] In addition to his improved batting average, Robinson stole 37 bases that season, was second place in the league for both doubles and triples, and registered 124 runs batted in with 122 runs scored.^[81] For the performance Robinson earned the Most Valuable Player award for the National League.^[81] Baseball fans also voted Robinson as the starting second baseman for the 1949 All-Star Game—the first All-Star Game to include black players.^[138][139]