Rickey chose Daytona Beach as the Dodgers’ spring-training site because it had fewer discrimination problems than other Florida cities. During a visit there in September 1945, Rickey noticed something that was different from many Southern cities — Daytona Beach had Black bus drivers, a Black middle class, and a Black political presence.2 Rickey met with Mayor William Perry and City Manager James Titus numerous times before deciding on Daytona Beach. Titus was not at all concerned about Robinson’s presence. He said, “We have a very good situation here between the races because we give the Negroes everything we give the whites. … There is no discrimination, but there is segregation.”3

Daytona Beach, though, did not have enough fields to accommodate the hundreds of players trying out for the many teams in the organization. The Royals trained 40 miles away in Sanford, Florida, until enough players were cut and all of the teams could train in Daytona Beach.

Johnny Wright joined Robinson in spring training so Robinson would have another Black person with whom to work through this journey. Both players were sent to Sanford. The two arrived on the morning of March 4 with Wendell Smith, a writer for the Pittsburgh Courier, at the time the largest Black newspaper in the country, along with Billy Rowe, a Courier photographer. Smith had been hired by Rickey to look after Robinson and Wright.4 As the four men stood in their street clothes and looked across the field at Sanford, they saw a couple of hundred Montreal and St. Paul players taking batting practice and shagging flies, among other spring-training activities. As soon as the players saw the four Black men, Robinson recalled, “It seemed that every one of these men stopped suddenly in his tracks and that 400 eyes were trained on Wright and me.”5

After just the second day of practice, a White man told Black journalists that 100 or so townspeople would take matters into their own hands if Robinson and Wright were not “out of town by nightfall.”6

The two immediately returned to Daytona Beach and trained at Kelly Field in the Black section of town. Smith and Rickey wanted to keep this incident as a secret, to avoid fueling any fires that might be stoked by reporters who did not want the two to play major-league baseball.7

Daytona Beach was a better place for Robinson and Wright to stay and play baseball. The city was home to Bethune-Cookman College, founded by Mary McLeod Bethune, one of the nation’s most influential Black citizens. Bethune gained the respect of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt. The first lady even appeared at a couple of fundraisers for the college. Events like this brought local Black and White residents together in a positive way.8

In Daytona Beach the Robinsons stayed with Joe and Duff Harris. Joe was a pharmacist and business leader in town. Wright stayed with Vernon Smith, a retired real estate agent. Smith and a couple of others involved in helping Robinson and Wright stayed at the college. The White players stayed in the Riviera Hotel.9

On the field, Robinson tried to impress his coaches by throwing the ball as hard as he could but hurt his arm in the process. His hitting also suffered. He said, “I could hear them shouting in the stands, and I wanted to produce so much that I was tense and over-anxious. I found myself swinging hard enough to break my back. I started swinging at bad balls and doing a lot of things I wouldn’t have done under ordinary circumstances. I wanted to get a hit for them because they were pulling so hard for me.”10

After the first day of practice, Robinson’s arm was so sore he could barely lift it and had trouble sleeping that night. Royals manager Clay Hopper told Robinson to rest for a few days. At night Rachel would massage his arm, but that didn’t help. Time was needed to work it out.

When Rickey heard that Robinson was taking off some time from fielding, he left City Island Ballpark, where the Dodgers played, and paid a visit to Kelly Field. He told Robinson he had to practice every day, sore arm and all. Rickey said, “Under ordinary circumstances, it would be all right, but you’re not here under ordinary circumstances. You can’t afford to miss a single day. They’ll say you are dogging it, that you are pretending your arm is sore.”11

Because Robinson couldn’t throw across the field and the Royals already had six shortstops in camp, Robinson had agreed to play second base or wherever they need him. Because playing first base did not require having a strong throwing arm, the ballclub switched his position. Having never played first, Robinson struggled. Rickey and Hall of Famer George Sisler tutored him at first base.12

Montreal began its spring schedule against its organizational rival St. Paul Saints. Robinson sat out the first four games to rest his arm. Rickey waited for the right time to reveal Robinson to the baseball world.13

Robinson was penciled into the lineup on Sunday, March 17, as the Royals played the parent Dodgers at City Island Ballpark in downtown Daytona Beach.

Besides learning a new position, having an arm so sore that he couldn’t throw, and being unable to find his hitting stroke, Robinson kept worrying about other things that morning. He kept worrying about what could go wrong — what the White spectators would yell at him, throw at him, or even the possibility that his life might be in danger. But there was excitement in the Black community that morning. In church, they prayed for Robinson and heard sermons about him. After church, the Black community paraded to the ballpark.14

More than 4,000 spectators filled the stands for the game, and about one-fourth were black. They filled the Jim Crow section of the ballpark, and an additional 200 or so Blacks stood beyond the right-field foul line.

Montreal did not score in the top of the first, and in the bottom of the inning, the big hit was Dixie Walker’s bases-loaded triple for the Dodgers, who held a 4-0 lead after one inning.

Robinson came up to bat in the second inning. He wondered what was going to happen. He expected to hear applause from the Black section out in right field but was surprised to also hear applause from the Whites. He remembered two comments coming from the stands. One was “Come on, Black boy! You can make the grade” and “They’re giving you a chance — now come on and do something about it.”15

In his first at-bat, Robinson chased a curveball and fouled out weakly to third baseman Billy Herman. In the fourth inning, he fouled out to the catcher, Dixie Howell. Robinson put the ball in play in the sixth inning and reached on a fielder’s choice. He stole second and scored on a base hit. He was removed from the game after 5½ innings to rest his arm. Brooklyn went on to win, 7-2.16 Not a whole lot was mentioned in the newspapers about Robinson. None of the high-powered New York sportswriters mentioned the game, and while Daytona Beach Evening News sports editor Bernard Kahn covered the action, he did not write about Robinson until the fourth paragraph. The Associated Press started its story with Robinson, and its dispatch appeared in papers nationwide.17

Even though Robinson did not get a hit, he was satisfied with how the day ended, and a huge burden was lifted off his back. Even though not everyone applauded for him, he was sure now that the whole world wasn’t against him. The townspeople were equally satisfied.18

When camp broke and the Royals returned to Montreal for the International League season, Robinson had made the team. He and Rachel were uncertain what kind of reception they would face. It turned out well. They found a place to live, and in the Royals’ season opener, Robinson went 4-for-4 with a home run. He went on to lead the International League in batting average (.349) and tied for runs scored with Soup Campbell of the Baltimore Orioles (113). The Royals won the pennant with a 100-54 record and defeated the Louisville Colonels, the American Association champion, in the Little World Series.19

In 1988 City Island Ballpark was renamed Jackie Robinson Ballpark, and is still in use as of 2020.20

Notes

1 Chris Lamb, Blackout: The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Spring Training (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), 13-16.

2 Lamb, 64.

3 Lamb, 64.

4 Hall of Fame, “About Wendell Smith,” baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/wendell-smith/345.

5 Lamb, 83.

6 Lamb, 88.

7 Lamb, 88-89.

8 Lamb, 91.

9 Lamb, 92-93.

10 Lamb, 94.

11 Lamb, 95.

12 Lamb, 95.

13 Lamb, 100.

14 Lamb, 104.

15 Lamb, 106.

16 Associated Press, “Robinson Is Hitless in 3 Tries as Dodgers Wallop Royals 7—2,” Montreal Gazette, March 18, 1946: 17.

17 Lamb, 107.

18 Lamb, 108.

19 Tabitha Marshall, The Canadian Encyclopedia, thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jackie-robinson-and-the-montreal-royals.

20 Kevin Reichard, Ballpark Digest, ballparkdigest.com/200811291030/minor-league-baseball/visits/jackie-robinson-ballpark-daytona-cubs.

George Shuba greets Jackie Robinson at home plate on April 18, 1946. (Courtesy of Greg Gulas, Carrie Anderson, Mike Shuba)

When Jack Roosevelt Robinson went to bat in the top of the first inning on April 18, 1946 — on a field that bore his middle name — he made history as the first Black player in Organized Baseball in the twentieth century.1

Robinson’s performance in the exhibition season had not been noteworthy, so no one expected him to be the driving force in the Montreal Royals’ 14-1 rout of the Jersey City Giants. After he turned in a 4-for-5 day at the plate that included a homer, two stolen bases, four runs scored, and four RBIs, Pittsburgh Courier reporter Wendell Smith rhapsodized that “Jolting Jackie Robinson, the ‘California Comet’ looms tonight (Thursday) as the newest and most spectacular satellite to blaze across the International League baseball heavens in a decade.”2

The excitement and joy that Smith and his fellow Black reporters and fans felt was palpable. Although Robinson was lauded from all corners, with the New York Times reporting that he “converted his opportunity [to make good] into a brilliant personal triumph,” African-Americans knew that Robinson’s accomplishment did not belong to him alone.3 As Smith pointed out, “[t]he hopes of fourteen million Negroes [were] resting on his big broad shoulders.”4 Fellow Courier columnist William G. Nunn asserted, “In tearing the door from its hinges, Robinson proved to 25,000 wild-eyed fans of all hues, races and creeds that ability recognizes no color line!”5 Indeed, Robinson’s performance had been so amazing that he had “won the hearts” of all those fans.6

The fact that it was Opening Day normally would have provided excitement enough, but the added attraction of Robinson’s debut resulted in a paid attendance of 51,872 for a venue that had a capacity of only 25,000. The result was that “[t]he park was practically filled at 1:30 P.M. and when Mayor [Frank] Hague threw out the first ball at 3 P.M. there was not an empty seat in sight.”7 Those fans fortunate enough to gain entrance applauded as Robinson, the second batter of the game, stepped to the plate. Smith observed of the crowd, “They were for him. … They all knew how he had overcome many obstacles in the Deep South. … And yet, through it all, he was standing at the plate as the second baseman of the Montreal Royals. … The applause they gave so willingly was a salute of appreciation and admiration.”8 The fans’ excitement waned briefly when, after working a full count, Robinson grounded out to Giants shortstop Jaime Almendro. Robinson’s grounder was part of a one-two-three inning for Jersey City starter Warren Sandel, but it would be the only successful frame for the Giants hurler.

In the top of the second inning, Tom Tatum singled and Red Durrett followed with a homer for the first two Royals runs. When the third inning rolled around, the Royals went to work on Sandel again. Montreal pitcher Barney DeForge drew a leadoff walk and Marv Rackley followed with a single to set the stage for Robinson’s second at-bat. This time the former Kansas City Monarch, who had ranked “number six in the Negro American League for the league’s batting honors in 1945,” did not disappoint.9 He clouted Sandel’s first pitch over the left-field wall for a three-run homer that gave the Royals a 5-0 lead. Sandel retired the next two batters but was lifted for reliever Phil Oates after he allowed Durrett’s second round-tripper of the game.

Oates ended the third inning and made it through the fourth without incurring further damage, but Robinson showed another aspect to his game when he returned to the plate in the fifth. He dragged a bunt down the third-base line that he beat out handily, stole second base with ease, and advanced to third on an infield out. Robinson promptly sped halfway down the line as though he wanted to steal home. The move so unnerved Oates that he stopped in mid-windup and was called for a balk that allowed Robinson to score.

The only flaw in Robinson’s spectacular debut occurred in the bottom of the fifth when he committed an error while handling his first chance at second base, a miscue that the New York Times humorously chalked up to him “proving that he was only human, after all.”10 First, shortstop Stan Breard made an error on leadoff batter Almendro’s grounder. Robinson made it two Royals errors in a row when he retired Almendro at second but threw wide of first base while trying to turn the double play on Cleston Ray, a miscue that allowed Ray to take second. Ray took third on Bobby Thomson’s second hit of the game and scored the Giants’ lone run on Norman Jaeger’s fly out.11 Robinson atoned for that error by successfully starting the Royals’ only double play of the game in the sixth inning; he handled five of his six total chances successfully with two putouts and three assists.

In the seventh, Robinson’s third hit of the day — a solid single to right field — and second stolen base were part of another Royals onslaught that plated three runs and made the score 10-1. Hub Andrews took the mound for the Giants in the eighth inning, but he fared no better than either of his predecessors; in fact, he followed directly in Oates’s footsteps. The Royals put up another three-spot in the eighth, including Robinson’s fourth run of the game. Robinson reached base with his second bunt of the afternoon, again down the third-base line, and advanced to third via two infield outs. The Baltimore Afro-American described how

a]gain he took advantage of the psychological factor his base-running prowess had established. As Andrews began his wind-up, Jackie stormed down the base-line toward home plate, then suddenly stopped.

The bewildered Jersey City pitcher didn’t know what to do with the ball and again [home plate] Umpire Gore called Jackie across the plate.12

That was two pitchers, two fake steal attempts, and two balks that allowed two of Robinson’s runs to score, which Wendell Smith believed to be “some kind of a record for an opening day game.”13

Although Robinson’s splashy debut was the obvious story of the day, he did not beat the Giants single-handedly. DeForge pitched masterfully. The Jersey City native scattered eight hits in a complete-game effort against his hometown team and would have thrown a shutout had it not been for the Breard and Robinson errors. Royals batters smashed 15 hits, including Durrett’s two homers and three-hit performances by Tatum and Breard. Montreal was off and running in a 1946 season that would lead to an International League batting title for Robinson and a Little World Series victory for the team.

On this day, when the game ended, Robinson was mobbed by kids who had a new idol and wanted his autograph or merely to come into contact with him. Durrett “fought his way through the howling mob and finally ‘saved’ Robinson,” telling him, “You can’t possibly sign autographs for all those kids.”14 Once Robinson arrived in the visitors locker room, the scene was no different as reporters and well-wishers crowded around the star of the day. Things were so hectic and “Robinson was so excited he had to tie his necktie three or four times but he was as happy as a kid on Christmas morning.”15

The Jersey Journal, hometown newspaper of the vanquished Giants, lauded Robinson and made note of the fact that the momentous occasion would not have been possible had Branch Rickey not been courageous enough to sign Robinson and had he not “stood staunchly behind [him] and permitted pre-season exhibition games to be cancelled rather than back down” and avowed that “[y]esterday, Robinson repaid him for his support.”16 The Pittsburgh Courier’s William G. Nunn agreed, proclaiming, “But as twilight deepens over this ball park … as the American flag waves proudly in the glooming sic], we bow our heads in silent tribute to two men who opened another saga in the book which is America. … [T]wo men with faith in God and Democracy. Thank God for a Branch Rickey and thank America for Jackie Robinson.”17

As for Robinson himself, in the postgame locker room, he commented, “The one thing that I cared about was the way my teammates backed me up all the way. […] There wasn’t any riding out there but if there was I wouldn’t have minded as long as my team was behind me. They have been swell.”18 After the postgame clamor ended, [a]s he left the park and walked out onto the street, the once brilliant sun was fading slowly in the distant western skies. … His petite and dainty little wife greeted him warmly and kindly. ‘You’ve had quite a day, little man,’ she said sweetly. ‘Yes,’ he said softly and pleasantly, ‘God has been good to me today!’”19

Notes

1 Roosevelt Stadium was, of course, named after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but it seems fitting that Robinson shared the name. The International League had previous African-American players, but none since Moses Fleetwood Walker played for the Syracuse Stars in 1889 prior to Black players’ exclusion from Organized Baseball due to the “gentleman’s agreement” between all team owners.

2 Wendell Smith, “Jackie Hits Homer, Scores 4 Runs as Royals Win First,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 27, 1946: 16.

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

4 Smith, “Jackie Hits Homer, Scores 4 Runs as Royals Win First.”

5 William G. Nunn, “American Way Triumphs in Robinson ‘Experiment,’” Pittsburgh Courier, April 27, 1946: 4.

6 “Jackie Robinson Hits Homer in League Debut,” Chicago Defender, April 27, 1946: 10.

7 Sheehan.

8 Wendell Smith, “The Sports Beat,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 27, 1946: 16.

9 “Jackie Robinson Hits Homer in League Debut.”

10 Sheehan.

11 Bobby Thomson later became famous for his “Shot Heard ’Round the World” in 1951 that won the National League pennant for the Giants in their playoff series against the Dodgers.

12 “30,000 See Robinson Sparkle in Montreal Debut,” Baltimore Afro-American, April 20, 1946: 29.

13 Smith, “Jackie Hits Homer, Scores 4 Runs as Royals Win First.”

14 Smith, “The Sports Beat.”

15 “‘Jackie’ Excited, Has Tie Trouble, Almost Loses Shirt to JC Crowd,” Montreal Gazette, April 19, 1946: 12.

16 “The Club-House: Jackie Robinson, Despite Pressure on Him, Rose to Greatest Heights in Athletic Career at Inaugural Here,” Jersey Journal, April 19, 1946: 13.

17 Nunn, “American Way Triumphs in Robinson ‘Experiment.’”

18 “‘Jackie’ Excited, Has Tie Trouble, Almost Loses Shirt to JC Crowd.”

19 Smith, “The Sports Beat.”

In the postseason, the Royals played the fourth-place Newark Bears in the first round of the Governor’s Cup playoff series. The Bears were affiliated with the New York Yankees and were managed by George Selkirk, a former Yankee. Newark’s 21-year-old phenoms, shortstop Bobby Brown and catcher Yogi Berra, hit .341 and .314, respectively, during the regular season. They were roommates and a study in contrasts. Brown, who was studying to become a doctor, brought “medical textbooks the size of phone directories with him on road trips,” while Berra preferred comic books.1

After winning the first two games at home, the Royals won one of three games in Newark. The teams returned to Montreal for the sixth contest, a night game on Wednesday, September 18, 1946, with the Royals needing one more victory to win the best-of-seven series. The paid attendance at Delorimier Stadium was reported to be 19,322. The starting pitchers were right-handers Frank Laga2 for the Royals and Duane Pillette for the Bears.

The game was scoreless through four innings; Laga allowed no hits while Pillette escaped jams in the second and fourth innings. But Newark rallied for four runs in the top of the fifth, the result of three singles (by Milt Byrnes, Blas Monaco, and Buddy Hassett), a double by Brown, a base on balls to Pillette, and an error by Robinson. With two outs in the inning, Laga was replaced by right-hander Chet Kehn.

After Pillette walked Marv Rackley and Robinson to start the bottom of the fifth, he was replaced by southpaw Herb Karpel, who had led the International League with a 2.41 ERA during the regular season. Rackley scored on Lew Riggs’ single, and Robinson came home on Les Burge’s sacrifice fly, cutting Newark’s lead in half.

In the seventh inning, Robinson ripped his second double of the game; Riggs’ single sent him to third, and he again scored on a sacrifice fly by Burge. 

The Royals entered the bottom of the ninth trailing by a run. “Lefty” Karpel3 retired Robinson and Riggs for two quick outs, and it was now up to Burge, a left-handed batter. What followed was called “the most exciting moment of the season” by sportswriter Dink Carroll of the Montreal Gazette.4

With the count at two balls and two strikes on Burge, Karpel’s next offering was called a ball by home-plate umpire Artie Gore. The pitcher and his teammates were furious at the call, which they felt should have been strike three and the end of the game. On Karpel’s next pitch, Burge homered over the scoreboard in right field to tie the score at 4-4. Karpel then “rushed at Gore and had to be forcibly restrained by his teammate, Johnny Moore. There was a lot of pushing and arguing and finally the harassed umpire ran Karpel, Moore, Jack Phillips and Manager George Selkirk out of the game.”5

Alex Mustaikis, Newark’s “ace fireman,”6 replaced Karpel on the mound. The next batter was Tommy Tatum, who lined a single into left field. Herman Franks followed with a double off the scoreboard, which was retrieved by Frank Colman, a strong-armed right fielder. In the seventh inning, Colman had impressively thrown Riggs out at the plate. Nonetheless, Royals manager Clay Hopper, coaching along the third-base line, sent the speedy Tatum home. Colman’s throw was on the money and in Berra’s mitt ahead of the runner, but Gore called Tatum safe. With that, the Royals won the game, 5-4, and the series, 4 games to 2.

Berra flew into a rage and rushed at Gore, the benches cleared, and even “some of the crowd boiled down out of the stand to take part in the melee. Then came the police and Umpire Gore was escorted off the scene and the riot subsided.”7 Gore said afterwards that Berra had missed the tag.

With the Bears’ season over, the Yankees called up Brown and Berra. They made their joint major-league debuts four days later in the first game of a doubleheader on September 22.

The Royals completed their playoff run by defeating the Syracuse Chiefs in the International League Governor’s Cup finals and the Louisville Colonels of the American Association in the Junior World Series. Hopper was named the Minor League Manager of the Year by The Sporting News.8

Robinson broke the major-league color barrier when he made his debut with the Dodgers on April 15, 1947. In the same game, Gore made his major-league debut as a National League umpire.9

Years later, Berra recalled that last playoff game against the Royals: “We lost the series, and I lost my head against the plate umpire, Artie Gore, on a close play at the plate. I got fined because all hell broke loose after the play, and if I had actually hit him, I might’ve gotten thrown out of baseball. I was lucky, and fortunate, too, since the Yankees actually paid my $500 fine. I also learned a big lesson. If you’re a catcher, you better get along with umpires.”10

Sources

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

Notes

1 Yogi Berra and Dave Kaplan, Ten Rings: My Championship Seasons (New York: William Morrow, 2003), 14.

2 Laga, 26, had been recently recalled from Mobile of the Class-AA Southern Association. He started in place of left-hander Steve Nagy, out with arm trouble. Dink Carroll, “Umpire Artie Gore Is Victim As Bears Beaten 5-4,” Gazette (Montreal, Quebec), September 19, 1946: 16.

3 Karpel had appeared in two games with the Yankees in April 1946 before being demoted to Newark.

4 Dink Carroll, “Playing the Field,” Gazette, December 30, 1946: 12.

5 Carroll, Gazette, September 19, 1946: 16.

6 “Mustaikis Ace Fireman for Newark,” Elmira (New York) Star-Gazette, August 9, 1946: 10.

7  Carroll, Gazette, September 19, 1946.

8 Edgar C. Brands, “No. 1 Men of 1946,” The Sporting News, January 1, 1947: 1.

9 Gore was the third-base umpire in a three-man crew.

10 Berra and Kaplan, Ten Rings, 14.

Jackie Robinson was relieved to be back in Montreal. The Montreal Royals, a Triple-A affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers, had just dropped two of the first three games of the Junior World Series in Louisville under trying circumstances. While fans of the Louisville Colonels were thrilled to see their team back in the series for the third consecutive year, many were upset at having to host integrated baseball games. A vocal Louisville group, attempting to maintain their strict segregationist tradition, even demanded that the series be canceled.1 The new baseball commissioner, Happy Chandler, made it clear to the Colonels that Jackie was going to play.2

Robinson was vigorously booed by most White fans from the moment he stepped out of the dugout for Game One at Parkway Field. A torrent of racist insults rained down upon him from the stands, although he was cheered by Black fans in the small Jim Crow section down the right-field line.3 Jackie was subjected to boos and taunts every time he moved a muscle during the three games in Kentucky.4 “If I were in his place, I would have thrown my glove on the ground and left the field and baseball altogether,” admitted Colonels center fielder George Bennington during the train ride to Montreal for Game Four.5 “Robinson is truly extraordinary.”

Louisville players had been instructed by the Office of the Commissioner to refrain from using racial insults against him, and they complied with the directive, though they didn’t exactly go easy on him. Colonels catcher Fred Walters attempted to injure Robinson by spiking him in Game One and Louisville pitchers weren’t afraid to pitch him inside. “I remember our starting pitcher that day, Jim Wilson, knocked him down, and the fans cheered,” recalled Colonels hurler Otis “Otey” Clark.6

Although Robinson refused to admit it at the time, the abuse in Louisville affected his play. He went 0-for-5 in Game One, the first and only time he was held hitless in five at-bats that season, and he committed an uncharacteristic fielding error in Game Two. His batting line over the first three games was a wretched 1-for-10 with three strikeouts. After watching him win the batting title and play outstanding defense all season long, his teammates knew he was capable of much more. “Robinson didn’t play well down here, but wait till you see him in Montreal, where the fans are his friends,” predicted his double-play partner, Al Campanis.7

The baseball fans in Montreal, perhaps partially in response to hearing of the indignities that he faced during spring training in Florida, had been fully behind Robinson from the beginning of the regular season.8 Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey had surrounded Jackie with a talented group of veteran ballplayers, and they dominated the International League from wire to wire, posting a 100-54 record and finishing a whopping 18½ games ahead of the second-place Syracuse Chiefs. The Royals were an offensive juggernaut, scoring 1,019 runs and stealing 189 bases in the regular season, which left every other team in the dust.9

The Colonels, champions of the American Association, relied on outstanding pitching, speed, and defense to win games. Their offense was mediocre until their parent club, the Boston Red Sox, acquired 34-year-old outfielder Jim Gleeson in a trade with the Cardinals in early July.10 When Gleeson joined the team on July 7, the Colonels were mired in third place with a 44-38 record, 6½ games behind the St. Paul Saints, Brooklyn’s other Triple-A affiliate. Louisville went 48-23 (.676) for the remainder of the season and finished four games ahead of second-place Indianapolis.

Louisville cruised through the American Association playoffs, easily defeating St. Paul and Indianapolis, which earned the Colonels a five-day break before facing the Royals. Montreal knocked off the Newark Bears, led by 21-year-old Yogi Berra, in six games in the International League semifinals, and then dispatched the pugnacious Syracuse Chiefs in five games in the finals.11

Glen Moulder, 10-6 with a 3.25 ERA during the regular season, was the Royals’ Game Four starter. The right-hander had come on in relief to save Game One by getting the dangerous Al Flair to hit a popup for the final out with a runner on base in a 7-5 Montreal victory.

Clark (11-7, 2.89 ERA), a 31-year-old right-hander making his first and only appearance in the series, took to the mound for Louisville. Surprisingly, he had faced Robinson before even though the two players had never played in the same league. While with Boston just before the start of the 1945 season, Clark had thrown batting practice to Robinson, Sam Jethroe, and Marvin Williams at Fenway Park during the bogus tryout of the three Negro League players.12 The charade would come back to haunt the Red Sox organization for decades.

The Montreal fans, many of whom had listened to the radio broadcast of the first three games of the series, were acutely aware of Robinson’s ill-treatment in Louisville.13 Many took the abuse directed at their beloved second baseman personally. The fans at De Lorimier Stadium booed lustily when the Colonels took to the field, and they proceeded to boo every single Louisville player throughout the game.14 “I didn’t approve of this kind of retaliation,” Robinson said years later, “but I felt a jubilant sense of gratitude for the way Canadians expressed their feelings.”15 As a further show of support, the fans gave Jackie a rousing standing ovation.

The Colonels scored a couple of quick runs in the top of the first inning and were up 4-0 by the middle of the fifth, with three of those runs knocked in by Flair. Montreal closed the gap to 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth before Moulder ran into more trouble by walking the first three batters in the sixth inning. That caused Royals manager Clay Hopper to call for his most effective reliever, Frank Laga, to come out of the pen. Laga slammed the door by setting down the next three Colonels to escape the bases-loaded jam.16 Dixie Howell’s home run in the bottom of the sixth cut the lead to 4-2, and the teams exchanged runs in the eighth inning to make the score 5-3.

Clark, as usual, had shown excellent control in the game, walking only a single batter through the first eight innings. After he retired Campanis for the first out of the ninth inning, it appeared that the Colonels were destined to take a three-games-to-one stranglehold in the series. Pinch-hitter Herman Franks, who had an outstanding batting eye, drew a walk. After Marv Rackley hit into a fielder’s choice, Robinson, 1-for-4 in the game, stepped to the plate with Montreal down to its final out. Jackie also had excellent plate discipline, and he too walked. Clark issued his third base on balls of the inning to the next batter, Tommy Tatum, to load the bases, and his evening on the hill was over. Lefty Joe Ostrowski fared no better, walking Les Burge to bring in Rackley with Montreal’s fourth run, which advanced Tatum to second base and Robinson to third. The catcher Walters threw wildly to second base trying to pick off Tatum, and an alert Robinson scampered home to tie the game, 5-5. Incredibly, the Royals had scored a pair of crucial runs without registering a hit, and the game went into extra innings.

Montreal’s Game One winner, Chet Kehn, threw a scoreless top of the 10th inning. In the bottom of the frame, the Royals continued to benefit from the generosity of Colonels pitchers. Ostrowski’s throwing error on Howell’s groundball put the potential winning run on base with nobody out. Ostrowski compounded matters by fielding Earl Naylor’s sacrifice attempt and throwing late to second base, and now runners were on first and second. With righty Mel Deutsch pitching, Campanis advanced both runners with a sacrifice. Kehn followed with Montreal’s third consecutive bunt, except this one was an attempt to score the catcher Howell on a squeeze play, but Walters blocked the plate and tagged Howell for out number two.

With the top of the order coming up, the Colonels were forced with a dilemma. They could pitch to the lefty Rackley, 6-for-19 to that point in the series, or the right-handed-hitting Robinson, who was only 2-for-14. Louisville chose to intentionally walk Rackley to setup a force at every base and enjoy the platoon advantage. The decision handed Robinson a chance to avenge his harsh treatment in Louisville, and it was an opportunity he did not pass up. Jackie blasted a single over shortstop Jack Albright’s head to drive in Naylor with the winning run.

The victory evened the seven-game series at two wins apiece. With all remaining games set to be played in friendly De Lorimier Stadium, Jackie Robinson and the Montreal Royals had all the momentum on their side.

Author’s note

The author is grateful for the research assistance provided by fellow SABR member Marcel Dugas.

Sources

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

Notes

1 Roger Kahn, Rickey & Robinson: The True, Untold Story of the Integration of Baseball (New York: Rodale Books, 2014), 217-218.

2 Commissioner Chandler claimed to have sent a message to the president of the Louisville Colonels, Bruce Dudley, telling him, “The colored boy has every right to play.”

3 The attendance for Game One was 13,716. Although an estimated 20,000 African-American fans wanted to purchase tickets for the game, the Colonels refused to sell any more than the 466 tickets normally available to Black fans in the Jim Crow section. Team President Bruce Dudley said he was afraid that a large crowd of Black fans would lead to a race riot. Approximately 1,500 Black fans were turned away at the gate, many of whom watched the game from nearby rooftops and telephone poles, and atop freight cars. After much criticism, the team sold more tickets to Black fans for the next two games.

4 Marcel Dugas, Jackie Robinson, Un Été à Montréal (A Summer in Montreal) (Montréal: Éditions Hurtubise, 2019), Chapitre 4: Les séries (Chapter 4: The playoffs).

5 Jack Jedwab, Jackie Robinson’s Unforgettable Season of Baseball in Montreal (Montreal: Les Éditions Images, 1996), 40. Although the quote is attributed to an unnamed Colonels player in Jedwab’s book, the October 3, 1946, edition of La Presse newspaper includes the French translation of this quote and attributes it to George Bennington.

6 Kahn, Rickey & Robinson, 218.

7 William Brown, Baseball’s Fabulous Montreal Royals (Westmount, Quebec: Robert Davies Publishing, 1996), 110.

8 Due to Florida’s segregationist policies, Robinson was unable to stay in the same hotels or eat in the same restaurants as his teammates. Early in spring training, he was forced to flee Sanford after his personal safety was threatened. The Royals chose to relocate their spring training to Daytona Beach, which was less hostile to integration. Although the Royals could play integrated games in Daytona Beach, three of their road games were canceled by local authorities in a six-day period because they did not want integrated baseball games being played in their jurisdiction. On April 7 a police officer in Sanford came onto the field in the bottom of the second inning and ordered Robinson and teammate John Wright to leave. They were forced to comply. To avoid any further issues, the Royals decided to cancel four exhibition games they were to play as the team traveled north to start the regular season.

9 Montreal’s 1,019 runs were 217 more than the number-two team in runs scored, the Buffalo Bisons. The Royals’ 189 stolen bases more than doubled those of the Baltimore Orioles, who finished a distant second in steals with 84.

10 Jim Gleeson had five years of major-league experience under his belt, including an outstanding 1940 season with the Chicago Cubs. In 551 plate appearances that season, Gleeson posted a .313/.389/.470 slash line and 4.2 Wins Above Replacement (WAR). In the 1946 season, Gleeson hit .306 in 148 games split between Columbus and Louisville in the American Association. He also led all players in the 1946 Junior World Series with nine RBIs.

11 The Syracuse players treated Jackie Robinson worse than any other Montreal opponent in 1946. They baited him mercilessly with racist taunts whenever the two teams met.

12 Bill Nowlin, “Otey Clark,” SABR BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/ee62deca, accessed November 18, 2019.

13 The games in Louisville were broadcast on two radio stations: CJAD (English) and CHLP (French). It was rare to broadcast road games at the time. Even the New York Yankees only began the live broadcasting all road games on radio in 1946.

14 Dugas, Jackie Robinson, Un Été à Montréal (A Summer in Montreal), Chapitre 4: Les séries (Chapter 4: The playoffs). The name “De Lorimier Stadium” is used instead of “Delorimier Stadium” to reflect the correct French name. The English press at the time anglicized the name incorrectly.

15 Brown, Baseball’s Fabulous Montreal Royals, 110.

16 Dink Carroll, “Jackie Robinson Is Hero as Royals Edge Colonels 6-5 to Tie Up Series,” Montreal Gazette, October 3, 1946: 16.

After guiding Montreal to the International League championship, Hopper had his club in a dogfight with the Louisville Colonels of the American Association for the 1946 Junior World Series. Prior to Game Five, with the series tied at two games apiece, Royals President Hector Racine announced to the crowd at De Lorimier Stadium that Hopper would be back as manager in 1947.2 The skipper had good reason to celebrate on that day since it was also his 44th birthday.

Hopper made the bold decision to start his staff ace, Steve Nagy, on two days’ rest. The Royals left-hander had been bombed by the Colonels in his Game Three start, lasting only 2⅔ innings in a 15-6 loss. Nagy had also been battling a sore arm during the previous month, and the injury had forced him to miss his start in Game Five of the International League semifinals against Newark. His 17 regular-season wins had tied him for the league lead, and after earning two more wins in the postseason, he was looking for his 20th win of the year.

Louisville countered with 24-year-old Jim Wilson, the losing pitcher in Game One of the series. The hard-throwing right-hander pitched for the 1945 Boston Red Sox until his season was cut short when he suffered a fractured skull on a ball hit off the bat of Hank Greenberg. Although his brain surgeon suggested that he would never pitch again, Wilson proved him wrong. He began the 1946 season with the Red Sox before being sent down on May 8 to Louisville, where he posted a solid regular-season ERA of 3.02.

The Royals got to Wilson for a single run in each of the first three innings of Game Five. With one out in the bottom of the first, Robinson pulled a double down the left-field line, and the next batter, Tommy Tatum, drove him in with a solid single to center field.3 Marv Rackley brought home another run with a fly ball in the second inning, and Dixie Howell smacked an RBI double in the third.

Nagy struggled with his control all game, but he managed to find a way out of several jams. He loaded the bases on two walks and a hit batsman in the top of the fifth inning before walking Jim Gleeson to force in a run. Fortunately for the Royals, Nagy kept the damage to a minimum by getting Al Flair to pop up to third baseman Lew Riggs to end the inning with the bases loaded. The Colonels got to Nagy in the top of the seventh inning, however, as they scored a pair of runs on an RBI single by Al Brancato and an RBI double by Gleeson to tie the game, 3-3.

Robinson led off the home half of the seventh by blasting a triple to the light tower in left-center field.4 Although a medium-depth fly ball would have been enough to score the speedy Robinson, neither Tatum nor Les Burge could get the job done, with Wilson retiring them both on popups for the first two outs of the inning. The next batter, Riggs, a 10-year major-league veteran, slammed a clutch double to right field to score Robinson with the go-ahead run.

Nagy issued his sixth walk of the game to start the top of the eighth inning. Hopper called for Chet Kehn, the winning pitcher in Games One and Four, to relieve Nagy, and the right-hander quickly retired the side to protect the one-run lead. In addition to Kehn’s assistance, Nagy also benefited from three double plays behind him, all of which involved Robinson.

The Royals added an insurance run off 37-year-old Harry Kimberlin in the eighth inning. With two out and Al Campanis on third, Robinson surprised third baseman Brancato by laying down a perfect bunt that he beat out easily for his third hit of the game. Campanis scored on the play, putting Montreal ahead by a score of 5-3.

Kehn returned to the hill for the ninth inning. With Johnny Welaj on first and Louisville down to its last out, Kehn faced the veteran slugger Gleeson. The Colonel’s right fielder drove the ball to right field and came within inches of tying the game, but the ball struck the top of the fence for a double, and Welaj was held up at third base. Kehn had new life, and he took advantage of his second chance by inducing Flair to ground out to end the game, giving the Royals a 3-2 series lead.

Montreal clinched the series the next night, with 43-year-old Curt Davis tossing a complete-game shutout in a 2-0 victory that gave the Royals their first Junior World Series title since they began play in 1897.5 Robinson contributed two more hits, turned two key double plays, and helped snuff out a rally in the fourth inning by converting a hard smash that deflected off first baseman Burge into a stellar 3-4-1 putout.6

The 19,171 Montreal fans in attendance for Game Six celebrated wildly after the final out was made, and a scene unfolded unlike any other in Montreal sports history. The Royals retreated quickly to their clubhouse as fans descended onto the field. Refusing to leave the ballpark, fans began chanting for their heroes to emerge for a curtain call. First Hopper and then Davis returned to the field and were “chaired” around the infield on the shoulders of supporters. Still unsatisfied, the crowd began to chant Robinson’s name. The ushers, wanting to appease the fans so they could close the ballpark for the season, urged Robinson to return to the field. Jackie, who was overdue to begin a barnstorming tour with the Jackie Robinson All Stars and had to hurry to catch a flight to Detroit, emerged in his street clothes and was mobbed by the adoring fans.7 As they carried him around the infield, tears of joy streamed down Robinson’s face.

He returned to the clubhouse and found that his path out of the ballpark was blocked by a couple of hundred admirers who were waiting for him in the hallway. Robinson finally made a run for it after all his teammates had left, and he managed to make his way past his devoted fans, only to be met by roughly 500 more outside. The crowd chased him for three blocks before Jackie hopped into a car that whisked him off to the airport. In describing the scene, Montreal Herald sportswriter Sam Maltin famously wrote, “It was probably the only day in history that a black man ran from a white mob with love instead of lynching on its mind.”8

The love was mutual. A few months later, Robinson described what was going through his mind that evening. “As my plane roared skyward and the lights of Montreal twinkled and winked in the distance, I took one last look at this great city where I had found so much happiness,” he recalled. “This is the city for me. This is paradise.”9

Rickey’s “Great Experiment” had come a long way since spring training when a handful of Royals exhibition games were canceled because of segregationist policies in the South and many doubted that Robinson had the talent to make the Montreal roster.10 Even The Sporting News predicted, “The waters of competition in the International League will flood far over his head.”11 Jackie made many of the naysayers look foolish. He won the batting title with a .349 average, tied for the league lead in runs scored (113), and finished second in stolen bases (40) despite missing 30 regular-season games.12 He also had the highest fielding percentage among regular IL second basemen even though he had never played the position before. He continued to excel in the postseason, batting .357 in the IL playoffs and .333 in the Junior World Series.

The four other African-Americans in the Dodgers’ minor-league system also had successful seasons in 1946. Pitchers John Wright and Roy Partlow, who both spent a portion of the year with Montreal, saw their fortunes improve with the Trois-Rivières Royals in the Class-C Can-Am League, and Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe starred with the Nashua Dodgers of the Class-B New England League.13 All three teams won their respective league championships. In one pivotal year, it had become apparent that the major-league color barrier would soon be broken.

Sources

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

Notes

1 The Montreal Royals announced the signing of Jackie Robinson at De Lorimier Stadium on October 23, 1945. It was a major news story that was widely reported across North America. Clay Hopper accepted the job as manager of the Montreal Royals in December, and so he very likely was aware at the time that he would be managing an integrated team.

2 Clay Hopper was later named Minor League Manager of the Year by The Sporting News.

3 Dink Carroll, “Royals Squeeze 5-3 Victory from Colonels to Lead Series 3 Games to 2,” Montreal Gazette, October 4, 1946: 16.

4 The bottom portions of two light towers were in play at De Lorimier Stadium — one in right-center field and the other in left-center. Both were positioned just inside the home-run fence. The lighting system was installed in 1933, approximately five years after the ballpark was shoehorned into a relatively small city block.

5 The Junior World Series was known as the Little World Series between 1904 and 1931. Although professional baseball was played in Montreal as far back as 1890, the Royals did not come into existence until 1897. They played in Montreal until 1960, winning nine pennants and three Junior World Series titles (1946, 1948, and 1953) in that time.

6 Dink Carroll, “Royals Win Little World Series for First Time in Their History,” Montreal Gazette, October 5, 1946: 1.

7 Marcel Dugas, Jackie Robinson, Un Été à Montréal (A Summer in Montreal) (Montréal: Éditions Hurtubise, 2019), Chapitre 4: Les séries (Chapter 4: The playoffs).

8 John Kabfleisch, “Robinson and Montreal Were a Perfect Match,” Montreal Gazette, October 3, 2004, montrealgazette.com/sponsored/mtl-375th/from-the-archives-robinson-and-montreal-were-a-perfect-match, accessed November 15, 2019.

9 Jackie Robinson and Wendell Smith, Jackie Robinson: My Own Story, (Auckland, New Zealand: Pickle Partners Publishing, 2015), International Merry-Go-Round chapter.

10 Dugas, Jackie Robinson, Un Été à Montréal (A Summer in Montreal), Chapitre 1: Les débuts des Royaux (Chapter 1: The Beginning of the Royals).

11 Rick Swaine, “Jackie Robinson,” SABR BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/bb9e2490, accessed November 18, 2019.

12 Most of the games Robinson missed in 1946 were due to leg injuries. After Robinson had trouble eating and sleeping, a doctor recommended in late August that he take at least 10 days of rest. The team offered five. Worried that he would be accused of sitting out to protect his lead in the batting race, Jackie returned to the lineup after only three days of rest.

13 A sixth Black player, Canadian shortstop Manny McIntyre, also played in the minor leagues in 1946. McIntyre suited up for the independent Sherbrooke Canadians in the Class-C Border League. He hit .310 in 30 games with Sherbrooke.

“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.