“I hadn’t even made up my mind Wednesday night. It came to me in the middle of the ball game yesterday just like that. … Robinson is coming to the Dodgers as just a ball player.” – Branch Rickey1

One baseball season and a spring as a Montreal Royal and Jackie Robinson was on the verge of becoming a Brooklyn Dodger. Robinson was ready for the big leagues. His performance on the field told part of the story. For the 1946 season, Robinson led the International League in batting average (.349), scored 113 runs, and stole 40 bases in 124 games.2 His fielding average (.985) led the league’s second basemen.

The Royals were dominant from the outset of the 1946 season. They opened on the road against the Jersey City Giants at Roosevelt Stadium. Robinson’s debut performance – four hits, four runs batted in, two stolen bases – led the Royals’ 14-1 rout. Joseph Sheehan, covering the game for the New York Times, noted, “Jackie Robinson converted his opportunity into a brilliant personal triumph.”3 The Royals won the league title with ease by 18½ games over the Syracuse Chiefs. A 100-54 record produced the most wins in the franchise’s International League history (1928-1960).

In the playoffs, the Royals beat the Newark Bears and the Chiefs before winning the Little World Series four games to two over the American Association’s Louisville Colonels, taking the last three games at Montreal’s Delorimier Park.4 The record Montreal crowd (19,171) was delirious with joy and the celebration was spontaneous after the series clincher. Robinson, who had sparked those three wins by going 6-for-14 at the plate, was mobbed by fans young and old, well after the game had ended. Sportswriter Sam Maltin wrote of the lesson of goodwill among men and the scene at hand, “the chasing of a Negro, not because of hate but because of love.”5 After the ugliness and bigotry that began with Robinson’s 1946 spring-training experience in Florida, the complete acceptance that he and Rachel Robinson received in Montréal was a welcome respite. Their feelings were captured in Robinson’s autobiography. “One sportswriter later commented, “For Jackie Robinson and the city of Montreal, it was love at first sight.” He was right.”6

As Opening Day 1947 fast approached, it was clear that spring training for both the Royals and Dodgers had been well orchestrated under the watchful eye of Rickey. He had a plan. He set up training camp in Havana and scheduled 13 exhibition games in Cuba and Panama between the Royals and Dodgers. Dodgers veterans would get used to having Robinson around and seeing him as an asset for a pennant drive.7 But there was rebellion. Some Dodgers did not want Robinson on the team and the ringleaders – Hugh Casey, Bobby Bragan, Dixie Walker, and Carl Furillo – circulated a petition to that effect. Rickey got wind of the petition and became even more determined to carry out his plan, encouraging any player to quit if he could not accept a black teammate. In his autobiography, Robinson suggests that “the petition protest collapsed before it got started.”8 Indeed, Rickey knew that Robinson was ready for the big leagues. Tested against Dodgers pitching, Robinson as a Royal hit .340 in those 13 games.9

The mound opponents on April 10 at Ebbets Field were the Royals’ Erv Palica and the Dodgers’ Ralph Branca. Palica had signed with the Dodgers in 1945 as an infielder but was converted to being a pitcher. He won 15 games for the Class-B Asheville Travelers in 1946, and the 19-year-old was promoted to the Royals for the 1947 season. Although Branca was used sparingly as a 20-year-old in 1946 (3-1 in 24 games), it was his first full season in the major leagues.

The biggest crowd to watch the Dodgers all spring (14,282) greeted Robinson warmly during batting practice and saw the Royals score all their runs in the fourth inning against Branca. Robinson walked, one of six walks Branca yielded in seven innings. After Spider Jorgensen flied out, Don Lund lined a home run into the left-field stands. When Earl Naylor walked and Al Campanis homered to left-center, the Royals led 4-0. Branca could be forgiven. Both home runs would have been caught in 1946, but the left-field wall was moved 14 feet closer to home plate for the 1947 season to accommodate more seating.10

The Dodgers got two runs back in the bottom of the fourth inning. Walker walked and scored on Duke Snider’s double to center. When Royals shortstop Lou Welaj threw a wild relay, Snider came around to score to cut the Royals’ lead in half, 4-2.

Just after Robinson popped into a double play attempting to bunt in the fifth inning, Arthur Mann, an assistant to Rickey, handed out a brief announcement in the press box: “The Brooklyn Dodgers today purchased the contract of Jackie Roosevelt Robinson from the Montreal Royals.”11 The words were few, but the significance would resound beyond the game itself.

Robinson actually learned of his promotion to the Dodgers that very morning when Rickey called him into his office to tell him the news. Despite flawless defense at first base, it wasn’t very surprising that he went hitless as well in his other at-bats against the Dodgers – a walk, a groundout to the pitcher, and a pop fly to the shortstop.12 He left Rickey’s office in a trance, modestly admitting later that he didn’t think he was too impressive in that last game with the Royals. “But that was because, I guess, I couldn’t keep my mind on the game all the time.”13

Jack Banta relieved Palica in the seventh inning and pitched the last three innings for the Royals. Palica yielded only four hits and Banta gave up another two, but the Dodgers could score only a single run, in the seventh inning. Stan Rojek walked and Gene Hermanski doubled for the second time, scoring Rojek but leaving the Dodgers short, 4-3.14

What should baseball fans remember about Robinson’s on-the-field performance on this day? Hy Turkin, reporting for the New York Daily News, reminded us of a facet of Robinson’s play in the decisive fourth-inning rally. It would become his hallmark. “His cat-like movements in a long lead off the bag drew two attempted pickoff throws and a pitchout in vain. Ralph Branca, still sneaking peeks at Robbie’s lead, grooved one for Don Lund and the Royal outfielder poled it into the left field stands.”15

As for Branca, he took a meaningless loss on this day, but the 1947 season was going to be his career year statistically – 21-12, 2.67 ERA, 280 innings and a league-leading 36 starts. He well understood and appreciated that a bigger story was unfolding on the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the presence and play of Jackie Robinson.16

In his 2011 book, A Moment In Time, Branca wrote of facing Jackie Robinson on this day for the first time in a big-league ballpark. As Branca made his way back to the dugout at the end of an inning, their paths crossed and Robinson said, “Thanks, Ralph.” Why? Robinson didn’t get a hit off Branca, only a walk. Cordiality easily described their relationship this spring. Robinson must have appreciated Branca’s refusal to sign a players petition in spring training suggesting that Robinson’s presence on the Dodgers would be disruptive. Branca didn’t know. “Whatever it was, from that day forward Jackie and I became close.”17

The following day would be a day long anticipated by both Rickey and Robinson. First, there would be the formality of Robinson signing a Brooklyn contract. Rickey was asked directly how the Dodgers players would react to their new teammate. “We are all agreed,” he said, “that Jackie is ready for the chance.”18 As for Robinson, “Just think, tomorrow I’ll be with them. I’ll be wearing a Brooklyn uniform.”19 Indeed on the very next day in another exhibition game, Robinson would be wearing that home white Dodgers uniform for the first time against an opponent to become all too familiar in Robinson’s major-league career, the New York Yankees.20

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for statistical information.

Notes

1 Harold C. Burr, “Robby Makes Debut With Dodgers Today,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 11, 1947: 15.

2 Robinson finished second in stolen bases to league leader Marv Rackley (65), his Royals teammate. Robinson tied Baltimore Orioles outfielder Soup Campbell for the league lead in runs scored (113).

3 Joseph M. Sheehan, “Montreal Winner as Robinson Stars,” New York Times, April 19, 1946: 22.

4 “Montreal Downs Louisville by 2-0,” New York Times, October 5, 1946: 10.

5 Sam Maltin, “Fans ‘Mob’ Jackie in Great Tribute to Star,” Pittsburgh Courier, October 12, 1946: 12.

6 Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made (New York: Putnam, 1972), 47.

7 Rick Swaine, “Jackie Robinson,” SABR Baseball Biography Project.

8 Robinson, 56.

9 Harold C. Burr, “Robby Makes Debut with Dodgers Today,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 11, 1947: 15.

10 Louis Effrat, “Royals’ Star Signs with Brooks Today,” New York Times, April 11, 1947: 20.

11 Effrat.

12 Hy Turkin, “Robinson Bought by Dodgers; Hitless as Royals Win, 4-3,” New York Daily News, April 11, 1947: 63.

13 Jackie Robinson, “Jackie Robinson Says,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 19, 1947: 18.

14 Of the 12 Royals who played in this game, 11 played in the major leagues at one time or another in their baseball careers. Only David Pluss never played in the major leagues. Roy Campanella and George “Shotgun” Shuba became household names for Dodgers fans.

15 Turkin.

16 Ralph Branca with David Ritz, A Moment in Time (New York: Scribner, 2011), 68.

17 Ralph Branca with David Ritz, 72.

18 Effrat.

19 Robinson, Pittsburgh Courier.

20 Louis Effrat, “Brooks Win, 14-6, with 11-Run Fifth,” New York Times, April 12, 1947: 12.

The words of the announcement were few and the true meaning was yet to unfold. The largest crowd (14,282) to watch the Dodgers play this spring understood the meaning of the moment and warmly greeted the appearance of Robinson for batting practice. The sentiment of Dodgers fans was clear. They remembered Dixie Walker being quoted as opposed to playing with Robinson and booed his first turn at bat.3 Uncertainty loomed. Rumors had it that other Dodgers expressed similar sentiments. Later, during the first week of the season, Robinson expressed his own sentiments about his teammates. “I’ve found out that there are fellows on the club willing to help me. Eddie Stanky, a great ball player, helped me the very first day. Others have advised me and coached me since. I know by that experience that I’m not alone.”4

Robinson actually learned of his promotion to the Dodgers that very morning when Branch Rickey called him into his office to tell him the news. Despite flawless defense at first base, it wasn’t very surprising that he went hitless as well in his other at-bats against the Dodgers – a walk, a groundout to the pitcher, and a pop fly to the shortstop.5

He left Rickey’s office in a trance, modestly admitting later that he didn’t think he was too impressive in that last game with the Royals. “But that was because, I guess, I couldn’t keep my mind on the game all the time. Just think, tomorrow I’ll be with them. I’ll be wearing a Brooklyn uniform.”6 The very next day, Robinson wore that home white Dodgers uniform for the first time after a well-orchestrated spring training.

All aspects of spring training in 1947 in Havana for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Montréal Royals, and Jackie Robinson were under the watchful eye and control of Branch Rickey.7 Games were played at Havana’s Gran Stadium with jaunts to play in Caracas, Venezuela, the Canal Zone, and Panama. Although the Dodgers played the Yankees, Boston Braves, and a team of Cuban all-stars, most games were against Montréal with Robinson playing first base for the Royals. With the Dodgers’ Eddie Stanky at second base, it was clear that first base represented the best opportunity for Robinson to play with the Dodgers in 1947. A front-page blare in The Sporting News suggested otherwise: “Likely to See Service Mostly as Pinch Runner.”8 Robinson was determined to succeed even if he was never really comfortable at first base.9

But there were things that Rickey could not control and they hit the headlines like a bombshell. On the very day that Robinson and his Royals were scheduled to play the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, Commissioner Happy Chandler took an unprecedented action against Dodgers manager Leo Durocher. Chandler construed a series of incidents involving Durocher to be “detrimental to baseball” and suspended him for the 1947 season.10 The story became front page immediately and drew attention away from what was about to happen on the field.11

Clyde Sukeforth was the Dodgers’ acting manager as they began a three-game exhibition series against the New York Yankees at Ebbets Field. Sukeforth selected Joe Hatten to start the first game. Hatten, a 14-game winner in 1946, would be the Opening Day starter for Dodgers in four days’ time. Bill Bevens, a 16-game winner in 1946, had the starting assignment from Yankees manager Bucky Harris. Each starter pitched three innings.

As Bevens left the mound after three innings, having given up six hits, his Yankees trailed 3-1. The Dodgers scored their first two runs in the first inning on Gene Hermanski’s double. For the Yankees, Johnny Lindell tripled to deep center in the second and subsequently scored their first run. The Dodgers added a run in the third inning on Robinson’s first run batted in. With one out and runners on first and third, his fly to left easily scored Pete Reiser.

Left-hander Marius Russo, hoping to return to the Yankees roster from the Newark Bears, took over for Bevens in the fourth inning and safely retired the Dodgers, allowing the Yankees to tie the score in the fifth at 3-3. Then came the Dodgers fifth. Russo walked the first three batters – Stan Rojek, Carl Furillo, and Tommy Tatum. The Yankees fielding soon turned ugly when shortstop Phil Rizzuto made throwing errors on consecutive plays. Butch Woyt hit a likely double-play ball to Rizzuto, whose errant toss to Snuffy Stirnweiss at second allowed one run to score. When Robinson followed with another grounder to short, Rizzuto’s wild throw into right field allowed two more runs to score. Now the Dodgers were leading 6-3 without the benefit of any hits in the inning, but they were just getting started.

After Eddie Miksis’s back-to-the-pitcher force out, which would have normally ended the inning, Russo yielded consecutive run-scoring singles to Bruce Edwards and Ed Head and was done for the night. His replacement, Johnny Murphy, added to the Yankees’ defensive miseries with an errant throw home on Stanky’s squeeze bunt. A wave of Dodgers hits followed – Rojek’s double, singles by Furillo and Tatum, and another double by Woyt. Robinson delivered his second run batted in and the 11th run of the inning by lining out to center field. The inning was mercifully over when Miksis, the 15th batter for the Dodgers, popped out to Rizzuto – 11 runs, six hits, three walks and three errors, and eventually a 14-6 win.

The remainder of the game was of little consequence offensively. The Yankees got a late-inning home run from Johnny Lindell and nine hits total for the game. Over the last three innings, the Dodgers faced Spud Chandler, and were held scoreless. Chandler, a 20-game winner in 1946, was the likely Yankees starter on Opening Day. Robinson didn’t get any of the Dodgers’ 16 hits, but he did lead them with three runs batted in.

Jackie Robinson’s First At-Bats at Ebbets Field as a Dodger12

• First inning: flied to CF (Bevens)
• Third inning: flied to LF, RBI (Bevens)
• Fifth inning: ground ball to SS, error, RBI (Russo)
• Fifth inning: lineout to CF, RBI (Murphy)
• Seventh inning: sacrifice bunt to P, error (S. Chandler)

How did Robinson do at first base? “On the field, he handled fifteen chances like a veteran. Two were difficult ones, but Robby did his part neatly.”13

The Yankees returned the favor the very next day by defeating the Dodgers, 8-1, on 11 hits and solid pitching from both Allie Reynolds and Frank “Spec” Shea, who each limited the Dodgers to two hits. Of course, all eyes were on Robinson who delivered his first hit as a Dodger in addition to fielding flawlessly at first base. In the fourth inning, Robinson singled against Reynolds, scoring Pete Reiser and temporarily cutting the Yankees lead to 2-1.14

The Yankees also won the final game of the series, scoring four runs in the ninth inning for the 10-9 victory. Robinson, who singled in the first inning, missed a chance to be the game’s hero for the Dodgers. His foul pop left the tying run stranded at second base in the ninth inning. The victory allowed the Yankees to win their spring-training series against the Dodgers five games to three. For the three games, it was clear the fans came to see Jackie Robinson. The total series attendance (79,441) set an all-time exhibition record.15

Spring training was now over. It was time for Opening Day at Ebbets Field. Jackie Robinson’s own words in the Pittsburgh Courier captured his sentiments about the moment. “I know now that dreams do come true. I know because I am playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the big leagues.”16 Perhaps you can still hear Ebbets Field public address announcer Tex Rickards intoning, “Number 42, Jackie Robinson,” for the very first time in that very first game and many games to come.

Author’s note

Louis Effrat, sportswriter for the New York Times, reminds us that the details of an exhibition game, particularly the play-by-play accounts, can often become less interesting or important than the stories surrounding the game itself. He pulled no punches when discussing his coverage of this game, particularly the bottom of the fifth inning. “Detailed description of Brooklyn’s attack and New York’s defense in this frame would be pointless. Anyway, Russo and Murphy would rather forget about everything that occurred.”17 Telling his readers of Russo’s walks and Rizzuto’s miscues sufficed for Effrat. Dick Young was a bit more forthcoming in the New York Daily News.18

Notes

1 Louis Effrat, “Royals’ Star Signs with Brooks Today,” New York Times, April 11, 1947: 20.

2 The 1947 Montreal Royals (International League), defending Junior World Series champions, were a very talented team. Of the 12 players whose names appear in the New York Times box score of the game, 11 played in the major leagues at one time or another in their baseball careers.

3 Louis Effrat, “Brooks Win, 14-6, With 11-Run Fifth,” New York Times, April 12, 1947: 12. Effrat also reported that Dixie Walker said he had been misquoted and denied that he had voiced disapproval of Robinson.

4 Jackie Robinson, “Jackie Robinson Says,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 19, 1947: 18.

5 Hy Turkin, “Robinson Bought by Dodgers; Hitless as Royals Win, 4-3,” New York Daily News, April 11, 1947: 63.

6 Robinson.

7 Irv Goldfarb, “Spring Training in Havana,” in Lyle Spatz, ed., The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America, The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012), 3-5.

8 Michael Gaven, “Jackie Robinson Gets Chance with Flatbush Troupe,” The Sporting News, April 16, 1947: 1.

9 Roger Kahn, Rickey & Robinson (New York: Rodale Press, 2014), 236. Robinson told Kahn, “I wasn’t pleased. Now, in addition to everything else, I was going to have to learn a new position.”

10 “Text of the Decision by Commissioner Chandler,” New York Times, April 10, 1947: 31.

11 Louis Effrat, “Chandler Bars Durocher for 1947 Baseball Season, New York Times, April 10, 1947: 1; Dan Daniel, “Chandler Rolls Up Sleeves for New Swings,” The Sporting News, April 16, 1947: 1.

12 Dick Young, “Flock Scores 11 in 5th to Blast Yanks, 14-6, New York Daily News, April 12, 1947: 29.

13 Effrat, April 12, 1947.

14 Louis Effrat, “Yankees’ 11 Hits Beat Dodgers, 8-1, for Series Lead,” New York Times, April 13, 1947: 5-1.

15 Louis Effrat, “Bombers’ 4 in 9th Down Brooks, 10-9,” New York Times, April 14, 1947: 19.

16 Robinson.

17 Effrat, April 12, 1947.

18 Young.

The Dodgers signed Robinson to a major-league contract just five days before the start of the 1947 season. Baseball people, especially those in Brooklyn, were still digesting the previous day’s news of manager Leo Durocher’s one-year suspension (for conduct detrimental to baseball), when the story broke of Robinson’s promotion from the Montreal Royals of the International League. He would be the first Black American to play in what were then designated the major leagues since catcher Moses Fleetwood Walker played for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association back in 1884.

Robinson had played second base for the Royals in 1946, but on orders from the Dodgers he had been working out at first base all spring. He played the position in Brooklyn’s final three exhibition games against the Yankees, and again two days later when the Dodgers opened the season at Ebbets Field against the Boston Braves. Rumors of a sellout may have discouraged some fans from attending, but whatever the reason, a crowd of only 26,623 saw Robinson’s debut, including “an estimated 14,000 black fans.”1

In his New York Times column the morning of the game, Arthur Daley credited the Dodgers for doing a “deft” job of paving the way for Robinson, but added, “Yet nothing can actually lighten that pressure, and Robbie realizes it full well. There is no way of disguising the fact that he is not an ordinary rookie and no amount of pretense can make it otherwise.”2

Robinson made the game’s first putout, receiving the throw from fellow rookie Spider Jorgensen on Dick Culler’s ground ball to third base. Dodgers left-hander Joe Hatten started the game for Brooklyn. Hatten gave up a single and a walk in the first, but no Braves scored.

Interim manager Clyde Sukeforth had Robinson batting second, so after Eddie Stanky grounded out, the rookie first baseman stepped in against Johnny Sain for his first National League at-bat. Sain, the NL’s winningest right-hander in 1946, retired him easily on a bouncer to third baseman Bob Elliott. After flying out to left fielder Danny Litwhiler in the third inning, Robinson appeared to have gotten his first Dodgers hit in the fifth. But shortstop Culler made an outstanding play on his ground ball and turned it into a well-executed 6-4-3 double play.

When he next batted, in the seventh, Brooklyn was trailing, 3–2. Stanky was on first, having opened the inning by drawing Sain’s fifth walk of the afternoon. It was an obvious bunt situation, and Robinson laid down a beauty, pushing the ball deftly up the right side. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s Harold C. Burr wrote that Robinson had “sacrificed prettily.”3

Boston’s rookie first baseman, Earl Torgeson, fielded it, but with Robinson speeding down the line, he “made a hurried throw in an effort to get Robinson but hit him on the shoulder blade and the ball caromed into right field, allowing Jackie and the other runner to advance to second and third.”4 Pete Reiser’s double scored both runners and finished Sain. Stanky scored the tying run, and Robinson scored the go-ahead run – which by game’s end proved the winning run. Reiser later scored on Gene Hermanski’s fly ball off reliever Mort Cooper as the Dodgers won 5–3.

When the Dodgers took the field in the ninth inning, Robinson remained on the bench as veteran Howie Schultz took over at first base. Sukeforth had inserted Schultz as a defensive measure, but the Dodgers soon realized that Robinson needed no help. Schultz played in only one more game before Brooklyn sold him to the Phillies. Ed Stevens, the team’s other first baseman, played in just five games before he was sent back to the minors.

Hal Gregg, in relief of Hatten, got the win, and Hugh Casey got the first of his league-leading 18 saves.5 Sain bore the loss.

The popular Reiser, coming back from yet another injury, clearly had been the star of the game, and it was he, not Robinson, who was the focus of the story in the next day’s New York Times. Roscoe McGowen’s game account mentioned Robinson only in relation to his play, leaving columnist Arthur Daley to take note of his debut, which he called “quite uneventful.”6

He wrote that Robinson “makes no effort to push himself … and already has made a strong impression,” and then quoted Robinson as saying “I was nervous in the first play of my first game at Ebbets Field, but nothing has bothered me since.”7

In retrospect, it would be easy, and fashionable, to attribute the writers’ casual treatment of this history-making game to racism. It is perhaps more charitable, and accurate, to think that they handled it in this way because it took place at a time when baseball reporters believed that that’s what they were: baseball reporters, men who felt their sole duty was to report what took place on the field. Red Barber and Connie Desmond, the Dodgers’ radio broadcasters, did the same.

Rachel Robinson has written about this Opening Day game: “In 1947, as Jack took his place in the batter’s box in Ebbets Field, and Rickey watched from the owner’s box, the meaning of the moment for me seemed to transcend the winning of a ballgame. The possibility of social change seemed more concrete, and the need for it seemed more imperative. I believe that the single most important impact of Jack’s presence was that it enabled white baseball fans to root for a black man, thus encouraging more whites to realize that all our destinies were inextricably linked.”8

Robinson’s first base hit came in the season’s second game, on April 17 against the Braves. His first run batted in came against the New York Giants on April 18. By season’s end, he had hit for a .297 batting average (with a.383 on-base percentage), with a league-leading 29 stolen bases. He scored 125 runs, and drove in 48. His 28 sacrifice hits led both leagues. Robinson was the overwhelming choice in voting for Rookie of the Year, the first player ever accorded Rookie of the Year honors, at a time before voters honored a separate rookie in each league.

Jackie Robinson’s statistics on Opening Day

Compiled from data furnished by Dr. David W. Smith of Retrosheet.

Sources

This article is adapted from the author’s “Jackie Robinson on Opening Day, 1947-1956.” Joseph Dorinson, and Joram Warmund, eds. Jackie Robinson: Race, Sports, and the American Dream (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1998.)

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Related links

• Order SABR’s The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, edited by Lyle Spatz, from the University of Nebraska Press website.
• SABR looks back at Jackie Robinson’s signing, debut

Notes

1 Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), 178.

2 Arthur Daley, “Play Ball!,” New York Times, April 15, 1947: 31.

3 Harold C. Burr, “‘Old’ Reiser, ‘New’ Hernanski Stars of Dodgers’ Opening Day Triumph,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 16, 1947: 19. Left fielder Hermanksi also had a run batted in.

4 Carl Rowan with Jackie Robinson, Wait Till Next Year (New York: Random House, 1960), 179.

5 Nobody had ever heard of “saves” in 1947, and Casey died never knowing that he had twice been the National League leader.

6 Arthur Daley, “Opening Day at Ebbets Field,” New York Times, April 16, 1947: 32.

7 “Opening Day at Ebbets Field.”

8 Rachel Robinson, with Lee Daniels, Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait (New York: Abrams, 2014), 66.

Dodgers interim manager Clyde Sukeforth (appointed after Leo Durocher was suspended for conduct detrimental to baseball, and replaced after this game by Burt Shotton), sent veteran right-hander Kirby Higbe to the mound to face the Braves, who had finished in fourth place in 1946. Boston manager Billy Southworth’s choice to start was right-hander Mort Cooper.

Leading off the game for Boston before the crowd of 10,252 at Ebbets Field was Braves shortstop Dick Culler, who grounded out to Spider Jorgensen at third base. Johnny Hopp singled but was left stranded after Bama Rowell grounded out and  Bob Elliott struck out.

Brooklyn scored three times in the bottom of the first. Eddie Stanky, known for his keen eye at the plate, walked. Robinson flied out to center fielder Hopp. A single by Pete Reiser sent Stanky to third base, and he scored on a groundout by Dixie Walker that sent Reiser to second base. Gene Hermanski reached on an error by first baseman Earl Torgeson that sent Reiser across the plate with the Dodgers’ second run. Brooklyn catcher Bruce Edwards singled to send Hermanski to third base, and Hermanski scored on an error by Culler.

Higbe struck out Tommy Neill leading off the second, but the next three Braves reached base. Torgeson walked, Phil Masi doubled, sending Torgeson to third, and Connie Ryan’s single scored both baserunners. Ryan took second of Cooper’s sacrifice, and Culler walked, but Hopp struck out swinging to end the inning with the Dodgers ahead, 3-2.

The Dodgers enjoyed another big inning in the second. Robinson got a four-pitch walk with one out. Reiser’s single sent Robinson to third base and another walk, to Walker, loaded the bases with Hermanski coming to the plate. The Dodgers left fielder sent a fly ball to deep right field that scored Robinson, and a single by Edwards scored Reiser. Jorgensen drove in two runs with a double. The hit knocked Cooper out of the game; he was replaced on the mound by Andy Karl, who got Pee Wee Reese to ground out and end the inning.

In the bottom of the fourth, with Glenn Elliott now pitching for the Braves, Reiser singled, Dixie Walker walked, and with two outs, Jorgensen hit a three-run home run to put the Dodgers ahead 10-2.

Still in search of his first major-league hit, Robinson faced Elliott with one out in the fifth inning. He bunted the first pitch down the third-base line and beat it out for a single. He went to second on a groundout by Reiser but was left stranded base when Walker grounded out to Culler, the Braves shortstop. Sportswriter Dick Young called Robinson’s first hit a “strong one-bounce bunt” that “took (a) twisting bounce off Elliott’s bare hand as Bob charged in. When official scorer Lee Scott flashed ‘H’ sign on (the) scoreboard, (the) crowd cheered.”1 Harold C. Burr in the Brooklyn Eagle wrote that “the ball skidded away from the Braves’ third baseman, but was a legitimate hit all the way.” He added, “The negro isn’t exactly wearing the ball out, but he’s still under heavy pressure.”2

Boston rallied in the sixth inning when Ryan followed Masi’s single with a double that sent Masi to third base. Pinch-hitting for Elliott, Tommy Holmes was walked intentionally. Mike McCormick, batting for Culler, spoiled the strategy with a single scoring Masi and Ryan. Hopp doubled Holmes and McCormick home, and Brooklyn’s lead was down to 10-6.

Duke Snider made his major-league debut in the Dodgers’ half of the sixth. The top prospect and future Hall of Famer pinch-hit for Tommy Tatum. Facing new Boston pitcher Si Johnson,

Snider led off the frame with a single to right field. He went to second on a sacrifice by Edwards and scored when Jorgensen got his sixth RBI of the game, on a double to right field. Jorgensen took third on Reese’s groundout and scored when pitcher Harry Taylor singled to left field.

It was just Jorgensen’s second game in the majors. Like Robinson, the third baseman had made his debut two days earlier in the Opening Day win over Boston. The year before, he was Robinson’s teammate with the Montreal Royals of the International League and batted .293 with 5 home runs and 71 RBIs. The 5-foot-9-inch Jorgensen, from Folsom, California, weighed just 155 pounds, but New York Daily News writer Dick Young wrote that “(h)is scrawny frame is misleading.”3 Young commented on the 26-year-old Jorgensen’s “drawn cheeks” that “make you want to hand him a buck for meal,” but added, “(S)omewhere in his bony body, he packs plenty of power.”4 Jorgensen earned a late promotion to the Dodgers out of spring training and, according to the Brooklyn Eagle, “reported in such a hurry to the Dodgers opening day that he had to borrow a pair of baseball shoes, before he could go to third base.”5

Harry Taylor’s seventh inning was eventful, to say the least. It involved a single, two walks, and a wild pitch, but no runs. Sukeforth called on reliever Hugh Casey after Taylor walked Nanny Fernandez, putting runners at first and third with one out. Casey struck out Sibbi Sisti and retired Hopp on a groundout to second base. After that, the game turned relatively quiet. Only Robinson reached base for Brooklyn in the last two innings, on a walk to lead off the seventh.

Boston loaded the bases with nobody out in the eighth inning, but Casey struck out Torgeson and got Sisti to hit into a double play. Casey walked Ryan to open the ninth, but Boston could not get a rally started.

According to the Boston Globe, “Neither Morton Cooper nor Kirby Higbe, from whom good pitching was anticipated, survived the pounding today in a ‘marathon’ ballgame, in which the Durocherless Dodgers beat the Braves, 12-6.”6 The Braves used 18 players, the Dodgers 14. The Eagle’s Burr commented, “It was one of those games with pitchers wild and practically everybody except the ushers getting into one line-up or the other.”7 In a separate article, Burr wrote of the Brooklyn first baseman: “The jury is still out on Jackie Robinson.”8

If so, the jury was not out for much longer. Robinson picked up eight hits over his next four games and 175 in his rookie season. He batted .297 with a .383 on-base percentage and won the first-ever Rookie of the Year award.

Sources

In addition to the game story and box-score sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites.

Notes

1 Dick Young, “Dodgers Blast Braves, 12-6, Jorgy Bats in 6,” New York Daily News, April 18, 1947: 198.

2 Harold C. Burr, “Jorgenson[sic] Sinking Spikes Deeply Into New Dodger Third Base Job,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 18, 1947: 15.

3 Dick Young, “Dodgers Blast Braves, 12-6, Jorgy Bats in 6.”

4 Dick Young, “Jorgensen Scales only 155, but Packs Power,” New York Daily News, April 18, 1947: 198.

5 Harold C. Burr, “Jorgenson Sinking Spikes Deeply Into New Dodger Third Base Job.”

6 Melville Webb, “Jorgenson Bats In Six Runs, Dodgers Beat B’s, 12 to 6,” Boston Globe, April 18, 1947: 29.

7 Harold C. Burr, “Jorgenson Sinking Spikes Deeply Into New Dodger Third Base Job.”

8 Harold C. Burr, “Braves Seeking Surplus Dodger First Baseman,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 18, 1947: 15.

The measurement of Jackie Robinson’s success as the first major leaguer to break the color barrier was based less on statistics than on his courage, temper, and mental acuity. But the experiment conceived by Branch Rickey and performed by Robinson would have been a fruitless endeavor had Robinson not produced on the field. 

In fact, according to author Jonathan Eig in his book Opening Day, there was no certainty early in the 1947 season that Robinson would be an everyday player.1

But Robinson quickly put aside any questions of his staying power. And on a Friday afternoon at the Polo Grounds, in his introduction to the famed Dodgers-Giants rivalry, Robinson recorded his first big-league home run and run batted in on one third-inning swing against Dave Koslo.

Going 2-for-4 on a day in which Brooklyn managed seven hits, Robinson accounted for half his team’s scoring – the second of the four runs being a product of his speed and daring on the basepaths. In spite of these efforts, the Giants used six long balls to pull away to an easy 10-4 victory played in 2 hours and 10 minutes.

After an initial two-game series at Ebbets Field in which the Dodgers took both from the Boston Braves, Jackie Robinson played in his first major-league game beyond the confines of Flatbush. But he was not without his legion of supporters. Out on Eighth Avenue, vendors were selling “I’m for Jackie” buttons.2

The Polo Grounds stood on the outskirts of Harlem, a neighborhood with a heavy Black population that had risen to about 700,000 by 1947,3 some of whom planned to attend the game to cheer their hero on.

However, this contingent of Robinson rooters had much apprehension, partly due to the volatile area Harlem had become.

“It was unclear if black Americans were on the brink of great gains or terrible troubles, but they were clearly on the brink,” Eig wrote.4

Those tensions were amplified by a contest between the Dodgers and Giants – a cross-borough rivalry as combative as any in baseball. There was fear that the tensions that simmered throughout the local area might escalate.

Wrote Eig: “As thousands of white New Yorkers traveled to Harlem by Checker cab and train to see the games, scores of police officers – most of them white – kept careful watch to make sure fans got in and out of the neighborhood safely. … Dodger-Giant games were among the most contentious of all, dividing ethnic groups and even families. But there had never been big black crowds at a Giants game, at least not that anyone could remember. Suddenly, with the arrival of Robinson, much of black Harlem began pulling for the Dodgers.”5

Among those concerned about what might happen was National League President Ford Frick. Despite being very accepting of Robinson’s arrival to the major leagues, Frick was worried about what might take place inside and outside the ballpark.

He “suggested that it might be a fine idea if Robinson were to sprain an ankle and miss a few games,” Eig wrote.6

With temperatures approaching 60 degrees, the paid crowd was 37,546 – a fairly large audience for a weekday afternoon. It proceeded without notable incident and certainly had its moments when the rookie performed to the best of his capabilities. But while there was relative tranquility in the stands, there was unrest within the Dodgers’ hierarchy – as Robinson and the other Dodgers watched the managerial carousel continue to spin.

Burt Shotton, a soft-spoken 62-year-old grandfatherly figure, had recently been named manager. He was replacing fill-in Clyde Sukeforth, who skippered the first two games (and coincidentally was the man who first scouted Robinson in the Negro Leagues). Shotton replaced Leo Durocher, who had been suspended for a year by Commissioner Happy Chandler just before the season began over allegations of gambling associations.

For the third time in as many games, Robinson batted second and played first base. His initial turn at the plate versus Giants starter Koslo resulted in a fly out to shallow center field.

Pee Wee Reese got the Dodgers on the board with a run-scoring fly ball in the second, only to be answered by right-hand-hitting second baseman and future Dodger killer Bobby Thomson with a home run to left field, a preview of October 1951 when he did the same to give the Giants the pennant over the Dodgers.

Brooklyn had the opportunity to answer in the top of the third inning – with Robinson providing that response.

Leading off, Robinson took Koslo’s first offering for a strike, high and inside. The next pitch was a little lower and a little more over the plate. He connected – a tracer that struck the left field’s upper-deck scoreboard.7

It was the first of 137 home runs and 734 RBIs Robinson would accumulate over the course of a 10-year major-league career that stands alone in history.

“As Robinson trotted around the bases, toes turned inward, his fans stood and laughed and hollered,” Eig wrote in Opening Day.

Jackie didn’t tip his cap to acknowledge the partisan support. Greeting him at home plate was the next batter, Tommy Tatum. The photo of a White man exchanging a handshake with a Black man ran on the back page of the next day’s New York Daily News.8

The round-tripper pushed the Dodgers ahead, 2-1. In retrospect, it was a milestone moment in a career unparalleled in baseball and society. But in the context of the game itself, the homer was overshadowed by an onslaught of Giants power.

Dodgers starter Vic Lombardi came into the day with a career 9-0 mark versus New York. Hopes for adding to that perfect record were hurt when he was ambushed for two more home runs in the third inning, by Bill Rigney and Johnny Mize.

Later, after Lombardi departed down 4-2, it was Ed Chandler’s turn to suffer at the mercy of New York bats. With one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, Willard Marshall gave the crowd in right field a souvenir. Two batters later, Thomson belted his second of the afternoon.

Robinson watched a half-dozen New York batters take the slow trot around first base, the final blast a grand slam by Rigney off Hank Behrman in the bottom of eighth to all but ensure a Giants victory.

The outcome had remained in doubt thanks to a patented Robinson-manufactured score that began with his typical intrepid baserunning. As was explained in the New York Daily News, “Robinson had opened the eighth with a bloop single to right, rushed to second on Marshall’s well-meant but wild peg to first as Jackie took the big turn, and scored on a couple of outs.”9

Carl Furillo soon tripled and scored on another Giants fielding miscue, as Brooklyn cut the New York lead to 6-4. However, the Dodgers’ comeback efforts were squashed once Rigney connected with the bases loaded.

Robinson’s successful day at bat would’ve been even better had more luck been on his side. A liner in the fifth inning found its way into the glove of third baseman Jack Lohrke, who fired to first base to double off Eddie Stanky.10 But Robinson more than made up for it with solid defense. He handled without fault each of his eight chances at first base, a position he had just come to learn prior to the season.

While the disparity in the final score leaned heavily in the Giants’ favor, the final standings for 1947 showed a complete reversal: The Dodgers finished 13 games better than their foes from Manhattan and would win 14 of the 22 times they played each other. 

As for Robinson, who tied for the team lead in homers with 12 while also driving in 48 runs and stealing 29 bases en route to being the first-ever Rookie of the Year, his perseverance and courage are deservedly etched in history.

The New York Age, one of New York City’s most prominent Black newspapers, foretold what the near future held in Robinson’s remarkable journey.

“For Jackie, the situation becomes even more difficult. He was a guinea pig before. He is even more of one now. Every human misstep he may commit will be watched. His triumphs will be exaggerated, and his faults rendered disproportionate. However, we have confidence in his power to keep his head and watch his step so that the important victory which has been won may be extended throughout the game.”11

Sources

In addition to the references cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 Jonathan Eig. Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), 62.

2 “Ottmen Win, 10-4, with Six Home Runs,” New York Times, April 19, 1947: 18.

3 Eig, 64.

4 Eig, 64.

5 Eig, 66.

6 Eig, 63.

7 Eig, 68.

8 Eig, 69.

9 “Shotton Named Dodger Pilot; Six Giant Homers Win 10-4,” New York Daily News, April 19, 1947: 25.

10 “Mild-Mannered Shotton Opposite of Durocher as Manager,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 19, 1947: 6.

11 “Passing the Bar,” New York Age, April 19, 1947: 6.

The story of this game, as reported in the next day’s Brooklyn Eagle is best shown in a line attributed to winning pitcher Hal Gregg, who had thrown a one-hitter.

“It was a bad pitch (Del) Ennis hit.”1

On a very cold April afternoon, a double by Del Ennis on a changeup with two out in the first inning was the only blemish on a stellar performance by Gregg in his first start of the season. After Ennis’s double, Gregg issued an intentional pass to Ron Northey and then retired the next 20 batters in a row. That streak was broken when he hit Andy Seminick with a pitch with one out in the eighth inning.

The Phillies’ pitching was almost as good. as Dutch Leonard scattered nine hits and baffled the Dodgers hitters, when it mattered, with an array of knuckleballs. He didn’t allow a hit until Eddie Stanky opened the fourth inning with a single. The Dodgers’ single tally, which was aided by an error, came in the eighth inning.

Brooklyn loaded the bases with none out in the sixth inning but failed to score. Singles by  Stanky and Robinson and a walk to Pete Reiser loaded the bases. Leonard fielded Dixie Walker’s slow roller in time to make a diving throw to force Stanky at the plate. Ron Northey in right field then grabbed a foul ball off the bat of Gene Hermanski and gunned down Robinson trying to score from third.

In 1947 the impact of Jackie Robinson was felt in virtually every game. In the eighth inning on April 22, he shined in the field, at the plate, and on the bases. In the Phillies half of the inning, Seminick was on first base with one out, Robinson made a spectacular play at first base to rob Emil Verban of a hit. Verban’s hard-hit groundball was far to the right of Robinson and on its way to right field when Robinson dived for the ball, gloved it, and raced to first base to beat Verban to the bag. Philadelphia manager Ben Chapman then let Leonard hit for himself and Gregg struck out the Philadelphia pitcher for the final out of the inning.

In the Dodgers’ half of the inning, Robinson singled, hitting a popup behind second base just beyond the reach of shortstop Skeeter Newsome and second baseman Verban. The next batter was Reiser. After five knuckleballs, Robinson took off for second base. Reiser swung wildly at the pitch and struck out. The ball went a short distance away from catcher Seminick. He tried to gun down Robinson at second base, but his throw went to center field and Jackie went to third base. On the play, Robinson was credited with a steal and Seminick was charged with a throwing error that allowed Robinson to advance further.

After a walk to Dixie Walker, Hermanski came to the plate. Hermanski and pitcher Leonard engaged in a classic pitcher-batter confrontation. Of the first nine pitches, six were strikes, each fouled off by Hermanski. The other three were balls. On the 10th offering of the at-bat, Hermanski found a pitch to his liking. He lined the ball to center field and when Johnny Wyrostek failed to make a shoestring catch, Robinson scored. The Dodgers threatened to extend their lead but with the bases loaded and two out, Pee Wee Reese, mired in a major batting slump, struck out to end the inning. The Dodgers shortstop, however, would have his redemption when Philadelphia came to bat in the ninth inning.

“Reese ignored the limitations of a normal infielder.”

– New York Herald Tribune2

In the ninth inning with two out, Philadelphia – without the benefit of a hit – threatened to tie the game. Ennis walked and a grounder by Northey went through Robinson’s legs for his first error since joining Brooklyn. The next batter, Nick Etten, sent a groundball up the middle, but Reese dashed over from his shortstop position to field the ball and, from 10 feet away, threw backhanded to Stanky at second for the force play that ended the game. The shivering 9,790 fans at the game, who endured a 45-degree afternoon, leapt to their feet to applaud the man who would be named Dodgers captain in 1950, and Robinson sprinted to Reese from his position at first to join in the celebration of Pee Wee’s spectacular game-ending play.

That same day, it was announced that Dodgers President Branch Rickey had been awarded the Benny Leonard Memorial Trophy3 by the Maccabi Association for “the year’s outstanding contribution to good sportsmanship.” Factoring largely in the award was Rickey’s role in the signing of Robinson and the integration of major-league baseball.4

Robinson’s two hits on April 22 brought his batting average to .444. He had a modest four-game hitting streak going. After going hitless on Opening Day, he was 8-for-18 in Brooklyn’s next four games through April 22. The next evening, Robinson appeared on the radio program Information Please. But unbeknownst to most fans, much more was going on.

Within two weeks of the April 22 game, another story surfaced that put the great performance by Gregg in the background and brought the challenges that Robinson faced in 1947 to the forefront.

The first inkling that there was a problem was in a small piece that appeared in the Boston Herald on April 27 stating that the Phillies had received a letter (it did not indicate the source of the letter but it was subsequently determined that the letter came from the office of National League President Ford Frick) reminding them that “jockeying” ballplayers is all right but that profanity should be left in the locker room – particularly when Jackie Robinson is playing.”5

That same day, Shirley Povich wrote in the Washington Post, “The Phillies thus far are the only club to give Jackie Robinson of the Dodgers a fierce riding from the bench, with manager Ben Chapman setting the pace.”6

Chapman maintained that the jockeying was not malicious, saying, “We are not making a target of Robinson. Jockeying from the bench was regular long before I was born.”7 Jack Saunders of the Pittsburgh Courier interviewed Chapman in Philadelphia on April 29, and the Philadelphia manager admitted that prior to the series in Brooklyn, he had instructed his bench jockeys to give it to Robinson without restraint. He said he told his players to call Robinson everything and anything they wanted to. He assured him that they had his unswerving support.8

Chapman’s comments appeared in the May 3 issue of the Pittsburgh Courier. Earlier, a fan who had been at the games in Brooklyn had contacted the commissioner’s office. In the game on April 22, the Philadelphia manager and his players  had used every measure of verbal abuse against Robinson. Fans near the dugout heard the abuse and registered complaints with the National League president, Ford Frick. That led to Frick’s reprimand prior to Brooklyn’s first trip to Philadelphia.

Robinson addressed and downplayed the abuse in the Pittsburgh Courier on May 3, saying, “[S]ome of the Phillies bench jockey’s [sic] tried to get me upset last week, but it didn’t really bother me.”9 Bothered or not, Robinson went into an 0-for-20 slump from April 23 to May 1.

On the evening of May 4, Walter Winchell, on his nationwide radio broadcast, broke the story. On May 5, Commissioner Happy Chandler issued a very severe warning, an order restraining the Phillies from using “vicious un-American racial remarks” against Robinson when Brooklyn visited Philadelphia in early May.10

The order was delivered to the Phillies’ general manager, Herb Pennock, by Walter Mulbry, secretary-treasurer of the commissioner’s office. According to Mulbry, “Mr. Chandler said that no favors should be granted Robinson from the bench, but there is a limit to everything and he thought that hurling racial epithets was beyond that limit.”11 A photographer had Chapman and Robinson pose together, as if there were no tensions, and the photograph appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on May 10.

In his 1972 autobiography, Robinson addressed the events of April 22, 1947, and said that the day “brought me nearer to cracking up than I ever had been.”12

Sources

In addition to Baseball-Reference.com and the sources shown in the Notes, the author used:

Baumgartner, Stan. “Feller, Gregg Pitch One-Hitters, Hal Blanks Phils for Dodgers, 1-0,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 23, 1947: 30.

Mardo, Bill. “Gregg’s 1-Hitter Stops Phils, 1-0,” Daily Worker (New York), April 23, 1947: 10.

Woodward, Stanley. “National League Averts Strike of Cardinals Against Robinson’s Presence in Baseball,” New York Herald Tribune, May 9, 1947: 24.

Young, Dick. “Gregg Spins One Hitter, Flock Blanks Phils, 1-0,” New York Daily News, April 23, 1947: 66.

Notes

1 Harold C. Burr, “Gregg Barred from Hall of Fame Three Times on Single Bingle,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 23, 1947: 19.

2 Bob Cooke, “Gregg’s One-Hitter Subdues Phillies for Dodgers, 1-0,” New York Herald Tribune, April 23, 1947: 34.

3 Leonard, a former lightweight boxing champion, had died just four days earlier.

4 “Branch Rickey Honored – Will Get Leonard Trophy for Promoting Racial Tolerance,” New York Times, April 23, 1947: 34.

5 Boston Herald, April 27, 1947: 54.

6 Shirley Povich, “This Morning,” Washington Post, April 27, 1947: M12.

7 Hy Turkin, “Police Investigate Poison Pen Threats to Jackie Robinson,” New York Daily News, May 10, 1947: 25.

8 Wendell Smith, “‘Stop Race Baiting’ – Chandler: Phillies Warned by Baseball Czar Over Robinson Incident,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 10, 1947: 1, 4.

9 Jackie Robinson, “Jackie Robinson Says,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 3, 1947: 15.

10 Smith.

11 Smith.

12 Jackie Robinson (as told to Alfred Duckett), I Never Had It Made, (New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972), 71.

“Jackie has been accepted in baseball, and we of the Philadelphia organization have no objection to his playing and wish him all the luck we can. Baseball is an American game, and there are no nationalities, creeds, nor races involved.

This quote, attributed to Philadelphia manager Ben Chapman, was made just before Brooklyn’s series at Philadelphia in early May 1947 and was prompted by Chapman’s verbal abuse of Robinson, in the form of bench-jockeying, during Philadelphia’s visit to Brooklyn earlier in the season. It was, by far, the worst behavior of any of the teams in the league. Chapman maintained that the jockeying was not malicious, saying, “We are not making a target of Robinson. Jockeying from the bench was regular long before I was born.”2

Jack Saunders of the Pittsburgh Courier interviewed Chapman in Philadelphia on April 29, and the Philadelphia manager admitted that before the series in Brooklyn, he had instructed his team to give it to Robinson without restraint. He said he told his players to call Robinson everything and anything they wanted to. He assured him that they had his unswerving support.3

Chapman’s comments appeared in the May 3 issue of the Pittsburgh Courier. Earlier, a fan who had been at the games in Brooklyn had contacted the commissioner’s office. Criticism of Chapman’s Phillies also came from Walter Winchell who commented on their antics during his May 4 radio broadcast. The next day Commissioner Happy Chandler issued an order restraining the Phillies from using “vicious un-American racial remarks” against Robinson.4

The order was delivered to the Phillies’ general manager, Herb Pennock, by Walter Mulbry, secretary-treasurer in the commissioner’s office. Mulbry said that “Mr. Chandler said that no favors should be granted Robinson from the bench, but there is a limit to everything and he thought that hurling racial epithets was beyond that limit.”5 A photographer had Chapman and Robinson pose together, as if there were no tensions, and the photograph appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on May 10.

Tensions were high in the early weeks of the season. Robinson was receiving a two-man police escort when leaving the ballpark. An article by Stanley Woodward in the New York Herald Tribune indicated that the Cardinals had threatened to strike rather than play against Robinson. Although Cardinals owner Sam Breadon and manager Eddie Dyer denied the claim, they spoke, per orders from National League President Ford Frick, to their ballplayers.6 Frick said that Robinson had the full backing of the National League and that any unwarranted persecution of him would result in severe disciplinary action against the offenders.7

Jackie Robinson had been with the Brooklyn Dodgers for less than a month when the team visited Philadelphia to play the Phillies on May 9, 1947. He was quartered in housing apart from that of his teammates.8 No sooner had the Dodgers arrived than it was revealed that Robinson had been on the receiving end of poison-pen letters from anonymous sources essentially implying that Robinson should get out of baseball – or else. Two of the letters, each containing a fictitious return address, were turned over to the police by Arthur Mann, assistant to Dodgers President Branch Rickey.

It was Brooklyn’s first visit of the season to Philadelphia. The 22,680 fans attending the May 9 contest at Shibe Park applauded Robinson in each of his trips to the plate. They were treated to a close game with the home team winning 6-5 in 11 innings when Emil Verban doubled over the head of Pete Reiser in center field to score Andy Seminick, who had walked and gone to second on a bunt by Lee Handley, with the game-winner. The fans were also treated to Robinson’s best game to date.

“There was an inning that should be embalmed in Cooperstown.”

– Dick Young, May 10, 19479

The Phillies jumped out to an early lead with five second-inning runs. Wildness by Dodgers starter Hal Gregg was a major factor in the big inning. Walks to Del Ennis and Seminick put runners on first and second with none out. Gregg threw Lee Handley’s comebacker into right field trying for a force at second base. Ennis scored the first run of the game, and Seminick went to third base. Verban followed with a liner off the pitcher’s shin that went for an infield hit, scoring Seminick. Philadelphia pitcher Oscar Judd then laid down a perfect bunt that loaded the bases. Skeeter Newsome walked to force Handley home, and Philadelphia had three runs without the benefit of a batted ball having traveled more than 60 feet.

Gregg was replaced by Ralph Branca, who poured gasoline on the fire by walking Harry Walker, forcing in Philadelphia’s fourth run. Branca struck out Johnny Wyrostek for the first out of the inning, but walked Nick Etten, bringing home the fifth run. The inning came to an end when Ennis hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

The Dodgers had seven innings in which to close the gap. In the fourth, Brooklyn scored its first run. Robinson doubled to right-center, bringing the crowd to its feet, advanced to third on a fly ball by Reiser and came home on a groundball by Dixie Walker. Branca found his rhythm and retired 15 of the 16 batters he faced in innings three through seven. The score remained 5-1 until the Dodgers came to bat in the eighth inning.

Spider Jorgensen led off the eighth with an infield hit and Pee Wee Reese walked. Howie Schultz batted for Branca and hit into a double play. Eddie Stanky’s hard grounder to third was handled by Handley on a great play, but Handley’s throw to first was in the dirt and eluded first baseman Etten. Stanky was awarded a single and Jorgensen crossed the plate with the Dodgers’ second run. Robinson’s second hit of the game went to center field, and Reiser’s double to left-center sent Stanky and Robinson home, making the score 5-4. Philadelphia made a pitching change, bringing in Dutch Leonard to replace Judd. Dixie Walker’s single tied the score, but further damage was avoided when Leonard retired Carl Furillo on a groundball.

Hugh Casey succeeded Branca on the mound. He had not been scored upon in six of his seven outings and had two wins and four saves to show for his efforts. Casey retired the Phillies in order in the bottom of the eighth. Leonard mowed down the Dodgers in the ninth, but the Phillies mounted a threat in the home half of the inning. Lee Handley singled to right field to lead off. Emil Verban bunted toward first base and Robinson charged, grabbing the ball before it hit the ground and throwing a bullet to second baseman Ed Stanky covering first, doubling off Handley. Casey struck out Leonard to end the inning, and the game went into extra innings.

There was no scoring in the 10th, and Leonard, in his third inning of relief, put the Dodgers down in order in the 11th inning, setting up the opportunity for Philadelphia to win the game in the bottom of the inning on Verban’s double.

The win went to Leonard, bringing his record to 4-1. Casey’s record went to 2-1.

Robinson, who had ended April with five hitless games (0-for-18) that saw his batting average plummet from .409 to .225, was rebounding. His 2-for-5 performance on May 9 marked the fifth consecutive game in which he hit safely, and that streak eventually became 14 consecutive games. He surpassed that streak with a 21-game hitting streak from June 14 through the first game of a July 4 doubleheader. He finished the season with a .297 batting average, led the National League with 29 stolen bases, finished fifth in the MVP balloting, and easily won the Rookie of the Year Award. He played with the Dodgers through 1956, was named National League MVP in 1949, was named to six All-Star teams and entered the Hall of Fame in 1962.

Pitcher Branca, who stopped the bleeding on May 9, went on to have his best season with the Dodgers, finishing at 21-12 with a 2.67 ERA.

Schultz’s pinch-hitting appearance in the eighth inning was his last at-bat with the Dodgers. The next day the Dodger first baseman was sold to the Phillies for $50,000.

The loss caused the Dodgers to drop from first to third in the standings, one game behind the Braves and Cubs, who were tied for first. But the Dodgers went on to win the National League pennant before falling to the Yankees in the World Series.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and the following:

Baumgartner, Stan. “Phils Beat Dodgers in 11th 6-5; 22,680 See Verban’s Hit Win,” Philadelphia inquirer, May 10, 1947: 14.

Burr, Harold C. “Flock Lose Top Spot, Rickey Wins $50,000,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 10, 1947: 6.

Brands, Edgar G. “Jackie Will Get Equal Chance, Rest Up to Him,” The Sporting News, May 21, 1947: 4.

“‘Jackie Just Another Player to Us – with No Favors,’ Says Chapman,” The Sporting News, May 7, 1947: 6.

McGowen, Roscoe. “Dodgers Beaten by Phils in 11-Inning Night Contest,” New York Times, May 10, 1947: 16.

Notes

1 Hy Turkin, “Police Investigate Poison Pen Threats to Jackie Robinson,” New York Daily News, May 10, 1947: 25.

2 Turkin.

3 Wendell Smith, “’Stop Race Baiting’ – Chandler: Phillies Warned by Baseball Czar Over Robinson Incident,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 10, 1947: 1, 4.

4 Smith.

5 Smith.

6 Stanley Woodward, “Views of Sport – General Strike Conceived,” New York Herald Tribune, May 9, 1947, reprinted in The Sporting News, May 21, 1947: 4.

7 “Robinson Reveals Written Threats,” New York Times, May 10, 1947: 16.

8 “Varied Policies at Hotels Greet Robinson on Trip,” The Sporting News, May 21, 1947: 8.

9 Dick Young, “Phils Win in Eleventh, Topple Dodgers 6-5,” New York Daily News, May 10, 1947: 25.

“There is no assurance that Jackie Robinson will continue as [the Brooklyn Dodgers’] first baseman,” sportswriter Lou Smith informed readers of the Cincinnati Enquirer hours before Robinson’s first appearance at Crosley Field on May 13. “Robinson, who is hitting around the .225 mark, is no Dolph Camilli in the field. But for the fact that he is the first acknowledged Negro in major league history and so much attention has been focused on him he would have been benched a week or two ago.”2

Since his official debut on April 15, 1947, Robinson had been hit by pitches three times and regularly experienced fastballs “right under his nostrils.”3 He had suffered vile racial taunts,4 heard rumblings that an opposing team would refuse to take the field against him,5 and received threats serious enough to launch a police investigation.6 As if that weren’t enough to trouble the rookie’s mind, he was attempting to master a new position and had recently endured an 0-for-20 slump.

Nonetheless, Lou Smith could hardly have been more wrong. For one thing, his statistics were out of date. Robinson had been batting .225 on May 1, but by the time he reached Cincinnati two weeks later, he was riding a nine-game hitting streak that had lifted his average to .263. As for his fielding, Robinson had previously played shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs and then second base for the Montreal Royals in 1946, his first year in the Brooklyn organization. He had gotten a crash course at first base only weeks before the 1947 season started, as the Dodgers sought a way to fit him into their lineup.

In any case, people wanted to see “the colored boy.”7 A total of 27,164, including Commissioner A.B. “Happy” Chandler, turned out for Robinson’s Cincinnati debut. The date marked the Reds’ first night game of the season, and pregame attractions included a band, festivities involving a local Masonic organization, and a fireworks display.

But reporters were alert to a large number of people in the ballpark “who wouldn’t … have gone near the place” except for Robinson’s presence.8 Cincinnati, just across the Ohio River from the former slave state of Kentucky, was one of the major leagues’ southernmost cities. It was “still a segregated town,” in the words of Reds team historian Greg Rhodes,9 and would largely remain so through the 1950s.10 According to Hank Thompson — a former Negro Leaguer who cracked the big time three months after Robinson — Cincinnati had “the worst fans” in the major leagues.11 Despite dramatic growth in the city’s Black population throughout the 1940s,12 the Reds — who would be the next-to-last National League team to integrate, holding out until 1954 — did not enjoy a large patronage among the city’s Black residents. The Phillies, who did not integrate until 1957, were the last National League team to do so.

Yet on the night of Robinson’s Cincinnati debut, one observer estimated that there were 5,000 Black spectators.13 Another guessed 10,000.14 The next day, when the two teams played in daylight before a much smaller crowd of 6,688, Lou Smith reported that “at least half” of those in attendance “were members of Jackie’s race.”15 To Reds rookie Eddie Erautt, remembering the scene years later, it seemed that the park on that first night was “packed — all Blacks.”16

One reporter noted that most of the Black spectators occupied the cheaper seats, in the bleachers or the back rows of the grandstand.17 Some of those fans had traveled more than 400 miles, delivered on a train that left Birmingham, Alabama, in the morning and picked up additional passengers as it rolled northward.18

Unlike in some National League cities, Robinson could stay at the same hotel as his teammates in Cincinnati, the Netherlands Plaza. The newspapers applauded that progressive stand but didn’t mention that he was not allowed to use the hotel swimming pool and took his meals in his room.19 While Robinson was in town, the Cincinnati Post published an interview in which he was described as “unassuming and courteous … [and] cognizant of the responsibility he shoulders for his race.” The story noted that Robinson had attended UCLA and was married to his “college sweetheart.”

The story also emphasized that the ballplayer had “remained aloof from any unjust criticism that has been directed at him.”

“It’s tough at times,” Robinson said, “because I like to talk.”20

Nothing extraordinary happened on the field. In his first four plate appearances, against Reds starter Johnny Vander Meer, Robinson grounded out, walked, lined out to left on “one of the hardest-hit balls of the game,”21 and was narrowly thrown out on a bunt. In the ninth inning he drove in a run with “a clean single through the pitcher’s box”22 off reliever Joe Beggs, and subsequently scored on a single by Carl Furillo. In the field he made “no great play”23 and recorded just three putouts, having so little to do, in the view of one writer, that “he appeared disinterested at times.”24

Brooklyn led 1-0 early but Cincinnati pulled ahead in the third inning, chasing Dodgers starter Harry Taylor with a rally that featured two bases-loaded walks and a two-run single by Bert Haas. After two Brooklyn errors aided Cincinnati’s three-run seventh, the Reds led 7-2 before the Dodgers narrowed the gap in the ninth.

The Dodgers outhit the Reds 13-5 but they also made three errors and used six pitchers (who issued eight walks) as the home team won “a weird struggle,” 7-5.25 The next day, Robinson singled twice off Ewell Blackwell, extending his hitting streak to 11 games and boosting his average to .274. The Dodgers lost again, 2-0.

For all the ink that was expended on Robinson’s first visit to Cincinnati, there are still things we don’t know. Like the widely divergent estimates of the number of Black spectators, there is the matter of those spectators’ response. Most reporters on the scene agreed with Si Burick, who had used his Dayton Daily News column to reprint an editorial from the Black-owned Pittsburgh Courier urging Robinson’s supporters to conduct themselves with decorum and restraint. In Cincinnati, Burick wrote, Robinson was cheered every time he came to bat but he received “no bigger hand than any other ballplayer,” and his fans were “orderly and well-behaved.”26 By contrast, later recollections by both players and spectators suggest that fans reacted loudly to every move Robinson made.27

And then there’s the oft-repeated story of how Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese stilled a hostile crowd by walking over to first base and putting his hand on Robinson’s shoulder. The moment, commemorated by a statue outside Brooklyn’s MCU Park, is often placed at Crosley Field in May 1947, as in the inscription at the base of the statue. But the story has been widely questioned. It was never told until years later, even by supposed eyewitnesses. Robinson, in his autobiography, placed the incident in Boston.28 His wife, Rachel Robinson, questioned by author Jonathan Eig in 2005, said the incident never happened — at least not in 1947.29

Certainly there is no contemporary mention of any such episode in Cincinnati in May 1947. Cincinnati Post sports editor Joe Aston devoted an entire column to Robinson’s activities and surely would have mentioned such an event if it had occurred. According to Aston, the only witness who raised the issue, there was no racist invective directed at Robinson at all.

“If anyone had any objection to Jackie’s presence on the field,” Aston wrote, “he failed to make himself heard.”30

Admittedly that seems unlikely. Perhaps the most bigoted spectators were cowed by the unaccustomed number of Black faces in the park.

One thing is certain. By the time the Dodgers left Cincinnati, they were settled on Robinson as their first baseman. Two men, Ed Stevens and Howie Schultz, had shared the position in 1946. On May 10 the Dodgers had sold Schultz to the Philadelphia Phillies. While in Cincinnati, they optioned Stevens to Montreal.

By that time, too, most of the Ohio writers were convinced, or at least well on their way.

“Apparently he has what it takes,” conceded Frank Y. Grayson in the Cincinnati Times-Star.31

For his part Robinson, always polite and tactful during his first season with the Dodgers, said in his weekly newspaper column (ghostwritten by Pittsburgh Courier sports editor Wendell Smith) that he “had a nice experience in Cincinnati.”32

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for statistics and team information.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN194705130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1947/B05130CIN1947.htm

Notes

1 The phrase, borrowed from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, was applied to the breaking of baseball’s color barrier in Jules Tygiel’s book Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press), 1983.

2 Lou Smith, “What’s Matter, Redleg Fans Ask,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 13, 1947: 18. Camilli was a slick-fielding first baseman who had played the position for Brooklyn from 1938 to 1943.

3 Smith, “Reds Move to Philly; Night Game Carded; Young Is Hitting Hard,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 15, 1947: 2-C.

4 Joe Reichler, “Frick, Breadon and Dyer Have Views on Dodger Player,” Kingston (New York) Daily Freeman, May 9, 1947: 10; see also Edgar G. Brands, “Game’s Officials Silent on Robinson Incident,” The Sporting News, May 21, 1947: 4.

5 Stanley Woodward, “General Strike Conceived,” New York Herald Tribune, May 9, 1947, reprinted in The Sporting News, May 21, 1947: 4.

6 Hy Turkin, “Police Investigate Poison Pen Threats to Jackie Robinson,” New York Daily News, May 10, 1947: 25.

7 Bob Husted, “The Referee,” Dayton Herald, May 14, 1947: 30.

8 Joe Aston, “Big Night at the Ballpark,” Cincinnati Post, May 14, 1947: 20.

9 Greg Rhodes and John Erardi, Cincinnati’s Crosley Field: The Illustrated History of a Classic Ballpark (Cincinnati: Road West Publishing, 1995), 120.

10 Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy, 304.

11 Tygiel.

12 Jonathan Eig, Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Year (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), 124.

13 Aston.

14 Harold C. Burr, “Chandler Opens Door for Lippy Next Year,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 14, 1947: 19.

15 Smith, “Erautt to Face Phils; Rickey Praises Blackie,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 15, 1947: 2-C.

16 Eig, 127.

17 Aston.

18 Rhodes and John Snyder, Redleg Journal: Year by Year and Day by Day with the Cincinnati Reds (Cincinnati: Road West Publishing, 2000), 328.

19 Si Burick, “Si-ings,” Dayton Daily News, May 14, 1947: 20. See also “Varied Policies at Hotels Greet Robinson on Trip,” The Sporting News, May 21, 1947: 8.

20 “Robinson Is Determined to Make Grade in Majors,” Cincinnati Post, May 14, 1947: 21.

21 Smith, “Blackwell to Face Hatten Today; Tatum Goes Well in Debut Here,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 14, 1947: 16.

22 Aston.

23 Burick.

24 Tom Swope, “Dodgers Hand Game to Reds,” Cincinnati Post, May 14, 1947: 21.

25 Frank Y. Grayson, “In Weird Struggle Under the Lights, Redlegs Conquer Durocherless Bums,” Cincinnati Times-Star, May 14, 1947: 23.

26 Burick.

27 Eig, 126-27.

28 Jackie Robinson, as told to Alfred Duckett, I Never Had It Made (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972), 77.

29 Eig, “Telling It the Right Way,” in Michael G. Long, ed., 42 Today: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: New York University Press, 2021), 37.

30 Aston.

31 Grayson, “Grayson’s Notes of Yesterday’s Game,” Cincinnati Times-Star, May 15, 1947: 26.

32 Robinson, “Greenberg and Gustine Encouraged Me a Lot,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 24, 1947: 14.

Thanks to league scheduling and springtime weather, the first few weeks of Jackie Robinson’s overthrow of baseball’s color line in 1947 took place close to home.1 The Dodgers’ travels began on May 9, 16 games into the season, with a series in Philadelphia. Cincinnati followed, then Pittsburgh. Recovered from a shoulder injury and an 0-for-20 stretch, Robinson had a .274 batting average and a 11-game hitting streak as Brooklyn’s starting first baseman.2

Pittsburgh was a hotbed of Black baseball in the 1930s, when stars like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, and Cool Papa Bell played for the Negro Leagues’ Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords.3 Even more relevant for Robinson, it was the home of Wendell Smith, whose writing in the Pittsburgh Courier, a prominent Black weekly, had challenged baseball’s segregation since the 1930s,4 and who had recommended Robinson to Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey as a player capable of succeeding in integrated competition.5 Robinson had played at Forbes Field once already, during a barnstorming tour in October 1946, drawing praise from legendary Pirates shortstop Honus Wagner.6

Still, in Pittsburgh and in general, inclusion had its limits in 1947. Robinson stayed in a separate hotel from his teammates.7 Several Pirates, whose roster did not integrate until 1953, targeted him with racist insults.8

The Pirates were in transition after finishing seventh in 1946.9 They had a new ownership group, including entertainer Bing Crosby, and a new manager in Billy Herman.10 At first base was four-time American League home-run champ and two-time MVP Greenberg, purchased from the Detroit Tigers in January 1947 and lured from retirement by, among other inducements, a modification to Forbes Field’s vast outfield.11

The modification, an eight-foot wire fence that carved out bullpens and reduced the left-field home-run distance by 30 feet, became known as Greenberg Gardens.12 Through Pittsburgh’s first eight home games, 11 home runs—likely outs in previous seasons—had landed there.13

A hazy, overcast sky covered Pittsburgh at the start of the series opener against the Dodgers, as a Thursday afternoon crowd of 10,806 paid, with 2,665 Ladies Day attendees, looked on.14 Both teams were among several clubs clustered within a few games at the top of the NL standings.

In his second season as a swingman for Pittsburgh, 27-year-old right-hander Ed Bahr had posted a 1.69 ERA in his last four appearances, including three starts, since allowing five runs in his 1947 debut on April 20. Eddie Stanky grounded Bahr’s fourth pitch up the middle for a leadoff single, bringing up Robinson to an ovation from the crowd.

Stanky took second when Bahr’s two-strike pitch bounced off Clyde Kluttz’s glove for a passed ball, but Robinson flied to left, and Stanky wound up stranded.

Robinson batted again with two outs in the third. An elite punt returner, basketball forward, and long-jumper in college less than a decade earlier, he bunted toward third, then dashed toward first, “setting some kind of speed record as he zoomed down the line,” reported Wendell Smith.15

Bahr picked up the ball, but his hurried toss went wild. Greenberg reached out, hoping to save the throw—and collided with Robinson, who lost his balance and tumbled to the ground as the ball rolled free. Robinson got up and continued to second.

It was ruled a single and an error on Bahr; Robinson’s hitting streak was 12 games. Bahr walked Pete Reiser but retired Dixie Walker to keep the game scoreless.

Brooklyn lefty Vic Lombardi allowed a one-out double to Jim Russell in the first, then set down eight in a row against a Pittsburgh lineup stacked with nine right-handed bats. Russell broke the streak with a leadoff single in the fourth, but the inning appeared to fizzle when Wally Westlake hit into an around-the-horn double play.

But Greenberg walked, and Herman called for a hit-and-run with Frankie Gustine at bat. Stanky moved toward second to cover the steal, attempted to reverse course when Gustine hit a popup toward center, then slipped on the muddy infield. The ball fell for a single, and the Pirates had runners at the corners for Kiner.

After leading the NL with 23 home runs as a rookie in 1946, the 24-year-old Kiner had struggled, homering only once through 16 games in 1947. He watched three balls from Lombardi, then connected on a drive toward Greenberg Gardens. Gene Hermanski scaled the fence, but the ball cleared what the Brooklyn Eagle called “the 335-foot chicken wire” for a home run and a 3-0 Pittsburgh lead.16

Robinson’s next time up was in the fifth, and he followed Stanky’s double by lining to right for the third out. Dodgers manager Burt Shotton, wearing a baseball jacket over civilian clothes,17 replaced Lombardi with Hal Gregg in the bottom of the inning, and Billy Cox’s home run into Greenberg Gardens made it 4-0.18

Pittsburgh second baseman Eddie Basinski turned Bruce Edwards’ smash with runners at the corners in the sixth into a spectacular inning-ending double play, preserving Bahr’s shutout.19 Brooklyn threatened again in the seventh when walks to Arky Vaughan—a star shortstop for 10 seasons in Pittsburgh who converted to third after a trade to Brooklyn in 1941—and Pee Wee Reese opened the inning.

Pinch-hitter Duke Snider, a 20-year-old rookie, hit an apparent double-play bouncer to Basinski at second, but the former Dodger threw the ball into left for an error, and Vaughan scored. Two batters later, Robinson singled to center, driving home Reese and cutting the deficit to 4-2.

Brooklyn was positioned to draw even closer with speed on the corners in Robinson and Snider, hot hitters up in Reiser (batting .319) and Walker (.367), and only one out. But Bahr retired Reiser and Walker to preserve the two-run lead.

Pittsburgh answered the Dodgers’ rally in its half of the seventh. Basinski led off with a single.

Bahr popped up attempting to sacrifice, but Cox came through with a drive to right-center, beyond Reiser’s reach, for a run-scoring triple.20

The Pirates went back to the bunt, and this time it worked: Russell dropped down a suicide squeeze, and Cox scored standing up for a 6-2 lead.

An inning later, Kiner added Pittsburgh’s final run by belting his second homer of the game into Greenberg Gardens. Hermanski again climbed the fence, but the ball landed in the glove of a pitcher in the Pirates’ bullpen.21

Bahr was on the mound in the ninth with a five-run advantage. After a one-out walk to pinch-hitter Al Gionfriddo, a blister on Bahr’s pitching hand, caused by frequent curveballs in his 118-pitch outing, broke, and Herman brought in Tiny Bonham from the bullpen.

Stanky greeted Bonham with a hard-hit double down the first-base line, sending Gionfriddo to third. Robinson followed with a fly ball to deep left; Kiner made the catch in foul territory as Gionfriddo tagged and scored. Bonham set down Reiser, and the Pirates had a 7-3 win.

A day later, a big Friday night crowd saw Robinson get two more hits in Brooklyn’s victory.22 Pittsburgh’s win in the third game of the series was the 14th and final game of his hitting streak.23 By June 30, the Dodgers had moved into first place to stay, and Robinson finished his historic season in the World Series.

Greenberg Gardens continued to be a boon for home runs; the Pirates and their visitors combined for 182 homers in 1947, easily the most of any major-league ballpark besides the Polo Grounds, as Pittsburgh finished tied for the NL’s worst record. Kiner finished with 51 home runs, more than any other major-leaguer since Greenberg’s 58 in 1938. Greenberg himself hit 25, then retired.24

As it happened, the most significant part of Jackie Robinson’s Dodgers’ debut in Pittsburgh was not reflected in the statistical ledger. When Greenberg reached first on his fourth inning walk, an inning after his accidental collision with Robinson, he asked Robinson if had been injured and offered words of encouragement.25

“I know it’s plenty tough,” Greenberg said.26 “You’re a good ballplayer, and you’ll do all right.”27

It was a moment of warmth for Robinson, as his pioneering season marched on.28 They remained friends for the rest of Robinson’s life;29 Greenberg attended Robinson’s funeral in October 1972.30

“He helped me a lot by saying the things he did,” Robinson said of Greenberg after the game.31 “I found out that not all the guys on the other teams are bad heels. I think Greenberg, for instance, is pulling for me to make good.”32

“Class tells. It sticks out all over Mr. Greenberg.”33

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Jim Sweetman and copy-edited by Len Levin. SABR member Kurt Blumenau provided insightful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play. Baseball-Reference.com’s play-by-play for this game included pitch-count data for each plate appearance; the author used it for narrative detail and to determine Ed Bahr’s pitch count for the game.

The author also relied on game coverage from the Brooklyn Eagle, New York Daily News, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Press, and Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph newspapers; and SABR BioProject biographies of several subjects relevant to this game story, including Scott Ferkovich’s Hank Greenberg biography, Claire Hall’s Billy Cox biography, and Michael Marsh’s Wendell Smith biography.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT194705150.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1947/B05150PIT1947.htm

Notes

1 Thirteen of the Dodgers’ first 15 games in 1947 were at Ebbets Field; the other two required only a ride to Manhattan. Rain and snow postponed Robinson’s first scheduled appearance outside New York’s boroughs, a two-game series against the Boston Braves on April 20-21. Dick Young, “Dodgers’ Masterminds Ask Stanky for Help,” New York Daily News, April 22, 1947: 49.

2 The Pittsburgh Courier reported that it was an aggravation of an old football injury to his shoulder. Haskell Cole, “Robby Hitting in ‘Tough Luck,’ But He’ll Remain at First,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 10, 1947: 14.

3 Rich Emert, “Lore of the Game: Pittsburgh Was a Special Place in the History of Negro Leagues Baseball,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 8, 2001: D-3.

4 Chris Lamb, “The White Media Missed It,” in Michael G. Long, ed., 42 Today: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: New York University Press, 2021), 61-62.

5 Bill Nunn Jr., “Change of Pace,” New Pittsburgh Courier, November 18, 1972: 9. Additionally, Smith followed Robinson during the 1947 season, filing reports under his own byline and ghostwriting a column for Robinson.

6 Al Abrams, “Robinson Impresses Big League Players: Cracks Out Three Hits as His Team Defeats Major League Stars,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 9, 1946: 15.

7 The other Dodgers stayed in the Schenley Hotel, near Forbes Field, but Robinson was in the Ellis Hotel in the Hill District, a historically Black section of Pittsburgh. Ed Bouchette, “Memories Golden Here on a Golden Anniversary,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 15, 1997: A-1.

8 Hank Greenberg reported in his posthumously published autobiography, “Our Southern ballplayers, a bunch of bench jockeys, kept yelling at Jackie, ‘Hey coal mine, hey coal mine, hey you black coal mine, we’re going to get you! You ain’t gonna play no baseball.’” A 1997 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s NL debut in Pittsburgh quoted four members of the 1947 Pirates—Eddie Basinski, Ralph Kiner, Jim Russell, and Frankie Gustine—asserting that unnamed teammates had directed slurs at Robinson. Hank Greenberg with Ira Berkow, Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life (Chicago: Triumph, 2001), 181-182; Bouchette, “Memories Golden Here on a Golden Anniversary.”

9 The Pirates’ 63-91 finish in 1946 was only their fifth losing record in 29 seasons.

10 Vince Johnson, “Crosby One of New Buc Owners: McKinney Heads Group Including Local Attorney,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 9, 1946: 1.

11 Greenberg’s contract with the Pirates was $100,000, an increase of $15,000 over his Tigers contract and more than any other player in baseball in 1947. John Rosengren, Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes (New York: New American Library, 2013): 298-304.

12 Harry Keck, “Sports: Pirate Dreams Come True in Opener Friday,” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, April 13, 1947: 2,5.

13 “Bucs Hold Edge in Garden Blows,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 12, 1947: 18.

14 Attendance was well below the turnout for the night games that had opened Brooklyn’s series in Philadelphia and Cincinnati. In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Al Abrams noted that the weather “kept away quite a few customers.” A crowd of 22,680 came to Robinson’s first game in Philadelphia; the paid attendance was 27,164 for Robinson’s Cincinnati debut. The Friday night game a day later drew 34,184 to Forbes Field; two subsequent Robinson appearances in Pittsburgh in July 1947 had crowds of over 42,000. Al Abrams, “Sidelights on Sports,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 16, 1947: 18.

15 Wendell Smith, “The Sports Beat,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 24, 1947: 14.

16 Harold C. Burr, “Higbe Tackles Former Flock Mates Tonight: Dodgers Tumble Into 2d Division on Pirates’ Home Run Barrage,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 16, 1947: 17.

17 As Al Abrams observed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Burt Shotton, scholarly-looking Dodger manager, doesn’t wear a baseball uniform, directing the team in civvies from the bench. He had on a baseball jacket yesterday as a compromise.” Abrams, “Sidelights on Sports.”

18 Seven months after this game, in December 1947, the Pirates traded Cox to the Dodgers in a six-player deal. In seven seasons in Brooklyn, he played on three pennant-winning teams and three teams that finished second in the NL.

19 “[Basinski] started a double play on Bruce Edwards’ smash while lying flat on his stomach in the dirt,” the Brooklyn Eagle reported. Burr, “Higbe Tackles Former Flock Mates Tonight.”

20 “[Cox’s triple] might have been an out, if Pete Reiser had gotten any kind of jump on the ball,” Dick Young observed in the New York Daily News. “But Pete had less pickup than a coal truck, and the drive plunked safely in right-center. …” Dick Young, “‘Cheap’ Buc HRs Trim Flock,” New York Daily News, May 16, 1947: 50.

21 “Five of the Bucs’ runs … came as a result of the three round-trippers—and all of them would have been cinch outs under the natural boundary surroundings of last season,” Young concluded. Young, “‘Cheap’ Buc HRs Trim Flock.”

22 A crowd of 34,814 saw Brooklyn’s 3-1 win over former teammate Kirby Higbe, whom Rickey had traded to the Pirates earlier in May after the veteran right-hander protested Robinson joining the Dodgers. Vince Johnson, “Reese’s Home Run Beats Pirates, 3-1: Dodgers Bump Bucs Into Fifth Place,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 17, 1947: 10.

23 Les Biederman, “Pirates Blank Dodgers, 4-0, Behind Osty: Portsider Wins Third of Season,” Pittsburgh Press, May 18, 1947: 24. Robinson’s streak ended when he went hitless in four at-bats on May 18, his first game at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.

24 Greenberg Gardens remained at Forbes Field through Kiner’s eight-season tenure in Pittsburgh. When the Pirates traded Kiner to the Chicago Cubs in June 1953, Rickey, who had moved into the Pirates’ general-manager job in 1950, announced that the fence would be dismantled. It was torn down prior to the 1954 season. “Greenberg Gardens to Be Torn Down: Quick Announcement of Bullpen’s Doom Follows Kiner Deal,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 5, 1953: 1; Joe Bradis, “Greensburg Gardens Discarded by Pirates,” Terre Haute (Indiana) Tribune-Star, February 28, 1954: 49.

25 Smith, “The Sports Beat.”

26 Smith, “The Sports Beat.”

27 Smith, “The Sports Beat.”

28 Rosengren, Hank Greenberg, 309.

29 Kostya Kennedy, True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2022), 218.

30 Kennedy, True, 234.

31 Smith, “The Sports Beat.”

32 Smith, “The Sports Beat.”

33 Harry Keck, “Sports: Hank Gives Robinson a Helping Hand,” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, May 17, 1947: 11.

Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers came to Chicago’s Wrigley Field in mid-May of 1947 amid a grand experiment that changed professional sports, opening the gates to a stream of talented Black athletes and advancing the cause of racial justice. The experiment proved an emotional stress test for Robinson, the Dodgers team, and the National League. The result changed the fabric of America.

The pressure that Robinson endured during his early seasons is well documented. But there were glimpses of hope in the unity and progress that Robinson represented, such as what happened on May 18 in Chicago, the heart of America. Chicago was distinct among National League cities in its cooperation with baseball’s integration. Several attendees of Robinson’s Wrigley Field debut later used their influential careers to commemorate Robinson. Their memories provide vignettes of the game.

Robinson’s major-league debut had occurred over a month earlier, on April 15 at the Dodgers’ home ballpark, Ebbets Field. The trials Robinson faced early on set the tone for what he endured for the remainder of the 1947 season. On April 22 Phillies manager Ben Chapman verbally unloaded on Robinson in a well-publicized racial bashing. The backlash to Chapman’s epithets later led him to seek a photo op with Robinson for damage control.1

In May, the team’s grand experiment in integration went on the road, as Robinson played outside New York City for the first time.2 The Dodgers faced Chapman and the Phillies again in Philadelphia, visited baseball’s southernmost city of Cincinnati, then played in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and finally St. Louis, where Robinson was not allowed to sleep at the same hotel as his teammates and the Cardinals threated to strike if he played.3

After playing in front of 27,164 at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field and 34,184 at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, the Dodgers arrived in Chicago with Robinson riding a 14-game hitting streak. Chicago was in third place with a record of 14-11, with the Dodgers at 13-12 and in fifth place in the early-season standings.

Chicago was the home of hundreds of thousands of Black people who moved north during the Great Migration, seeking economic opportunity and an escape from the segregated confines of the South. Chicago was once a hotbed of Black baseball, the home of Rube Foster, who had founded the Negro National League in 1920. In 1900, 30,000 Black residents called Chicago home. By 1945, that number had grown to 350,000.4

Settling mostly on the South Side for its numerous factory jobs, and redlined from other neighborhoods, Chicago’s Black population was unified by the Chicago Defender, a highly influential African American newspaper that enjoyed national popularity due to talented writers and a robust distribution system.

But Blacks and Whites rarely mixed in Chicago in 1947, certainly not on the North Side near Wrigley Field. As the city prepared for Robinson’s arrival, Fay Young, writing for the Defender, urged Black community members to be on their best behavior, as they were being tested as much as Robinson. “The telephone booths are not men’s washrooms. The sun and liquor, even if you drink it before you head north, won’t mix.” He warned: “The negro fans can do more to get Jackie Robinson out of the major leagues than all the disgruntled players alive.”5

When the Cubs squared off with the Dodgers, Chicago’s Black baseball fans came in droves. They came by bus, train, and car. Wrigley Field set a paid-attendance record6 with 46,572,7 with upward of 20,000 unable to get into the ballpark. Buses dropped off Wrigley-bound passengers blocks away due to congestion around the ballpark. Dressed in their Sunday best, they showed adoration and support for Robinson and cheered him for striking out at his first at-bat.

In attendance were spectators who would later be influential in honoring Robinson’s legacy. Twelve-year-old Allan “Bud” Selig, future commissioner of baseball, took the train from Milwaukee along with a neighborhood pal, future US Senator Herb Kohl.

Fourteen-year-old attendee Mike Royko later blossomed into a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist. Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times on the day Robinson died in 1972, Royko reflected:

By noon, Wrigley Field was almost filled. The crowd outside spilled off the sidewalk and into the streets. Scalpers were asking top dollar for box seats and getting it.

I had never seen anything like it. Not just the size, although it was a new record, more than 47,000. But this was twenty-five years ago, and in 1947 few blacks were seen in the Loop, much less up on the white North Side at a Cub game. …

The whites tried to look as if nothing unusual was happening, while the blacks tried to look casual and dignified. So everybody looked slightly ill at ease.

For most, it was probably the first time they had been that close to each other in such great numbers. …

[Robinson] swung at the first pitch and they erupted as if he had knocked it over the wall. But it was only a high foul that dropped into the box seats. I remember thinking it was strange that a foul could make that many people happy. When he struck out, the low moan was genuine.8

Robinson’s presence was inescapable during the game, but his performance was less of a factor in his team’s victory. Four hitless at-bats ended his hitting streak at 14 games. He struck out twice – once with the bases loaded and no outs, during the Dodgers’ four-run seventh inning rally that clinched the win. He also committed one “harmless” error out of a dozen chances.

The Cubs scored two in the fourth and Johnny Schmitz was rolling along with eight strikeouts through six innings. But the Dodgers scored four runs in the seventh after starting the inning with Pee Wee Reese’s walk, 19-year-old Tommy Brown’s pinch-hit single, and Eddie Stanky’s bunt single. Schmitz got Robinson to look at a called third strike for the first out. He got ahead of Pete Reiser with two strikes, but the Dodgers center fielder fouled off several pitches, then dropped a fly ball inside the left-field foul line for a double, scoring Reese and Brown to tie the game.9

The Dodgers followed Reiser’s double by turning two intentional walks, a run-scoring groundout, and a bases-loaded walk into two more runs for a 4-2 lead. Reliever Hugh Casey made the lead stand up with three scoreless innings to save Joe Hatten‘s fourth win of the season.

After dropping the second game of the series on May 19 before a crowd of 21,875, significantly smaller than the day before but still the Cubs’ second-biggest single-game Monday gate of 1947,10 the Dodgers left Chicago and headed south to St. Louis, anticipating the climate would be hostile. There, the Cardinals threatened to strike, but the games went off as scheduled, and Robinson “was cheered each time he went to bat and the Dodgers as a team received more vocal encouragement than they usually got at Sportsman’s Park.”11

During the 1980s, a passionate Cub fan, Jerry Pritikin, became a local legend around Wrigley Field. Pritikin became known as the “Bleacher Preacher” due to his mission to convert opposing fans into Cub fans.12 Jerry was 10 years old when he attended this Sunday afternoon game. He later reflected on the day, noting the large crowds outside and that fans brought binoculars.

Selig sat in the upper deck. “We were the only white fans up there,“ he recalled in 2004. “There was so much electricity and drama.”13

In Selig’s 2019 memoir, For the Good of the Game, he reflected further on the day. “On the ride home, I felt so many emotions. Not only was I a little wiser from my time in the upper deck, but I could see plain as day that even though Jackie went hitless, he was a great player whose presence was going to change baseball.” Selig became baseball’s ninth commissioner in 1992. In 1997 he led the movement to retire Robinson’s uniform number 42 across baseball. He instituted April 15 as Jackie Robinson Day in 2004, and since 2009 every player has worn number 42 on that date.

Selig’s childhood neighbor Kohl served as a US senator from 1989 to 2013. In 2003 he cosponsored a bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Robinson. Robinson was awarded the medal, Congress’s highest honor, posthumously in 2005, with his widow, Rachel, receiving it from President George W. Bush in a ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda.14

On the Sunday that Royko, Selig, Kohl, Pritikin, and so many more watched Robinson break baseball’s color barrier in Chicago, there were no death threats as in Cincinnati, no possibility of player strikes as in St. Louis, no phony publicity photos as in Philadelphia. Chicago acted with class.

History has focused on the stressors absorbed by Robinson and the grit required to integrate baseball. But the grace of Chicago’s Black community at Wrigley Field and the respect returned by Cub fans has gone mostly unrecognized. Today, the single-game paid-attendance record through more than a century of baseball at Wrigley Field is its enduring testament.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes below, the author also consulted pertinent data from Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org, including the box scores below. The author also reviewed Sam Smith’s article, “A Whole New Ballgame,” from the May 17, 1987, Chicago Tribune, for background on Robinson’s Chicago debut.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN194705180.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1947/B05180CHN1947.htm

Notes

1 Marc Tracy, “69 Years Later, Philadelphia Apologizes to Jackie Robinson,” New York Times, April 15, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/sports/baseball/philadelphia-apologizes-to-jackie-robinson.html.

2 The Dodgers’ first 17 games in 1947 included 15 home dates and two games against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds.

3 Jonathan Eig. Opening Day (New York, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2007).

4 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long-lasting-legacy-great-migration-180960118/.

5 Opening Day, 142.

6 A crowd of 51,556 attended in 1930, on a ladies day (women got in free) and fans were allowed on the field, thus increasing its capacity.

7 “Brooklyn Bats Rout Schmitz in 4 Run 7th,” Chicago Tribune, May 19, 1947.

8 Mike Royko, “Jackie’s Debut,” Chicago Sun-Times, October 25, 1972.

9 Harold C. Burr, “Fireman Casey Pulls Dodgers’ Bacon out of Fire for Sixth Time,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 19, 1947: 11.

10 Chicago drew a crowd of 25,052 paid for its game on Monday, July 28, against Robinson and the Dodgers. (The Cubs’ biggest Monday home crowd in 1947 was 39,511 for a Labor Day doubleheader with the Reds on September 1.)

11 J. Roy Stockton, “Cardinals ‘Health Resort’ Makes Rivals Feel Better, Fans Worse,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 22, 1947: 10C.

12 Dan Epstein, “Jerry Pritikin: An Audience with Cubs’ Bleacher Preacher,” Jewish Baseball Museum, July 25, 2016, https://jewishbaseballmuseum.com/spotlight-story/jerry-pritikin-adience-cubs-bleacher-preacher/.

13 Adam McCalvy, “Selig Wanted Jackie’s Legacy to Live Forever,” Major League Baseball, accessed April 10, 2021, www.mlb.com/news/jackie-robinson-had-lasting-effect-on-bud-selig.

14 Heath Geva, “Kohl, Herb,” Members of US Congress, accessed January 3, 2021, https://memberscongress.lawi.us/herb-kohl/; “Robinson Awarded Congressional Gold Medal,” ESPN.com, March 1, 2005, https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=2002582.