When Jack Roosevelt Robinson set foot on the green grass of Ebbets Field on April 15, 1947, he understood the enormity of the moment and his role in it. He was breaking through a barrier that had been in place for 60 years, and by doing so was elevating his entire race. He knew the importance of his every action on and off the field, both in how they were perceived by White America, as well as his fellow Black citizens who had longed for this pivotal moment for decades. For certain by the end of his short life, a life spent in activism where he was often the central character, he had some understanding of the impact he would have on history.

What is less certain is if Jackie Robinson was aware of the profound influence he would have on fiction. The passage of time has elevated him beyond mere trailblazer and placed him closer to the rarified stratosphere of myth. Perhaps the biggest reason for that evolution from man to legend has been the seemingly endless fictional representations that have appeared on movie and television screens, theatrical stages, and pages of novels since he signed his first contract with Branch Rickey on Montague Street in Brooklyn, in 1945.

Almost as soon as he got his first hit with the Dodgers, Robinson became an important character in the American story. He quickly became the exact kind of symbol that Black Americans, and a significant percentage of their White counterparts, longed to elevate. For the latter, the very singularity of his elevation, which should have signified just how far we had to go, instead became “proof” that we were already there. As with the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States 60 years later, Jackie Robinson’s promotion to the Dodgers was, for many, evidence that racism was defeated. He became St. George, slayer of the dragon of hatred and a figure that fiction has, in many ways, completely divorced from reality.

It began with the low-budget 1950 film, The Jackie Robinson Story, which starred the man himself and laid the foundation for many of the simplified myths that have come to be taken as truths of the story of White baseball’s integration. The line between fiction and reality was blurred by the fact that it was really Robinson reciting the lines written for him by Arthur Mann, Branch Rickey’s personal secretary. In the space where altered memories become accepted as hard facts, the truth was garbled by the sound of Robinson’s own voice saying, “Mr. Rickey, I have two cheeks.”

The creators of these fictions are not entirely to blame for their inability to properly represent Robinson in their works. His story, from his birth in Cairo, Georgia to his death 53 years later in Stamford, Connecticut, is one that defies many of the conventional structures of traditional storytelling. He was a socially progressive activist who was a lifelong Republican. He was a proud Black man whose own personal mentors included a roster of important White men, from Branch Rickey, to William Black (the president of Chock Full o’ Nuts Coffee), to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. He was a staunchly patriotic American who, later in life, struggled to salute the flag because the country he loved did not love him back.

Beyond all the seeming contradictions, it is difficult to tell the Robinson story because of just how much he accomplished in his short life. His illustrious college athletic career, his brief but important military history, his role as a husband and father, his time in baseball, and his post-playing career that included efforts in business, politics, activism, and philanthropy—to encapsulate all of that into a two-hour Hollywood film is a near impossible task. Perhaps that is the reason few have tried. The only artist who ever attempted to do so in a standard biopic, Spike Lee, found financial backing for his multi-faceted project impossible to come by.

Nearly all the representations of Robinson in fiction instead choose to focus on a particular moment, or the echoes of a specific event. His court-martial for his refusal to sit at the back of a military bus, his brief tenure in the Negro Leagues, his historic 1947 season—each of these account for important individual moments in Robinson’s life, but none of them succeed in encapsulating the full measure of the man.

It is more than just the limits of time that are prescribed to a conventional film script that stand in the way of fiction properly presenting Robinson’s story. It is also because he has become more than just a man. Major-league baseball bears some responsibility for this canonization. Ever since the universal retirement of his number 42 in 1997, there has been an annual tradition of honoring Robinson, his accomplishments, and his sacrifice. As others have pointed out, the festivities have become weighed down with a tragic irony, as the number of Black athletes playing in the majors continues to shrink. As baseball struggles with racial issues it has not properly addressed in the present, it chooses to elevate the moment in its history where it overcame its prejudices and finally became the American Pastime. Robinson, of course, is the central figure in that tale, a tale that has come to represent much more than the drama that unfolded on a baseball diamond 75 years ago.

The elevation of Robinson from man to legend was not assured. After the release of Story, it took 30 years before another high-profile attempt at telling Robinson’s tale. The hesitation was an old refrain. Wealthy, largely-White producers balked at making a financially risky investment in a project with a Black man as the central character, especially if it did not involve explosions or chase scenes. It took almost a decade after Robinson’s death, after both the family and society had a chance to assess his legacy, that the proliferation of the fictional character of Jackie Robinson started to flood the public consciousness.

This volume takes a look at the evolution of Robinson the man into Robinson the symbol, and how artists of various stripes have helped to create that character. He has been the central figure in two big screen adaptations, a Broadway musical, countless children’s theatre productions, a pair of thriller novels, several television films, a comic book series, a jazz suite, and even in the written works of his own daughter, Sharon Robinson. Some of these works have the approval and cooperation of the family. Others do not. Robinson has also appeared as an off-screen or minor character in countless other creations. He has become a symbol so embedded in the national psyche that his presence in any tale automatically harkens to the idea of possibility, of perseverance, of right defeating wrong, of all that is good in the American mythology.

The tragic cost of that fictionalization is that for all but historians and the most ardent of baseball fans, the complexity of the man that was Jackie Robinson has been simplified. We do stray from the fictional Robinson in this book. We explore the multiple appearances he made on television as a guest on game and talk shows, as well as his time as the host of his own radio program. We also look at Ken Burns’s epic documentary entitled, simply, Jackie Robinson. It is in this lone case, where the filmmaker had the luxury of a four-hour running time and the stringent rules of relating history, that we get anything close to a whole-picture view of Robinson.

For all that is lacking when a work of fiction attempts to portray Robinson, there are reasons why artists keep trying—why, in fact, we saw fit to combine to write this very book. Simply put, every now and then, one of them succeeds. Perhaps it is only for a moment, like Chadwick Boseman’s explosive anguish as he smashes a bat to kindling in 42, or in Andre Braugher’s untapped rage as he is arrested by military police in The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson. Or maybe it’s found in an awkward, tender exchange between Robinson himself and Hollywood and Broadway legend, Ruby Dee, which reminds us that Robinson’s story is not only one of anger, but love. It can even be found in taking the creative leap to feature a Robinson who, like St. George anew, slays the Lovecraftian monster Cthulhu, using only his Louisville Slugger.

The other reason that artists keep returning to Robinson is because he is one of the most inspirational figures of the twentieth century not in spite of, but because of his complexities. He did more than change the game of baseball. He changed America, and by doing so inspired multiple generations of artists to look to him to help tell their stories. That truth is just another contradiction. For, in utilizing Robinson as a symbol, they invariably highlight, time and again, how his actual story is not an easy tale to tell.

 

Ken Burns’s film, Jackie Robinson, perfectly fits the definition of a documentary by providing a factual record or report. As a Black member of the audience, it was extremely important for me to hear from Black people in cultural context and to see honesty about the racism embedded in America. The film production crew devoted a great deal of attention to detail, seeking out accounts from those who were close to Jackie Robinson both inside and outside of the game of baseball, including some of professional baseball’s most reputed writers and historians, politicians, and other cultural figures, all with the blessing of and cooperation with the Robinson family.

It’s easy for one to be skeptical about a White person capturing the life of a man of African descent, a man who intentionally did everything he could both publicly and privately to change the status of Black people as bottom-class citizens around the globe – someone who arguably had a revolutionary impact. Would Burns be able to grasp, or be willing to go far enough to explain, the absurdity of racism and bigotry? Would he be able to capture the fact that Jackie Robinson fought back on and off the field as often as he turned the other cheek? One wondered whether Burns would be willing to tell Jackie Robinson’s flat-out truths that contradict the myth that is the American Dream—a myth that at the time the country was founded was created to intentionally be inaccessible to Black people, an era in which at best a Black person was considered to be 3/5ths of a human being.1

Ken Burns did all this, and portrayed Robinson in an honest tone that showed who he was at the beginning and the end of the day – a fighter and trailblazer for his people. He didn’t hesitate to address some of the myths that were a product of Robinson’s extraordinary life. For instance Burns confronted the apocryphal story of Pee Wee Reese putting his arm around Robinson. He interviewed eyewitnesses who provided first-hand accounts, and pointed out the lack of photographs. In their own way, some of these fictional tales attest to the the importance and impact of Robinson. Burns, the documentarian, approached them in an honest way.

The documentary’s focus on Jackie’s wife Rachel Robinson is key to the quality of the documentary. Positioned right next to the second baseman throughout the majority of his life, it was both imperative and rewarding to feature her perspective. The extremely close relationship that the Robinsons had was evident in her recounting his life, thoughts, dreams, and fears. She saw how restless the mistreatment of Black people in America made her husband, and how he used baseball to fight against it.

Any idea that Jackie Robinson did nothing but turn the other cheek and keep silent about his mistreatment as an individual of African descent is a flagrant myth. He constantly countered certain White players, members of the press, and even heckling fans with his words, his actions, and his continued success on and off the diamond.2

There has been a “pacification” of Robinson that was meant to soften his image in hindsight, as his radicalness against racism and third-class citizenship remains challenging for a significant portion of the population. This was not the only major myth about Robinson that was officially debunked during the documentary. At the same time Burns subtly presents an important theme of the documentary— that American society needs myths and obscurations of Jackie Robinson’s image, words, and intentions, in addition to his wondrous feats on the diamond, in order for it to accept who he was.

Burns consistently looked at Robinson’s struggle to find a place within the movement he helped found, as he got older and had reaped some of the success of his efforts. He wove the first-hand accounts into the story brilliantly, using Robinson’s relationship with the New York Post as a great example. When Robinson first started writing columns at the paper, it was radical and effective. As time passed, and as the Civil Rights Movement became more militant, the flock of blades that were Robinson’s articles gradually dulled. He was soon booted from the paper as he went from criticizing conservatives to being labeled as one for his political affiliations.3

Burns does an excellent job of revealing Robinson’s struggles even further by showing his experiences and connections with other Black people who were trying to dismantle racism in the United States and abroad, and how they heavily mirror and contrast his failures negotiating with the establishment on behalf of his people. His relationship with Malik el-Shabazz (a/k/a Malcolm X), and el-Shabazz’s rhetoric for militancy and self-defense is a perfect example. Their mutual misunderstandings during the latter part of their relationship are well-known and well-covered,4 but Burns included the fruitful and productive parts of their relationship as well. El-Shabazz is on record as citing the impact of listening to the second baseman’s early career while Malcolm Little was in prison, and credits Robinson’s pathbreaking career as a huge inspiration.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was another individual inspired by Jackie Robinson’s career when he was a young man and saw how baseball intersected with society. King later collaborated with Robinson and they became close confidants. This friendship helped King see the inherent revolutionism in Black baseball culture. Dr. King went on to foster a similar relationship with Afro-Puerto Rican Roberto Clemente.5

Robinson’s dismal track record with politicians on both sides of the United States political spectrum was addressed. Burns highlights Robinson’s naïveté in trusting the political establishment at face value; he undertook relationships with such a figure as Richard Nixon and the Republican Party in 1960, without leverage or an organization of his own, and crashed and burned. This relationship only looked worse when Barry Goldwater and his “Southern strategy” changed the party dramatically in the 1964 election.

One particularly important portion of the documentary demonstrated how Burns was willing to go above and beyond, and that was the inclusion of Afro-Cuban Hall of Famer Minnie Miñoso, who expressed how Robinson’s success inspired him to become the first Afro-Latino to wear a major-league baseball uniform. This emphasized how Robinson fought for and served as an example to the entire African diaspora. The histories and experiences of the various nationalities and ethnicities that comprise the African diaspora are inextricably linked, and the 150 years of history that people of African descent across the globe have with the game of baseball exemplifies that fact.6 It is one rarely covered correctly – or even mentioned by many of those deemed to be the sport’s pundits. Burns dedicated a segment to explore this topic.

All in all, this documentary accurately portrayed the highlights and shadows of an individual who has had his story distorted and twisted many times over. The lengths to which Burns went, utilizing first- and second-hand accounts from important sources while layering music, photos, and videos between interview clips was masterful. His selection of who to include and what stories they told was as well.

Burns’s acknowledgements of Robinson’s flaws were not ingenuous or solitary; they are positioned alongside his self-awareness and his dedication to being an inspiration for Black people around the globe. Robinson kept trying to overcome his own shortcomings and make up for his failures. The documentary shows us a man who knew he was not infallible, but who consistently tried to evolve as the revolution needed him to grow. Robinson would never have seen himself as a revolutionary, but as we look back on his contributions 75 years later, one could well argue that his integration of baseball helped prompt a seismic change in American society. Today, he remains one of the most visible examples of Black baseball’s inherent revolutionism. Ken Burns has successfully captured that story.

PAT ELLINGTON JR. is a journalist, screenwriter, and novelist from Northeast Ohio.

 

Notes

1 Malik Simba, “The Three-Fifths Clause of the United States Constitution (1787),” blackpast.org, October 3, 2014. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/events-african-american-history/three-fifths-clause-united-states-constitution-1787/, accessed March 16, 2022.

2 Matt Welch, “When Jackie Robinson Fought Back,” Reason, July 2013, https://reason.com/2013/06/30/when-jackie-robinson-fought-back/, accessed March 16, 2022.

3 Matt Welch. “On Jackie Robinson Day, Let’s Remember When He Was Fired From the New York Post For Being Too Republican.” Reason, April 15, 2015, https://reason.com/2015/04/15/on-jackie-robinson-daylets-remember-whe/, accessed March 16, 2022.

4 Justin Tinsley, “Jackie Robinson vs. Malcolm X,” Andscape, May 25, 2016, https://andscape.com/features/jackie-robinson-vs-malcolm-x/, accessed March 16, 2022.

5 José de Jesus Ortiz, “Martin Luther King Jr. and Roberto Clemente Had a Deep Bond,” Our Esquina, January 17, 2022, https://ouresquina.com/2022/martin-luther-king-jr-and-roberto-clemente-had-deep-bond/, accessed March 16, 2022.

6 Library of Congress, “Drawing the Color Line: 1860s to 1890s.” https://www.loc.gov/collections/jackie-robinson-baseball/articles-and-essays/baseball-the-color-line-and-jackie-robinson/1860s-to-1890s/, accessed March 16, 2022.

 

Jazz and baseball are two distinctly American forms of entertainment which have close ancestors that originally began in Europe, but were probably not recognizable as either jazz music or the game of baseball (as we know it) until they were each imbued with their own respective uniquely American character. This American character is something intangible that seemingly comes from America’s ability to quickly combine, incorporate, and alter older ideas while simultaneously producing newer ones. “Both uniquely American innovations, the history of jazz and baseball are intertwined. The word ‘jazz’ got its start in baseball; it was the early 20th century baseball term for ‘pep, energy’ before it became the term for the new frenetic style of music,” notes historian Shakeia Taylor.1

This “frenetic style of music” and propulsive pastoral game each arguably achieved their cultural high-water marks in New York City almost simultaneously in 1947, when Jackie Robinson integrated major-league baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He immediately brought a decidedly new style of “pep, energy” in his brand of play. This all would seem to be more than just a coincidence, in a rapidly changing world.

Both baseball and jazz share the capabilities of being excellent vehicles for idiosyncratic, individual expression while often reflecting the harmonious, synchronous beauty of collaboration and teamwork. Robinson, with his military experience and extensive sports background, could likely see the delicate balance between the individual and the team. The whole might be greater than the sum of its component parts in some cases, while in others the single best talent prevails over all, because that talent is so decidedly sublime when compared to other competitors. It only made sense that with his awareness, and the aforementioned linkages between the game of baseball and jazz music, that he would also eventually become a fan of that music form.

According to journalist Michael G. Long, “Robinson and his wife were jazz enthusiasts who personally knew some of the famous musicians of their day. With help from their friend Marian Logan, a former jazz singer, the Robinsons soon put together an impressive lineup of jazz artists who agreed to play [a benefit concert on their property in Stamford, Connecticut] for free. Meanwhile, handy neighbors erected a canopied bandstand.”2 This initial event, in 1963, was successful enough that it encouraged the Robinsons to host numerous concerts, with proceeds raised for several charitable causes and civil rights organizations each time. After her husband died in 1972, Rachel hosted the concert annually, with the majority of the proceeds going to the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which grants scholarships to talented minority students. Sharon Robinson (Jackie and Rachel’s daughter) now runs the Jackie Robinson Foundation and helps produce the concert.3

The Robinsons were resourceful in their philanthropic efforts and were committed to help in any way they could. Still, jazz had a compelling allure when it came to supporting the Civil Rights movement. According to Rachel Robinson, “Jazz is the perfect medium to reflect life and the need people have to improvise and transcend barriers.”4

Spending much of his young life fighting personal battles that placed him squarely in the middle of the fight for social justice only emboldened and further energized Jackie Robinson to do whatever he could to support those pressing for social change, especially for those in the Civil Rights movement. These concerts and their proceeds initially were intended to help in the defense of several members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s organization) who had recently been arrested during the Birmingham, Alabama campaign.

In 1962, Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized the importance of Jackie Robinson as an energetic forerunner to the continually emerging civil rights movement. “(He) [Robinson] was a sit-inner before the sit-ins, a freedom rider before the Freedom Rides,” King said.5 The year 1963 brought a further coalescence of the Robinsons’ role in the movement.

As civil rights demonstrations escalated at lunch counters and in segregated businesses, Robinson was further compelled to directly show his support for the movement. He said, “Whenever and where in the South the leaders believe I can help, just the tiniest bit, I intend to go.”6

On August 28, 1963, two months after the first “Afternoon of Jazz,” the Robinsons were a part of the March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. Years later, when he recalled that day, Robinson wrote: “I have never been so proud to be a Negro. I have never been so proud to be an American.”7

***

In continuation of the larger historical legacy of the Robinsons’ philanthropy, in 2019 a collaborative enterprise began to germinate, one that would celebrate the life and legacy of Jackie Robinson in both baseball and jazz. In December of 2018, Terry Cannon and his wife Mary ran into jazz cornetist/trumpeter Bobby Bradford at their local bank. Cannon, who had been diagnosed recently with cancer, had an idea.

“Right away, Terry told him about his health situation and asked, ‘Bobby, if I survive my upcoming cancer (bile duct) surgery, would you be interested in composing a musical suite on the life of Jackie Robinson?’” according to Mary. “It’s going to be his centennial year. There was an immediate answer, ‘Yes!’ and straight away, Bobby was humming and singing, ‘Robinson, Rob-in-son.…’”8

Cannon was the director of both the Baseball Reliquary and the Institute for Baseball Studies at Whittier College in Whittier, California. Per their mission, the Reliquary is a nonprofit educational organization whose goal is to foster an appreciation of American art and culture through the prism of baseball history, and to explore the national pastime’s unparalleled creative possibilities.

“In 2018 the centennial anniversary of Robinson’s birth loomed, and Cannon was unsure about what the city of Pasadena might plan, so he doubled-down on his own brainstorming.”9 Cannon was increasingly feeling the need to step up and do something as a concern grew over a lack of plans.

In keeping with the Baseball Reliquary’s mission statement and its director’s ability to tell the part of the story that often went untold, Cannon’s mind sprang into action. “We had never commissioned a musical project before,” said Cannon. “I knew that Jackie and his wife Rachel loved jazz so it hit me that this might be something that would be meaningful.”10

Cannon had spent many years fostering the arts and music in Pasadena. He wrote about jazz for a local paper and acquired a massive collection of jazz LPs. He had attended lots of musical performances and had previously developed a relationship with Bobby Bradford. He also had started the Pasadena Film Forum (which became the Los Angeles Film Forum) and supported other fine arts.

Cannon’s audacious ability to organize and coordinate came from his considerable personal talents and the ability to inspire others to get behind whatever he was doing. As a young man, reading Bill Veeck’s Veeck – as in Wreck remained a formative and lasting influence.11 The Detroit-born Cannon’s outsider vision of baseball and his attraction to one of the true rebels and rabble-rousers would later offer a prime example of what an inductee to the Reliquary’s Shrine of the Eternals might be: an iconoclast with both a sense of humor and a sense of purpose. Veeck was the second major-league baseball owner (and the first in the American League) to integrate after Jackie Robinson, by adding Larry Doby and Satchel Paige.

2019 was a major year for Cannon because the Baseball Reliquary had also commissioned an art triptych commemorating the 100th anniversary of Rube Foster’s forming the Negro Leagues at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, Missouri, as depicted by Greg Jezewski, a work entitled The House That Rube Built. Commissioning Stealin’ Home, the eventual title of the finished jazz piece, would be another major step for fostering further creativity in the community.

Enter Bobby Bradford. Not only did he have considerable musical and creative talents, he also had valuable life experiences as someone who had also served in the military and grew up in an America that offered far less opportunity for African Americans. He witnessed first-hand and directly felt the changes that Jackie Robinson was bringing about.

“Seventh grade. When black wasn’t beautiful. There was no basketball, no community baseball. But in 1947, when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers? We were all cued up for that,” remembers Bradford. “He was a rebel. We had our eye on him. All Black America had their eyes on him.”12

Bradford also had his eyes on a career in jazz that brought him to Los Angeles and eventually Robinson’s alma mater, Pasadena City College, as a music educator. Bradford possessed a bit of Robinson’s rebellious spirit, being right there at ground zero with sax player Ornette Coleman at the birth of free jazz, which expanded jazz musicians’ possibilities for creative freedom without an imposed musical structure. Bobby was one of a select few performers who grasped Ornette Coleman’s harmolodic concept that offered even more unfettered freedom of expression to musicians. When I talked with Bradford, we discussed this in the context of a musical group playing like a team, where each performer was like a player.13

Cannon’s Baseball Reliquary co-conspirator Albert Kilchesty spoke further, “On the face of it, Branch Rickey—the baseball Mahatma—and Sonny Rollins—saxophone colossus—would appear to have nothing in common except for knowing Jackie Robinson, but each blew the same message: Luck is the residue of design. Actually, Rickey said that and Rollins intuitively knew that which is why he spent so many of his dark, wee hours alone, standing on or pacing around the pedestrian walkway of the Williamsburg Bridge, practicing—always practicing, always thinking, always chasing excellence. Each different man understood that without steady, proper preparation for the moment—to react to a crack of the bat, to riff breathtaking improvisational phrases—the outcomes will always disappoint. America’s Game, at its highest level, and American Art Music, at its dizziest height.”14

Cannon’s not being particularly didactic about the project was also helpful for Bradford. “So you do know what kind of music I play,” Bradford recalled, rolling into a chuckle. “Terry reassured me, ‘I don’t want something necessarily sweet and romantic,’ he told me. ‘I want something how you do something.’”15

The Baseball Reliquary’s proximity to Los Angeles and Robinson’s Pasadena home had made Robinson and the Dodgers prominent in many of the Baseball Reliquary’s past programs. Two of its relics, the Ebbets Field Cake and Michael Guccione’s Jackie Robinson icon painting, can be viewed at the Jackie Robinson Center in Pasadena. When the social services center opened in 1974, it was the first public facility in Southern California to be named after Robinson. Both Rachel and Jackie Robinson have also been inducted into the Baseball Reliquary’s “Shrine of the Eternals,” or “The People’s Hall of Fame,” as it was referred to by Shrine-inductee Jim Bouton.

During their first Shrine of the Eternals ceremony in 1999, Terry Cannon read a note of encouragement written decades earlier by Robinson to Dock Ellis, a charter member of the Shrine, encouraging Ellis’s continued bravery in standing up for racial equality. Robinson wrote, “I want you to know how much I appreciate your courage and honesty. In my opinion, progress for today’s players will only come from this kind of dedication. Try not to be left alone. Try to get more players to understand and you will find great support. You have made a real contribution. I surely hope your great ability continues. That ability will determine the success of your dedication and honesty.”16

Ellis’s induction was deeply moving. By connecting the Shrine of the Eternals directly with the cultural change previously spurred on by Robinson’s integration of major-league baseball with Robinson’s note of encouragement, it showed that these processes of social change are not frozen in time but are part of a larger continuing and ongoing social justice project. Composing a thematic piece to mark the 100th birthday of Jackie Robinson and the travails that he faced further extended that project.

The jazz septet (Bobby Bradford and Friends) itself has a progressive feel, both in the touches of free jazz soloing and in the densely arranged Minguslike ensemble sections which drive the music with considerable power and emotional voicing. Bradford’s challenging imprint is definitely there.

I talked with Bobby Bradford about composing the songs for the recording and it was an enlightening experience. The 87-year-old submerged himself further into several defining moments of Robinson’s life, trying to understand his thoughts and feelings about overcoming the obstacles that were so often placed before him in his personal and professional life as a Black man in America. Bradford had never been commissioned to compose a thematic piece before and he took the challenge very seriously and did considerable research on the life and career of Robinson.

Until the 2019 thematic composition of Stealin’ Home began, there had only been a select handful of songs written about Jackie Robinson, most famously Buddy Johnson’s “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?” There were also lesser-known songs by rock band Everclear and folk performer Ellis Paul, as well as songs entitled “The Jackie Robinson Boogie” and “Jackie Robinson Blues,” according to the Library of Congress. Nikki Giovanni has also written a Robinson poem entitled “Stealin’ Home.”17

One thing that I noticed and asked Bradford about was the superficial similarity between Stealin’ Home and the old gospel standard, “Steal Away,” which had a cultural connection to the Underground Railroad during the United States Civil War. Bradford responded that he had given it some superficial consideration but excised the idea when it became clear that it was not fitting into his broader conception of the Robinson piece.18

The songs focus on pivotal stages of Robinson’s life and reflect his taking the agency of choosing his own path, despite the many obstacles placed before him. The first cut, “Lieutenant Jackie,” features a martial, structured beat that becomes looser as time goes on, presumably as Robinson has a true assessment of his surroundings and feels more comfortable about his place within them. The song also deals with Robinson’s experience as an Army officer and the events of his court martial.

William Roper’s spoken section near the end of that selection highlights the ambivalence of serving one’s country yet eventually returning to civilian life as a second-class citizen. Bradford draws from his own personal life experience as a military man in this section, too. He recounted the tale of the time a service member had died and his family requested military buglers to play for the funeral. He and another bugle player (who was White) arrived to play for the funeral and the family immediately protested Bradford’s presence because he was an African American.19

The next song, “Up From The Minors,” represents the confusion and anguish of being the first African-American major leaguer, asked to shoulder considerable enmity with an elevated sense of grace. This is the most free and chaotic composition, with the crying swirl of reeds and Bradford’s vocal mimicking trumpet. To Bradford’s credit, he deftly balances raucous and unsettling sections with more conventional sections, which seems to restore order and security for the listener. Bradford also had thought about the Robinsons’ first spring training, when they were unable to make their entire flight to Florida, after the plane stopped to refuel in New Orleans and they were removed just because they were African American.

“Stealin’ Home,” the song that gave the album its title, represents Jackie at the peak of his powers, exuding mental confidence and playing with his own special flair. People inspired by Robinson’s life often look to this event as a particularly symbolic and defining moment in his career.

 

 

While researching for the album, Bradford considered the irony of Robinson finally getting his chance in the major leagues in the song, ”0 for 3,” only to go 0-for-3 in his first game (with a sacrifice and scoring one run after taking a walk). All of Black America was paying attention and hoping for something dramatic. It was very important and emblematic that Robinson had found a way to contribute, even if he did not have his best game.

Talking with Bradford, we mutually agreed that even if Robinson had gone 3-for-3 that day, there would have likely been several fans critical of his performance as a means of demeaning him.

The album closes with a more somber and reflective tone on “High and Inside,” seemingly indicating that Robinson was realizing that even though he might be ending his highly impactful playing career, societal changes were only just beginning.

In all, there were five Jackie Robinson Centennial concerts presenting Stealin’ Home. Notably, several of the performances were opened by jazz vocalist Byron Motley, who is the son of Negro League umpire Bob Motley. The shows were well attended and favorably received. Greg Jezewski remembered going early to help Cannon with the first concert, which he said Cannon had fully under control (as he generally did). Cannon, a production veteran, still looked and acted like he had butterflies, hoping that the event would be well attended and go on nearly without a hitch.20

“The event was an extraordinary celebration of an extraordinary man, made even more meaningful by taking place in Jackie’s adopted hometown,” said Kathy Robinson-Young, Jackie’s niece. Robinson-Young added, “Bobby Bradford’s stellar group blew the house away with their musicianship and unique take on Jackie’s journey. One piece about Jackie’s rise through the minor leagues was an abstract montage of the ugly experiences Jackie faced on his way to Brooklyn. It was unsettling and remarkable. This event is yet another chapter in the brilliance of the Baseball Reliquary, who continue to produce some of the most remarkable events and experiences celebrating the human side of baseball and its impact on culture.”21

There is also a burden that must be carried in every social legacy. Bradford and I discussed Robinson’s burden. In a previous interview with the Los Angeles Times, Bradford mentioned being a youngster and seeing his hero Louis Armstrong perform. He said that Armstrong played craps and put pomade in his hair and acted more naturally around other African Americans. But as soon as a White person entered the room, he put on his “mask.”22

This “mask” was a way of both protecting himself and meeting expectations for the White folks. Not only that, it was giving them an acceptable caricature of himself. It was the dichotomy of balancing your public and private personas, except in this case, your genuine persona is always muted in deference to the members of another race.

I asked Bradford whether having to carry this “mask” as an African American man could cause mental or physical damage and Bradford responded that he could not “speak with any authority on the physical or mental impact except (in) my own experience. The mask requires a lot of psychic energy at a price.”23

Cannon’s dying only 10 months after the Stealin’ Home concerts reminds us of that commitment to the ongoing project for social change. Bradford has since retired from teaching and has performed sparingly as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to limit and inhibit live performances nearly everywhere. I asked Bobby Bradford about his thoughts about his partnership with The Baseball Reliquary and the Cannons. He responded that “In times like these of racial, cultural and religious strife, people like Terry and Mary Cannon are reminders that the world is still full of wonderful people.”24

STEVE BUTTS is a long-time book and record store employee who is in his first year as a member of SABR. He is also is a Facebook page administrator for The Baseball Reliquary and Institute for Baseball Studies. He collects custom art cards with a growing personal collection focused upon “The King” Eddie Feigner.

 

Author’s Note

A full performance of Stealin’ Home can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAlrpnHLwek

 

Notes

1 Shakeia Taylor, “Prospectus Feature: Baseball and Jazz,” Baseball Prospectus, February 6, 2019, https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/46970/prospectus-feature-baseball-and-jazz/

2 Michael G. Long, “The Undefeated, Music to his ears: How Jackie Robinson’s love of jazz helped civil rights movement,” theundefeated.com, April 15, 2020. https://theundefeated.com/features/how-jackierobinsons-love-of-jazz-helped-civil-rights-movement/

3 Michael G. Long.

4 Michael G. Long.

5 “Robinson, Jackie,” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Encyclopedia, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/robinson-jackie

6 Christina Knight, “Five Important Years in Jackie Robinson’s Life,” Thirteen, https://www.thirteen.org/program-content/five-importantyears-in-jackie-robinsons-life/

7 Christina Knight.

8 Mary Cannon, “Backstory: Thoughts from Mary Cannon,” liner notes for Bobby Bradford’s CD, Stealin’ Home, 2019, 1. The CD has never been commercially released.

9 Lynell George, “Play to Win!” liner notes to Bobby Bradford, Stealin’ Home.

10 Lynell George.

11 David Karpinski, Baseball Roundtable, https://baseballroundtable.com/the-baseball-reliquary/

12 Lynell George.

13 Bobby Bradford interview with Steve Butts, January 21, 2022.

14 Albert Kilchesty, friends-only Facebook post, May 16, 2020, Accessed February 4, 2022.

15 Lynell George.

16 David Karpinski, Baseball Roundtable, https://baseballroundtable.com/the-baseball-reliquary/

17 “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball,” United States Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/collections/jackie-robinson-baseball/articles-and-essays/baseball-the-color-line-and-jackie-robinson/did-yousee-jackie-robinson-hit-that-ball/

18 Author interview with Bobby Bradford.

19 Author interview with Bobby Bradford.

20 Author interview with Greg Jezewski, January 19, 2022.

21 Terry Cannon, “Celebrating Jackie Robinson in Pasadena,” Face-book post, December 16, 2019.

22 RJ Smith, “An L.A. jazz legend pays homage to Jackie Robinson with a pitch from a library assistant,” Los Angeles Times, September 25, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2019-09-25/bobby-bradford-jackie-robinson-stealin-home

23 Author interview with Bobby Bradford.

24 Author interview with Bobby Bradford.

 

The New York City skyline gleams in the background. A gravelly but urgent voice begins talking as the music swells to the climactic line delivered by the legendary Harrison Ford before it drops to the epic Jay-Z anthem “Brooklyn (Go Hard).” Slick action shots of diving catches and epic home runs peppered in between intense scenes of confrontation and triumph, punctuated by the slow-motion cap tip, and BAM! The nation’s pastoral pastime gets an epic trailer, all centered on arguably its most important player ever, Jackie Robinson. You didn’t have to be a baseball fan to feel the neck hairs begin to move after watching that.

It was 2013 and baseball hadn’t just lost its toehold in modern American culture, it had nearly fallen off the cliff altogether. The 2012 World Series recorded the lowest TV ratings (at that time) since the games had begun broadcasting in 1968 and, despite the critical success of 2011’s Moneyball, a baseball movie hadn’t really had a notable cultural impact since A League of Their Own in 1992. Lucrative TV contracts had moved baseball off of national networks, fracturing the game’s fans into fenced-in compounds and leaving behind generations of younger fans who had turned away from the cable companies that fostered these high-dollar deals. The game needed to reach new, younger fans while telling stories that took place before even their parents were alive. It seemed an opportune time for a baseball movie to bring some flash and style to a game that seemed to be very much lacking it at the moment. Who better to bring those qualities than the man who brought it to the game in real life? Jackie Robinson.

While portrayals of Robinson had appeared on stage (The First, Play to Win) and on TV (The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson, Soul of the Game), an all-encompassing biopic hadn’t made its way to the silver screen since 1950, when Jackie played himself in The Jackie Robinson Story. Such a project hadn’t really gained a lot of traction until the 1990s, when Spike Lee had floated the idea as a passion project, wanting Denzel Washington (then in his 40s) to play Robinson. According to Lee himself in an Instagram post in 2020, he recalled that Denzel was the one who cited his age as a factor for turning it down, saying “…I wrote a script for Jackie Robinson. I wanted Denzel to play Jackie, but Denzel said he was too old.”1 The film project allegedly evaporated over creative differences, and the idea of a Jackie Robinson biopic seemed to wither on the vine until Robert Redford reportedly took up the concept in 2004. Development of the idea didn’t begin until 2011, which had Redford serving as not only the film’s producer, but also playing the role of Branch Rickey, until Harrison Ford signed on to play the charismatic Dodgers executive. Brian Helgeland of LA Confidential fame signed on to direct, and a young, relatively unknown television actor named Chadwick Boseman was brought in to play Jackie Robinson.

Boseman was a relative newcomer when 42 was released in 2013. A native of South Carolina and graduate of Howard University, Boseman had seen some success on television with his roles in Lincoln Heights and Persons Unknown, but had yet to make his debut as a leading man in a movie before being selected to take on the part in 42. Helgeland was impressed with Boseman, though, and later said during a Washington Post interview, “He had to play one of the bravest men who ever lived, so I thought that he came in brave was a great indication.”2 It doesn’t take long into the movie to see that bravery pay off, as we see him become Jackie Robinson.

When first seeing Boseman in the vintage Dodger white and blue jersey, one can’t help but notice the physical differences between him and Robinson. His slender frame and raspy vocals are notably a ways off from Robinson’s muscular build and higher-pitched voice, but those physical differences melt away as the movie takes shape. Boseman truly embodies the range and depth of Jackie, giving emotion and life to someone who was told to be silent and stoic. Probably most impressive is how he shows Jackie’s sense of humor during the movie, as a sort of coping mechanism for the horrendous abuse he endures. His wry smile makes an appearance multiple times, like when Wendell Smith (the writer assigned to Robinson’s personal needs during his time with the Dodgers, here portrayed by André Holland) is frantically driving Robinson out of town in the middle of the night away from the threat of racist tormentors. Smith frantically explains why he’s speeding off into the night only to be shocked by Robinson’s laughter. He thought Smith was driving him away at such an odd hour because he was cut from the team.

The true standout moment from the film though, is the exchange between Philadelphia Phillies manager Ben Chapman (played chillingly well by otherwise likable actor Alan Tudyk) and Robinson. Chapman spews a seemingly endless fountain of racial slurs and epithets at Robinson, which may cause modern (White) audiences to shift in their seats or avert their eyes, but was unfortunately true to life for that time in history. While on the field, Robinson takes the abuse seemingly unaffected, but after a particularly brutal verbal assault, he grabs a bat and escapes to the tunnel where he releases a guttural shout and smashes the bat to kindling. He collapses in tears, spent from both the penting and release of the anger that consumes him, only to be picked up by Branch Rickey, who appears almost celestially behind him, quietly reminding him of the importance of his task, and nudging him back to the field. It is a powerful moment, where we truly see the cracks in the otherwise impenetrable hide of the story’s hero. It is a powerful moment, and lends a more human element to Robinson than his typical image, where he took those fountains of hate in stride and never broke a sweat. It’s hard to see how he didn’t, given the magnitude not only of the pressure on him to absorb the abuse, but the added pressure of having to perform. While that moment in the film may never have happened in the actual story, it reminds the audience that this incredible person doing this incredible thing is still a person—a human being.

As with a lot of American stories that get the Hollywood treatment, parts are often embellished for dramatic effect, or paper over aspects of the truth that may not be as convenient for moviegoers that one can assume may not be as familiar with the subject matter. After all, watching baseball isn’t a prerequisite to buying a ticket to 42. To help balance the temptations of oversimplifying the story with staying authentic to the life of the man himself, Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow, was brought on to ensure that it was being told properly. She told Fox Sports Detroit in an interview when the movie was released, “I didn’t want them to make him an angry black man or some stereotype, so it was important for me to be there.”3 One could argue that she succeeded on this front, because 42 offers a trait to its lead that is often deliberately omitted from major biopics, in order to retain its hero’s “above the fray” status: compassion. We see Jackie doting over his newborn baby son before heading off for a game. We see him playfully flirting with his wife, being attentive, affectionate, even vulnerable with her. These are traits that more often than not are left out of characters in order to make them seem more determined, focused on the task at hand. To see this emotional range is a compliment to the acting of Boseman and writing of Brian Helgeland, but on a higher level, it is a credit to Rachel Robinson and her involvement. To much of White America, the defining trait of Jackie Robinson was his toughness, his ability to endure the punishment to the point where he becomes an almost biblical figure. In this movie, you see a human side to him that could only really be told by someone who saw it in real time, up close and personal.

The release of 42 brought a wide range of critical reactions but ultimately aggregated into a moderate success among the movie-learned. Harrison Ford and Chadwick Boseman in particular received praise for their roles, with one critic noting that, “Harrison Ford said he wanted to disappear into the role of Branch Rickey, and he damn near does.”4 Boseman was also given kudos for relishing his first leading role in a major movie, including “It’s not easy to play a stoic, but Boseman anchors the movie, and when he smiles, 42, already such a warm story of such cold times, gets even brighter.”5 There were some though, who argued that the parts didn’t exactly sum up to a great movie, most notably Richard Roeper saying that the movie was “…a mostly unexceptional film about an exceptional man.”6

One nagging shortfall of the movie isn’t necessarily what it did do, but the opportunities that were missed in the telling of how Robinson came to be on the Dodgers, and the ripple effects of his arrival. There’s a brief mention of some other Negro League players like Satchel Paige in the beginning, with Rickey quipping “I need a player with a future, not a past,” before dismissing him as a potential addition to the team, but that element is left to die on the vine. Robinson’s embarrassment of a tryout for the Boston Red Sox in 1945 is completely omitted, and the embrace he received from fans in Canada is never even mentioned. Probably the biggest head-scratcher of the movie, though, is that rather than expand on the path that Jackie forged for other Black players, and really emphasize the scope of what his arrival and his handling of it accomplished, it ends honing in on the pennant race of 1947, basically just playing out the rest of the regular season. Those incredibly impactful points and historical landmarks? Relegated to footnotes in a brief epilogue, like a slideshow thrown in at the end of a history lesson. For a film that was clearly designed for the non-baseball enthusiast, it felt like a real swing-and-miss moment.

Regardless of whatever shortcomings, the movie showed up strong at the box office, grossing over $95 million, good enough for second all-time for baseball movies only behind A League of Their Own in 1992, which grossed $107.5 million. Of course, the latter had the contemporary star power of Rosie O’Donnell, Gina Davis, Tom Hanks, and Madonna to propel its draw, while 42 had a notable star in Ford, but relative unknowns or character actors in every other corner. One could argue that makes the financial accomplishments of the film even more remarkable, especially when you consider that 42 had obstacles like the internet to deal with. One could attribute its success at the box office to the fact that it broke the mold of previous baseball movies that placed the game at its center and built the stories around it. Instead, Brian Helgeland created an action movie with baseball as its stage. It took a game that many younger viewers thought was too slow and out of touch, and gave it a shot of adrenaline to get younger eyes to the screen and keep them there. It was a baseball movie that conformed to the times it was made, not the times it depicted.

Even if 42 may have fallen short in breaking ground the same way its subject did, the biggest takeaway is that Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal of Jackie Robinson was captivating, complete, and charismatic. The movie allowed us to see Robinson beyond what we learned in our history books and painted a very human picture of a legend, and gave those who may not have known his story something to remember. Much like Robinson himself, the stage may not have been perfect, but Boseman played the part like no one else could.

ADAM C. MacKINNON is a lifelong baseball fan and author of Baseball For Kids: A Young Fan’s Guide to the History of the Game. His writing can also be found in Baseball Almanac, Call to the Pen, and his own blog and podcast, Romantic About Baseball. He currently lives in Delaware with his wife and daughter.

 

Notes

1 “Spike Lee shares Unproduced Screenplay for Dream Jackie Robinson Biopic,” Collider, March 30, 2020. https://collider.com/spike-lee-jackie-robinson-script/

2 Mark Jenkins, “Jackie Robinson film ‘42’ Opens, starring Howard Graduate Chadwick Boseman,” Washington Post, April 11, 2013. https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/jackie-robinson-film-42-opens-starring-howard-graduate-chadwick-boseman/2013/04/11/dbdc8664-9e02-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_story.html

3 “Rachel Robinson reflects on role in making ‘42’,” Fox Sports Detroit, April 15, 2013. https://www.foxsports.com/detroit/story/rachelrobinson-reflects-on-role-in-making-42-041513

4 Jason Fraley, “Jackie Robinson Hailed as Mythic Hero in ‘42’,” wtop.com, April 11, 2013. https://wtop.com/reviews/2013/04/jackierobinson-hailed-as-mythic-hero-in-42/

5 Mary Pols, “42: The Jackie Robinson Biopic is a Solid Hit,” entertainment.time.com, April 12, 2013. https://entertainment.time.com/2013/04/12/42-the-jackie-robinson-biopic-is-a-solid-hit/

6 Richard Roeper, “42,” rogerebert.com, April 11, 2013, https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/42-2013

“It takes courage to be a pioneer”1

 

 

There is a lovely scene in Ken Burns’ documentary series Jackie Robinson in which Robinson’s daughter, Sharon, remembers what it was like for her to spend time with him when she was a child. After Robinson’s retirement from baseball in 1957, just before Sharon turned 7, he regularly commuted from the family’s home in Stamford, Connecticut to Manhattan, where he had accepted a position as president of personnel with the New York-based coffee business Chock full o’Nuts. “My special time with my dad was going into New York City,” Sharon recalled. “So I put on white gloves and I was all dressed up. But it was just dad and I in that car driving along.”2

Sharon was only 22 when her father died of a heart attack, but what you repeatedly find in the many books she has written about him shows that although they had relatively few years together, the father left an indelible impression on the daughter. His example inspired her own uniquely enriching forms of service to the world, as a writer, consultant, businesswoman, and health care professional. Things were not guaranteed to work out so well. It can be hard to be the child of a celebrity. In the pages of her books, Sharon candidly reveals many of her own personal troubles, and those of siblings.3

Compared to many other depictions of Jackie Robinson on the page, Sharon Robinson’s important contribution to the wealth of material that has been written about her father consists of stories based on her personal experiences that provide readers with intimate insights into what Jackie Robinson was like as a person off the field, to his family, in the privacy of his home.

The Turquoise Bathrobe

Jackie Robinson occupies a storied position in the pantheon of American heroes. He was a skilled baseball player, a civil rights activist, and a trailblazer. In considering a life lived to such a high pinnacle of achievement, it can be difficult to picture the individual behind the icon. For this reason, while reading Sharon Robinson’s books about her father, one finds oneself most touched by the personal details that reveal to us what Robinson was like as a man.

There is a wonderful scene at the beginning of Sharon’s autobiographical Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963, a chapter book for young readers, in which she describes the morning before her 13th birthday. Her father is not at home. He had been hospitalized for a knee operation. Further complications from infection kept him in the hospital. Sharon experiences natural disappointment at not having her father with her for such an important life moment—the transition from being a child to being a teen.

She looks over at her mother and grandmother who are making breakfast and thinks to herself that normally her father would have been standing beside them stirring the grits.4 Robinson remains in the hospital, cut off from this intimate family scene and his usual position within it. This memory of Robinson at the stove demonstrates who this great hero of American sports was to his child, the role he played for his daughter as part of fondly recalled domestic patterns.

On the day of her birthday, the family goes to see the 43-year-old Robinson at the hospital. When they enter his room, Sharon says “I see Dad sitting in a chair. He is wearing his favorite turquoise bathrobe.”5 In that description the reader is given the gift of intimacy, seeing a titan of baseball as a person, and in a moment of vulnerability as he struggles to recover his health.

Although the scene celebrates a moment of relief for Sharon, since Robinson appears to be doing better, there is a pathos as well. As readers we know what the child did not, that although Robinson would defeat this injury, he had only a handful of years to live. That knowledge renders this vivid glimpse of him in a hospital room wearing his favorite turquoise bathrobe even more poignant. While Child of the Dream is a book for young readers, such intimate insights make the book a welcome read for readers of any age who are interested in learning more about Robinson’s life in all its fullness.

Wings

Early on in Jackie Robinson: American Hero, a biography about her father written as a chapter book for young readers, Sharon includes a breathtaking photograph. The picture shows Robinson as a young man of college age wearing a white University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) tank top and white shorts. He is in the act of doing something seemingly impossible.

Like a bird of prey, he hovers high in the sky, one muscled arm flung out horizontally beside him, the other thrust powerfully behind. His legs lunge forward, extended above empty air, high above the people shown standing in the background. He drives one bare foot forward with such force it appears on the verge of kicking through the frame. This picture of Jackie in the midst of a flying broad jump is one of the best illustrations in Jackie Robinson: American Hero. The reader witnesses him seemingly able to stride through mid-air, like a god. Viewed as a symbol, this picture of Robinson feels like an appropriate image for someone so many see as an emblem of resilience and success.

This photograph draws attention to the extraordinary fullness of Robinson’s accomplishments. This is something Sharon carefully does in many of her books. We tend to think of Robinson in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform with the famous 42 on the back. But Sharon’s selection of such photos reminds us that Robinson excelled at a wide range of sports.

As Sharon recounts in Jackie Robinson: American Hero, at one time Robinson “set a record for competing in two different sports in two different cities on the same day.” In the morning he had been in Pomona, where he set “a new broad-jump record of 25 feet 6½ inches.” That afternoon, he played shortstop in Glendale and “helped bring them a championship!”6 While at UCLA, Sharon reminds us, her father excelled on their football, baseball, basketball, and track and field teams.

Sharon never witnessed most of the athletic feats she describes. She was only 6 when Jackie Robinson retired from baseball. As she explains in Child of the Dream, she learned about her father’s extraordinary athletic prowess mainly from the awed descriptions provided to her by his fans. During one visit to his Chock full o’Nuts office in New York, while her father conducted business upstairs, Sharon recalls sitting at the lunch counter while the servers and patrons told her stories about seeing her father play.

Once my father and I took the train all the way to Pittsburgh just to see Jackie play. You know that no one since Babe Ruth brought more fans into ballparks.”

“Your daddy kept the pitchers guessing while he danced on and off the base. Then, just when the pitcher figured out his rhythm, he’d steal home!7

These excited retellings about Robinson during his glory days as a ballplayer enlivened Sharon’s mental image of what her father had been like on the field. As Robinson re-entered the coffee shop to collect his daughter, she noticed all the laughter and good spirits just talking about him had provoked, the wonder and magic of what his extraordinary athletic gifts had brought into the world: “He is so important to them, I would think each time.”8

Bread upon the waters

In a television interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1963 – the same year in which Sharon Robinson’s Child of the Dream is set – the interviewer asks Robinson what had most helped him in overcoming the difficulties and deprivations of his childhood and what advice he would give others about how best to meet life’s challenges.

Robinson considers for a moment and then says, “My mother insisted when I was a youngster that I get a church background.” He explained that he had taught Sunday School classes and while he did not claim to be “the greatest religious person in the world,” this upbringing had shaped his perspective. As a result of this upbringing, he said he had developed “a sincere interest in other people.” He adds, “I believe, frankly, that a person who casts his bread upon the waters it will come back twofold.”9 This expression arises from the wisdom literature contained in the Bible’s Hebrew scriptures, where it appears in this form in the Book of Ecclesiastes: “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.”10 As Robinson explains to the interviewer, what this meant for him was that “in helping others I have helped myself.”11

If Sharon Robinson in her books depicts Jackie Robinson in moments of personal vulnerability and at the height of his athletic achievements, she also captures his generosity of spirit – the ways in which, as he said himself, he wished to enrich the lives of others. One of the books in which Sharon Robinson beautifully captures Robinson’s deep spirit of altruism is Jackie’s Nine: Jackie Robinson’s Values to Live By.

Near the beginning of this book, Sharon writes about a visit she and her son Jesse made in 1987 to see the Reverend Jesse Jackson and his family. They were there for Thanksgiving and as they spoke Sharon noted that their conversation led to a discussion about her father. “We talked about why some athletes’ fame lives on and others’ fades with time.” Reverend Jackson thought the difference lay between what it means to be a champion and what it means to be a hero. “A champion” he opined, “wins a World Series or an Olympic event and is hoisted on the shoulders of teammates and fans. A hero carries the people on his shoulders.”12

Sharon shows how her father carried others on his shoulders by sharing stories about Robinson – supplemented by those of other heroes and sheroes (as she writes). These various accounts exemplify what Sharon saw as her father’s core strengths of character: Courage, Determination, Teamwork, Persistence, Integrity, Citizenship, Justice, Commitment, and Excellence.

Legacy

One of the strengths Sharon Robinson brings to her writing is that she had to grapple with the question of how she would find and share her gifts with others while living in the shadow of one of America’s most celebrated individuals. As they were growing up, this fact made life somewhat difficult for Sharon and her two siblings, Jackie Jr. and David. As she recalls in her memoir Stealing Home, “As childhood faded, the pressure to achieve escalated. The question was in what area and by what criteria should we measure our own success?”13

This idea of how to find and develop your personal abilities animates many of Sharon Robinson’s books. She encourages her readers not merely to admire Robinson but to learn from his example. There is a humbleness in this task that Sharon admits to having learned from her parents, but she also exercises this gift in ways unique to herself. In so doing she situates her depictions of her famous father in ways that point to questions we all harbor: “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What will be my legacy?”

In Child of the Dream, Sharon discusses learning as a child about one of Jackie Robinson’s most important legacies beyond baseball: his contributions to the civil rights activism of the 1960s.

One evening while sitting on the sofa at home, Sharon hears George Wallace’s 1963 inaugural speech as the newly-elected governor of Alabama on the TV: “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” She reacts to his speech with understandable fright, leading her mother, Rachel Robinson, to reassure her that there are also people fighting for things to change.14

This leads to a discussion about her father’s involvement in helping to advance those rights, and about the fact that some of the protests have incurred vicious reprisals, including the jailing of civil rights activists and the bombing of churches. Sharon, worried by this information, asks how there can be an end to the violence. Her mother replies, “One institution at a time. Baseball, the army, public buses—these are all fights that have been won.”15

Rachel asks her daughter if she remembers the nine students from Little Rock, Arkansas. She does. Sharon remembers that there were nine Black students enrolled in an Arkansas high school. The governor had called in the National Guard to stop them from attending. She remembered that the students had reached out to her father. “I’m so proud they called Dad,” she says. “What they did was so important.”16

Sharon had been only 7 at the time, so her mother is impressed that she remembers. “Those students were inspired by his bravery,” her mother explained. “It takes courage to be a pioneer and stand up against injustice. Doesn’t matter where it happens, on the baseball field, marching in the street, or entering a school that doesn’t want you there.”17

On another occasion, after her older brother Jackie Jr. has run away from home, Sharon remembers that during that tense, heartrending time for her family she had a significant conversation with her father about institutionalized racism. He recognized that the teenaged Sharon had been shaken by what she had heard George Wallace saying on TV about segregation lasting forever. One night Robinson comes to her bedroom and gently broaches the topic with her. In response to her concerns, he admits that the challenge is real, but that people will protest and that the leaders of the civil rights movement plan to march for freedom. Surprised at his choice of words, Sharon asks, “But aren’t Black people already free?” To which he replies, “Guess it depends on how you define freedom.”18

 

Testing the Ice: A True Story About Jackie Robinson, written by Sharon Robinson and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. (Courtesy of Scholastic Publishers)

 

Testing the Ice

In her memoir Stealing Home Sharon provides a story that she realizes provides a perfect metaphor for her father’s life-long habit of self-sacrifice. As children, the Robinson siblings loved skating and playing hockey on the lake that was situated on the family property. In the winter after the lake froze, her father would go out on the ice to test its thickness, tapping methodically with his broomstick as he moved farther onto the lake. Sometimes he would hit an air bubble, causing a great noise of cracking. The children feared the ice might break. This image stayed strongly with her and later became the basis for her picture book for young children Testing the Ice: A True Story about Jackie Robinson.19

Sharon recognized while reflecting on those childhood memories how fraught this activity was with danger. As an adult she realized this activity of carefully checking the ice to ensure its safety was like her father’s integration of what was then considered major-league baseball. “No one really knew what would happen”; he had to “feel his way along an uncleared path.”20

In the books of Sharon Robinson, among all the intimate details of her father that she provides, this is the Jackie Robinson who emerges most strongly on the page: an individual who had the courage to go out in advance of others, at great peril to himself, to make conditions better for those who would follow.

SHARON HAMILTON is the chair of the Society for American Baseball Research’s (SABR) Century Research Committee, which celebrates important milestones in baseball history. She served as project manager for the special 100th anniversary SABR Century 1921 project at SABR.org.

 

Notes

1 Rachel Robinson in dialogue recalled by Sharon Robinson in Sharon Robinson, Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963 (New York: Scholastic Press, 2019), chap. 7, Kindle.

2 Sharon Robinson, interview, in Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, Jackie Robinson, a two-part, four-hour documentary on Jackie Robinson (2016): https://kenburns.com/films/jackie-robinson/

3 A list of Sharon Robinson’s books can be found on her website: http://www.sharonrobinsonink.com/books

4 Sharon Robinson, Child of the Dream, chap. 1, Kindle.

5 Robinson, Child of the Dream, chap. 6, Kindle.

6 Sharon Robinson, Jackie Robinson: American Hero (New York: Scholastic Press, 2013), chap. 2, Kindle.

7 Sharon Robinson, Child of the Dream, chap. 11, Kindle.

8 Robinson, Child of the Dream, chap. 11, Kindle.

9 Jackie Robinson, interview, “Baseball star Jackie Robinson talks race relations” (1963), Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Digital Archives, https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1664440038

10 Ecclesiastes 11: 1. King James Bible.

11 Jackie Robinson, interview, “Baseball star Jackie Robinson talks race relations.”

12 Sharon Robinson, Jackie’s Nine: Jackie Robinson’s Values to Live By (New York: Scholastic Press, 2001), Introduction, Kindle.

13 Sharon Robinson, Stealing Home: An Intimate Family Portrait by the daughter of Jackie Robinson (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 92.

14 Robinson, Child of the Dream, chap. 7, Kindle.

15 Robinson, Child of the Dream, chap. 7, Kindle.

16 Robinson, Child of the Dream, chap. 7, Kindle.

17 Robinson, Child of the Dream, chap. 7, Kindle.

18 Robinson, Child of the Dream, chap. 8, Kindle.

19 Sharon Robinson, Testing the Ice: A True Story About Jackie Robinson (New York: Scholastic Press, 2009).

20 Robinson, Stealing Home, 45.

For many, Jack Roosevelt Robinson is the most important and recognizable figure in the history of Organized Baseball. He is a cultural icon who revolutionized American sports when he took first base on April 15, 1947. But despite the impact that Robinson has had on sport and society, popular culture largely remembers him for that singular act of breaking the color barrier. He is, what Michael G. Long calls, “unjustly stuck in 1947,” instead of evaluated for the whole person that he was.1

At his very essence Robinson was flawed and complicated. He rightfully challenged authority and was relentless in his pursuit as a civil rights activist. He spent his entire life fighting for first-class citizenship for Black Americans and other disenfranchised people. His commitment to activism transcends his major-league career, yet his accomplishments on the field are what he is most remembered.

Society largely ignores the difficult and uncomfortable qualities of our heroes and icons. Hollywood bears much of the responsibility for controlling that narrative. As this volume makes clear, there are no shortage of movies, television shows, and plays with the Jackie Robinson character, fictional and non-fictional alike. As a main character, stories told of Jackie Robinson often focus on the same events in his life, and rarely do they explore the nuance that defined him. Interestingly, however, Robinson is often not the main character in the fictional worlds in which he appears. In minor roles, the Robinson character serves as an important literary aid, either driving the plot, revealing qualities about the main characters, or setting the tone for the story.

The Jackie Robinson character appears in minor roles in several movies and television shows that span decades. The allure of having a “Jackie Robinson character” is that it brings tremendous value to the story because of his legacy. The problem is that his character is portrayed as largely one-dimensional and is usually a trope for racism, prejudice, tolerance, and heroism. More often than not, his character is a misrepresentation of the “real” Robinson either by physical appearance, or demeanor which may have deleterious effects on his legacy. Yet despite the many inaccuracies in his portrayal and liberties taken to create his character, Jackie Robinson still serves as an important symbolic figure in a minor role.

As a minor character Jackie Robinson recently appeared in the first episode of HBO’s Lovecraft Country, titled, “Sundown,” which first aired in September 2020. Lovecraft Country was adapted from the novel of the same name written by Matt Ruff, about a Black American man, Atticus, traveling across the Jim Crow United States in search of his father. The novel is based on the characters, imagery, and themes from influential author H.P. Lovecraft who was considered the father of cosmic horror and science-fiction. His canon featured grotesque, and fantastical creatures with immense power over humans. Lovecraft was also an unapologetic racist. Ruff took the monsters that Lovecraft created and authored a story using a Black man as a protagonist, in protest of Lovecraft.

Creator and show-runner of Lovecraft Country, Misha Green, adapted the novel for television to “reclaim all of those storytelling styles for characters who’ve typically died at the beginning of those stories.”2 Green noted that Robinson was an ideal choice for a character because Atticus loved baseball, but given the protest angle for the story, Robinson’s pedigree makes him the most suitable athlete hero. Robinson’s character appears twice in “Sundown,” first as part of the powerful narration of The Jackie Robinson Story and second in person to save Atticus. The character plays a key role to establish themes of racism, discrimination, and triumph over evil.

The opening scene of “Sundown” begins with Atticus fighting through the cosmic trenches of a Korean war battlefield. Overlaid is the narration from The Jackie Robinson Story, “This is a story about a boy and his dream but more than that. It’s a story of an American boy and a dream that is truly American.” The narration continues, with sinister, Jim Crow voices, “Where are you going, Black boy? Black boy, we’re the welcoming committee.” The narration serves two purposes. One, to tell the viewer that they are watching a dream, and two it sets the tone for Lovecraft as a series about the racism and discrimination in the United States.

Robinson’s second appearance is in the flesh to save Atticus from a giant, grotesquely tentacled monster, Cthulthu, Lovecraft’s most famous creature. As the towering Cthulthu bears down on Atticus, the beast is suddenly sliced in half and collapses to the ground. Behind it, Robinson appears in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, covered in slime, shouldering his bat, a job well done. As Robinson struts towards Atticus, he says, with a grin, “I got you, kid.” Then, almost immediately, the monster respawns larger than before, and lunges towards Robinson. Robinson, ever ready to confront a challenge, stands-in to re-attack at which time Atticus wakes up from his dream.

Misha Green posits that The Jackie Robinson Story would have been released around the same time that Lovecraft Country is set, meaning that Atticus would have likely seen the movie and been thinking about Robinson, his hero.3 However, the decision to have Atticus dream of Robinson may be part of the larger context of Robinson’s influence on and devotion to American youth. Robinson lived in the hearts and minds of young Black men throughout the 1940s and 1950s. He was their incomparable hero. So, it come as no surprise that Atticus summoned Robinson to save him. Given that the real-life Robinson devoted his time and money to support American youth, it was fitting to have him come to Atticus’ aid.

There is no question that Robinson’s notoriety came from “breaking the baseball color barrier” in 1947, and he should be remembered for this. The problem, though, is with every portrayal of his character that focuses on that act, his larger legacy erodes the nuance that made Robinson the person that he was, and his efforts as a civil rights activist are at risk of being diluted or forgotten entirely. To that extent, Robinson’s minor character role was an important symbolic figure in Lovecraft Country not for saving Tic’s life in his dream, but for his relentless effort battling Cthulthu, demonstrating his perseverance, grit, and courage for when the deck is stacked against him; in the same manner he fought for first-class citizenship in the United States.

Cold Case is a CBS police procedural drama where homicide detectives re-investigate unsolved crimes. Episode four, season three, titled, “Colors,” centers around the mysterious death of a promising young Negro League baseball player, Clyde Taylor.4 Taylor’s dead body was discovered following an exhibition game between the Negro League and major-league baseball all-stars in which Taylor hit the game-winning home run. Robinson’s minor character role was important to Taylor, as he acted like a big brother to the star, a common theme for fictional Robinson. His character appeared in three scenes and was portrayed as a shell of the man he was, yet he was a symbolic figure.

In Robinson’s first appearance Taylor is up to bat, with the game on the line, looking nervous. Robinson encouragingly remarks to a pessimistic teammate, Moody Brown, that Taylor “is gonna be just fine, he’s got a ton of guts.” No doubt a nod to Branch Rickey, but out of context. In his second scene, Robinson very calmly diffuses an altercation between Taylor and Moody by merely walking up to the two and asking, “Hey, what’s going on?” In his third and final appearance, Robinson suggests to his teammates as they prepare for the game that Taylor will be “the first Black player to play in the major leagues.”

Robinson is the most famous and recognizable Black baseball player that ever lived. It is no surprise that a “Jackie Robinson” character had a role in an episode about a Black baseball player in the 1940s. To a CBS audience that is historically older, White adults, Robinson’s character brought familiarity to the themes of racism and discrimination as well as historical context to the viewer.5 The use of his character in this manner also reveals more about how society remembers Robinson and reinforces how society wants to continue to remember him.

Howard Bryant noted that “Robinson lives in the chamber of American sainthood, what he symbolized was far more important than the details of his life.”6 “Colors,” continued that narrative by portraying an exceptionally clean, safe, and non-threatening character, one which the predominantly White audience could relate to and like. There was no sense of urgency or competitiveness in his character; he seemed subdued and overly cordial. He did not resemble the man who was pained by pervasive discrimination in every aspect of his life.

It was also interesting to see Robinson’s character outwardly supportive and protective of his teammates because of what is known about Robinson’s real-life experience in and thoughts about the Negro Leagues. Robinson was famously outspoken about his brief time as a Kansas City Monarch, lamenting that “it turned out to be a miserable way to make a buck.”7 He did not approve of his teammates carousing with women. He did not smoke or drink, making him somewhat of a pariah, and during the 1945 season he attempted to leave the Monarchs on multiple occasions. If that was not enough expression of his displeasure, in 1948, he penned a scathing indictment about the Negro Leagues in Ebony magazine titled, “What’s Wrong with the Negro Leagues.”8 This portrayal of Robinson was a missed opportunity to provide an edge to an otherwise tame hour of television.

The Robinson character also plays an important, symbolic role when it is unseen. The character contributes more to the plot and determines the main actor’s decisions and evokes their emotions. Two television specials, A Home Run for Love and Brooklyn Bridge, use the Robinson character as the central figure of their plots, despite the man himself never making an appearance.

A Home Run for Love used the Robinson character primarily as a learning opportunity for children. The movie was adapted from the children’s novel, Thank You, Jackie Robinson, and produced as part of the ABC Afterschool Special series, airing in 1972.9 Afterschool Special was an anthology of one-hour long installments that tackled difficult issues facing children, teenagers, and young adults. It spanned 25 years and 143 episodes ranging from topics of underage drinking, teenage angst, sexual health, and abuse. The stories were authentic and relatable, with non-fairy tale endings as an opportunity to teach children about the hardships in life.

A Home Run for Love is about the journey of an unlikely friendship between a young White boy and an older Black man in the 1940s. Sammy Greene is a typical boy, curious, occasionally defiant and consumed with Brooklyn Dodgers baseball. Sammy’s mother owns a local inn where he works the front desk and buses tables in the dining room. His father recently passed away. Davey Henderson is the newly hired Black cook who takes a special interest in Sammy. Their relationship blossoms when they discover each other’s love of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Jackie Robinson.

The ABC specials take complex and difficult themes and distill them down for children and youths to comprehend. Robinson’s character is important because it is used to teach children about prejudice, tolerance, and loss through the eyes of a child. Robinson’s role was small, only appearing for a few lines midway through the movie, but the friendship that Sammy and Davey forged was a direct result of Robinson playing in the major leagues. And even though Robinson is a minor character, his legacy outweighs any role that he plays. He is symbolic because he represents the fight for tolerance and acceptance in America. It is not until Sammy attends his first Dodgers game that he learns a valuable lesson about the hardships that Jackie Robinson and other Black Americans faced.

Davey and his family take Sammy to his first Dodgers game. Oblivious to the disapproving stares from White spectators, Sammy is reveling in the afternoon. However, his enjoyment grinds to halt when he witnesses a player “spike” Robinson as he slid into second base. The crowd is in hysterics. Sammy, distraught, disbelieving, and searching for answers, asks Davey, “Did you see that? They spiked him deliberately and nobody did anything.” Davey then explains to Sammy, “that’s just part of what the first Negro in major-league ball has to put up with.” Sammy was speechless and looked like he was trying to make sense of Davey’s comment. For a young viewer, this was a powerful scene because it was an honest commentary on the life of Jackie Robinson.

Robinson’s character in Home Run garners a call to action. For all his efforts to fight racial injustice at the systemic level, Robinson also encouraged people to act against prejudice at the individual level. “So I think the first step for each of us…is to stop thinking in terms of what we heard…and instead make certain that we judge other people as individuals.”10 Children observe two realities when watching the movie: first, they learn that it was wrong that Robinson was spiked without recourse, and two, he was attacked because he was Black. Home Run shows children to stand up for their beliefs and speak up when something is wrong, the way Robinson did.

Brooklyn Bridge was a CBS sitcom about the life of a teenage boy, Alan Silver, growing up in the 1950s, whose life revolved around his family, friends, and the Brooklyn Dodgers. It aired for two seasons and 33 episodes between 1991-93. Bridge was short-lived due to its small audience, yet it has received much acclaim on the entertainment websites, Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. Bridge is far from “prestige TV,” but its stories are wholesome, and the characters are charming.

Robinson’s character is at the center of the plot for season one, episode 11, “Where Have You Gone, Jackie Robinson?” In this episode, Alan and his family cope with disastrous news: an extra-marital affair in the family and Jackie Robinson being traded to the New York Giants. Both are devastating to this close-knit Jewish family, but the Robinson ordeal was felt worse. Alan’s younger brother, Nathaniel, refers to the Robinson trade as a “family emergency.” Upon hearing the news of the trade, Cousin Bernard sobs hysterically, Uncle Willy, the adulterer, blames himself stating, “me moving to Long Island means nobody is safe, anyone can leave Brooklyn.” Phyllis Silver, Alan’s mother copes by reciting Robinson’s rookie year stat line, and biographical information to the family. And Nathaniel refers to Robinson as “more than a baseball player, he’s like a friend.” Their collective responses may appear dramatic and embellished even for television, but the real-life relationship between Robinson and Jewish people reveals the impact that Robinson had on their community which was felt by the Silver family.

In the United States in the 1940s and 1950s Jewish people identified with Robinson through their shared experiences of bigotry and persecution.11 Robinson was their hero as they believed that if he could successfully integrate what was then defined as major-league baseball, Jewish people could be welcomed in America.12 Robinson’s fame and admiration among Jewish people was further fueled by their love of the Dodgers as, at that time, a third of the Brooklyn population was Jewish.13 Rachel Robinson even noticed that they were making more Jewish friends when they lived in Brooklyn, “We made friends. For whatever reason, many happened to be Jewish…they were interested people who wanted to know us, just as we wanted to know them.”14 In all likelihood, the Robinsons began making friends with Jewish people as they were more ready to accept the Robinsons than any other Whites.15

It was not only Jewish Brooklynites that admired and supported Robinson. In his 1948 autobiography, Jackie Robinson, My Own Story, Robinson recounts his first interaction with Jewish baseball legend Hank Greenberg. Following a collision between the two players at first base, Greenberg offered Robinson the following words of advice, “Don’t pay any attention to these guys who are trying to make it hard for you. Stick in there, you’re doing fine.” This meant the world to Robinson because he believed that Greenberg truly understood his struggle.16

As his career progressed, Robinson leveraged his celebrity to address social injustice. His relationships with Jewish people strengthened through his dealings with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL); Robinson, recognizing the success of the ADL, sought to align their strategies with Black civil rights groups. In 1950, Robinson was awarded the Good Sportsmanship Trophy by the Maccabi Association (a major Jewish athletic group) for his work advancing tolerance and understanding of minority groups in America.17 There is no doubt that Jackie Robinson would have made an impact on the fictional Silver family as a Brooklyn Dodger. During his tenure, the team won six pennants and the 1955 World Series. However, accolades aside, it would be fair to say that the Silver family would have had a strong connection to Robinson beyond his baseball career which reflected in their emotional response to his trade. This rarely explored aspect of the Robinson legacy, his connection to the Jewish community, is an underreported perspective of the character of Robinson.

Jackie Robinson serves as an important symbolic figure as a minor character because of the weight that his legacy carries. His image is synonymous with heroism and bravery. His character often does not need to speak or be visible for the audience to feel his presence. Right or wrong, his legacy is largely defined by breaking the baseball color barrier and as such his character is used to provide important historical context for stories about race and baseball. Furthermore, his character is often a misrepresentation of the real Robinson likely to make the audience comfortable and to seamlessly move the story. As such, Hollywood misses an opportunity to elevate their stories because the best of Robinson was not only his on-field heroics, but his passion for his family, commitment to doing what is right, and his grit in the face of adversity. But in the end, it’s Robinson’s legacy that is ultimately at stake with each inaccurate portrayal of him as a minor character.

NICK MALIAN lives with his wife and daughter in LaSalle, Ontario, Canada, where he was born and raised. Growing up in a border city, he idolized Detroit Tiger greats Cecil Fielder and Alan Trammell. As an impressionable 12-year-old, his allegiance shifted from the Tigers to the New York Yankees following their post-season dominance in 1996. He still attempts the “Derek Jeter jump-throw” (with limited success) at his weekly softball games. Nick is a pharmacist by day and amateur home-chef by night. He enjoys reading anything about baseball and getting lost in science-fiction and fantasy novels. This is his first baseball publication.

 

Notes

1 Michael G. Long, ed., 42 Today: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy, (New York: New York University Press, 2021), 4.

2 Ariana Brockington, “This is What Lovecraft Country Really Means,” Refinery29, August 16, 2020. https://www.refinery29.com/enus/2020/08/9959175/what-lovecraft-country-means-hp-racism

3 @MishaGreen, Misha Green. 2021. “The characters were baseball fans in @bymattruff’s novel. The Jackie Robinson Story came out in 1950, which means Atticus would have seen it. So that naturally evolved into using the voice over from the movie, & having Atticus’s biggest hero save him from Cthulhu in his dream.” September 22, 2021. 5:41 PM https://twitter.com/MishaGreen/status/1440793384529002506

4 Season three ran from September 2005 to May 2006.

5 Emily VanDerWerf, “CBS is remarkably defensive for being American’s most-watched network, Vox, May 17, 2017. https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/5/17/15655310/cbs-fall-schedule-2017

6 Howard Bryant, “Righting the wrongs of ‘42’”.,” ESPN.com, April 24, 2013. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/9207998/42-getssome-jackie-robinson-history-wrong-starts-conversation

7 Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972), 35.

8 Donn Rogosin, Invisible Men (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983), 178.

9 Barbara Cohen, Thank You, Jackie Robinson (New York: Harper Collins, 1997)

10 Michael G. Long, ed., Beyond Home Plate; Jackie Robinson on Life After Baseball (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2013), 66

11 Rebecca Alpert, “Jackie Robinson, Jewish Icon,” An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies Vol. 26, No. 2 (2008): 45.

12 Alpert, 47.

13 Ilana Abramovitch & Seán Galvin, eds., Jews of Brooklyn Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, 2002), 346.

14 Arnold Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, A Biography (New York: Random House Publishing Company, 1997), 221.

15 Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, A Biography, 221.

16 Jackie Robinson, My Own Story (California: Allegro Editions, 1948), 146-147.

17 Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, A Biography, 221

Jackie laughed. “Baseball isn’t all about home runs,” he said. “It’s a team sport. You have to trust the other players as much as you trust yourself.”1

 

A Big Day For Baseball (2019), written by Mary Pope Osborne and illustrated by Sal Murdocca. (Courtesy of Penguin Random House)

 

When Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers in April of 1947 many of his new teammates were not happy he was on their team. Robinson would have to work hard to change their attitudes, to show them he belonged. That story of triumph over adversity is one of the many themes to be found in writings about Robinson and his life. Historians, journalists, writers, and fans have studied Robinson’s whole life. In addition, there are many books written for children and young adults using Jackie’s life story as the central focus and as inspiration to teach children important life lessons. A thorough examination of children’s literature reveals key themes and approaches, as well as highlights important strengths Jackie displayed in order to accomplish all that he did in his life. The questions to be explored and answered by examining the literature are: how is Jackie Robinson’s story presented to children of different ages? What lessons are taught? Why is he a hero to so many?

The children’s literature on Robinson is extensive, dating back to the 1970s, with new books coming out all the time. There are books for every age, from graphic novels to picture books, both fiction and non-fiction. Included among the published works are a series of books by Robinson’s daughter Sharon Robinson. Sharon has written stories about specific events in her father’s life and has also used his accomplishments as inspiration for other children’s stories. Because of her connection to Jackie, her stories deserve their own examination and will be dealt with in another chapter.

Books about Jackie Robinson teach children about topics ranging from segregation to civil rights to family life, bullying, the military, and baseball. Common themes that emerge discuss courage, responsibility, bravery, hope, inspiration, and other positive messages which make these books important. Jackie Robinson once said, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” These books continue to extend Jackie’s impact to future generations.

One of the first children’s books published about Robinson came out in 1971, just a year before Robert Peterson’s groundbreaking work about Negro League baseball, Only the Ball was White. Kenneth Rudeen wrote Jackie Robinson (1971) to tell young children about the challenges and struggles Robinson faced as the first Black ballplayer to enter what was then known as the major leagues. He focuses on the strength and courage it took for Robinson to be able to play at the level he did, especially since he was not welcomed. Rudeen incorrectly identifies Robinson as the first Black player in the majors, since his book was written before researchers had uncovered the stories of Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother who played in the nineteenth century.

A second early children’s book, Thank You Jackie Robinson by Barbara Cohen, was published in 1974, just two years after his death. Cohen’s book is a fictional story about the friendship between a young boy, Sam, and a cook named Davy. That friendship is tested when Davy gets sick, and Sam hopes that getting the great Jackie Robinson’s autograph will help Davy get well. The story focuses on the friendship that blossoms between Sam, a young Jewish boy, and Davy, a Black cook, who comes to serve as a role model for Sam who lost his own father. They are drawn together by their love of the Dodgers and especially their new ball player Jackie Robinson. The book tells a story of friendship, courage, and inspiration in the face of loneliness and societal barriers. Robinson is their hero because he stood strong in the face of all the challenges thrown at him because of his skin color. Their friendship grows despite the differences in race and religion just as Robinson perseveres and triumphs despite his race.

Another book published in the 1970s, The Value of Courage, by Spencer Johnson brings out some of the same themes. The key difference is that Johnson provides a biography of Robinson’s life without any fictional characters. Johnson recounts Robinson’s baseball career to show the importance of bravery and hard work. Robinson had to work hard to overcome prejudice and break down barriers placed in his way because of his race. He also displayed tremendous courage when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke the color barrier. He stood alone in facing fans, players, and managers who taunted him and wanted to hurt him. Johnson’s biography is designed to help elementary and middle school children see what can be accomplished when you have a dream.

During the 1980s a few books began to introduce young readers to the larger story of Black baseball. Margaret Davidson’s biography tells young people that White and Black athletes have not always played baseball together. In The Story of Jackie Robinson: The Bravest Man in Baseball, Davidson tells young readers what it took to be able to play baseball before 1947 as a Black man in America. She focuses on the idea that Robinson had to break the rules of society in order to play baseball like any White ballplayer. Author Jim O’Connor broadens the knowledge of young readers by placing Jackie Robinson’s career in the larger context of Black baseball in Jackie Robinson, The Story of All Black Baseball. O’Connor has six chapters in his book and only two are devoted to Robinson. O’Connor covers the problems Robinson faced but also his accomplishments from breaking the color barrier to being named Rookie of the Year and helping the Dodgers win the World Series. Young readers also learn about the existence of all-Black baseball teams and some of the stars who never got the chance to play in the major leagues because of their skin color. O’Connor tells the story with an appropriate level of language for second and third graders, and also includes a number of black and white photos from the time period to help students get a full understanding of who these players were.

Many of these early themes and approaches continued in the 1990s when an increasing number of books were published as more attention was brought to the Negro Leagues after the Ken Burns Baseball television documentary series was released. The years 1992 and 1997 were also the 45th and 50th anniversary of Robinson’s debut with the Dodgers, bringing new attention to Robinson’s legacy and importance. Two new books kicked off the decade with their publication in 1990. Carol Greene and Steve Dobson published Jackie Robinson: Baseball’s First Black Major Leaguer and Barry Denenberg came out with Stealing Home: The Story of Jackie Robinson. Greene and Dobson focus on how Robinson helped to shape American history when he was signed by Branch Rickey. The book provides a chronology of life events from his childhood until his death in 1972. The story does not provide any analysis, just a narrative of accomplishments with lots of photographs. O’Connor’s earlier work gives young readers a more in-depth look at Black baseball. Denenberg provides a biography for slightly older children, focusing on not just Robinson’s courage but also his role as a pioneer.

Edward Ferrell picks up on the theme of inspiration in Young Jackie Robinson: Baseball Hero. What Robinson was able to accomplish on the baseball field helped produce much larger changes in society. His achievements made Robinson not only a hero to look up to but also to aspire to emulate. His life provided a lesson in what others could do in the face of everyday challenges. Peter Golenbock continued the emphasis on change but broadened the focus beyond Robinson in Teammates. Golenbock provides a well-illustrated story of the power of friendship. When Golenbock’s Robinson walks out alone onto the baseball diamond, one can feel his sadness, but then Pee Wee Reese steps up and makes Robinson feel welcome. From a perspective other than Robinson’s, Reese takes a stand when he extends the hand of friendship, teaching children the difference one person can make.

Manfred Weldhorn brings the focus back to Robinson’s abilities on the field in Jackie Robinson (1993). Weldhorn tells middle school readers a more in-depth story about Robinson’s on-field play. Weldhorn provides the stories to help children see what is possible when you are not afraid to go after your dreams. Robinson overcame all the obstacles in his way by using his athletic abilities to prove he belonged. David Adler brings this story down to the youngest readers in A Picture Book of Jackie Robinson. In a short but well-illustrated biography Adler shows children how one person can help change the world. Adler also provides a timeline of key dates and a bit of information about other important figures in the desegregation of baseball at the conclusion of the book.

Following the 50th anniversary celebrations a new spate of books was published. Among them were three children’s books published in 1998-99 that added to the different approaches used to tell Robinson’s story. Herb Dunn wrote Jackie Robinson: Young Sports Trailblazer to tell middle school readers the story of this great ballplayer. Dunn’s book is part of a larger series on the childhood of famous Americans such as Abigail Adams, Thurgood Marshall, and George Washington. The book is filled with colorful illustrations by Meryl Henderson, who is actually the author as well, writing under the pseudonym of Dunn. Robinson is presented as a trailblazer even before he entered the majors. She tells of how he went to integrated schools, served in the military, and played for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues. Derek Dingle wrote First in the Field: Baseball Hero Jackie Robinson for early readers to learn about someone who paved the way for those that followed. Unlike many other Robinson biographies, Dingle focuses primarily on Robinson’s early years and less on his civil rights career after baseball. The final book published in 1999 was Dan Gutman’s Jackie and Me. This is a fictional story about a youngster named Joe Stoshack who can travel in time. Joe wants to interview his hero Jackie Robinson and so he uses his baseball card to take him back to 1947. Here Joe not only meets Robinson but also finds himself initially unable to return to his own time. It is Robinson who helps him find his way.

As the number of children’s books about Jackie Robinson increased a great deal starting in the 2000s, the question to ask is what else was there to tell? What new approaches or stories can these books provide? We find both new stories but also new approaches such as graphic novels and graphic flash format novels. Each author saw in Robinson’s life story lessons to be taught and learned. For example, Dodger Dreams (2010) by Brandon Terrell was written as a graphic flash format novel which is designed to help the story move more quickly for today’s young reader who is used to the beauty and speed of computer graphics. The format combines graphic novel style pages with more typical book pages to give readers the best of both. Terrell uses this format to talk about the importance of strength of character but also addresses bullying and standing up for what is right. Robinson did that every time he stepped on the diamond but also in his daily life. In the story Max Owens receives 1955 World Series tickets from his grandfather so he can see his idol play in person. Though the Dodgers lose the game Max gets to see Robinson steal home plate while also experiencing segregated seating in the stands. After the game Max gets to help another young fan who is being bullied and gets to meet Robinson in person. Robinson reminds Max the importance of doing what is right. To help young readers get more from the story, Terrell also includes a timeline and discussion questions.

A number of fictional stories have been published in the last 20 years that use Robinson’s career as the centerpiece to teach students a variety of important lessons, including Bette Bao Lord’s, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (2019). Middle school readers are introduced to Shirley Temple Wong who arrives in the United States from China. She speaks little English and has trouble fitting in until she discovers Jackie Robinson and baseball in 1947. Wong joins her classmates playing stickball and listens to the Dodgers on the radio. Robinson’s story provides hope to Wong and other immigrant children that America could become a home for them too. Lord uses the idea of baseball as America’s National Pastime to show how Robinson’s ball playing changed America for the better.

In Just Like Jackie (2018), Lindsay Stoddard provides a story about family, acceptance, bullying, and so much more. The story centers around Robinson Hart and her grandfather as a family of two. Her grandfather raised her on stories of baseball and life. Robbie finds herself having to fight to protect her family as her grandfather battles with memory loss. Like the real Robinson, Robbie struggles to gain acceptance for her non-traditional family and fights to overcome the obstacles of keeping them together. Written for middle schoolers, the book provides wonderful lessons about family, acceptance, illness, and bullying – all while using Jackie Robinson’s story as a backdrop to learn from.

Another type of fictional story can be found in A Big Day for Baseball (2019), written by Mary Pope Osborne. This book is part of the Magic Tree House series which uses both fiction and non-fiction stories to teach about history, science, mystery, and more. Osborne introduces young readers to Jack and Annie, two youngsters who want to be great ballplayers but have not learned to play much yet. Their librarian Morgan gives them magic baseball caps that transport the children back to 1947. Jack and Annie are surprised to find themselves as batboys and not players when they arrive. The first barrier the children face is realizing that girls cannot be batboys in 1947 so Annie tells everyone she is Andy. The children have arrived on Opening Day in 1947, a big day indeed for baseball as the Dodgers take on the Boston Braves with Robinson making his debut. Jack and Annie find themselves learning many lessons at Ebbets Field—lessons about hard work, trust, and even the rules, not just of the game, but of life. Since this book is a part of the Magic Tree House Series, educators and parents will find a wide range of additional materials available to help teach the book and the many lessons that can be learned from Robinson’s struggles and triumphs.

Moise Michel uses the technique of time travel in the book Kwame and his Great Adventure (2017). Kwame invents a watch that can take him back in time. Kwame goes back to meet his hero Jackie Robinson. Kwame wanted to play baseball but he did not make the team because others told him he was not good enough. Robinson teaches Kwame about following his dreams no matter what others might tell him.

Using Robinson’s minor-league stint with the Montreal Royals as the backdrop, Nancy Russell tells the story of young Matt Parker and his hero Jackie Robinson in So Long, Jackie Robinson (2007). Matt’s family moves to Montreal and he has to leave behind everything and everyone he knows. He ends up in a city where everyone is a hockey fan and they all speak French. Things begin to change for the better when Matt gets a job selling concessions at the Royals ballpark. He gets to see Jackie Robinson play every day. Montreal turns out to be exactly where he wanted to be in 1946. The unique contribution this book makes is simply the focus on Robinson’s minor-league career which is usually left out of most children’s books.

Another story not usually covered is Robinson’s military career. Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen tackles this part of Robinson’s life in The United States v. Jackie Robinson (2018). Everyone knows Robinson faced prejudice on the diamond but this story shows readers he faced those same issues every day while he served in the military during World War II. Though written for new readers, this book does not shy away from the topic of segregation but tackles it head on. Robinson faces all those who would stand against him with strength and grace.

Tania Grossinger provides another new approach to Robinson’s story by telling it through the eyes of a young girl. In Jackie and Me: A Very Special Friendship (2017), Tania’s family operate the famous Grossinger’s Hotel in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. Tania feels that she does not really fit in with the guests or with her stepfamily. Then she meets one of the guests, Jackie Robinson, who plays ping pong with her. The game helps bring her out of her shell and starts to improve her self-confidence. After that game Tania and Robinson continue to write letters until his death in 1972. Through the eyes of Tania readers learn about Robinson the man and the struggles he faced, and how he learned to cope and stand strong. While Grossinger shines a light on a more personal story, Mary Beth Lorbiecki focuses her attention on the field in Jackie’s Bat (2006). Lorbiecki tells Robinson’s story through encounters with a White batboy who does not treat him the way his White teammates do. Written for early readers both books are a great way to introduce young children to differences that exist in the world and how to not only try to cope with them but to find ways to change how we deal with differences. Acceptance is a huge part of the message of both these books.

In 2010 author Myron Uhlberg captures the excitement of the 1947 season in Dad, Jackie, and Me. A young boy listens to the Brooklyn Dodgers every day on the radio, signing the highlights to his father who is deaf. The boy dreams of one day seeing Robinson play in person but does not believe that will happen. Then one day his father brings home tickets to a Dodgers-New York Giants game. Dad tells his son he wants to see Robinson play. The two storylines can be seen to overlap as Robinson and the father both struggle to fit in and find their place.

Continuing the story line of not fitting in and working to overcome barriers is Cathy Goldberg Fishman’s When Jackie and Hank Met (2012). Fishman bases her story around the first meeting between Hank Greenberg and Jackie Robinson in May 1947. The two ball players collide at first base and rather than give in to the urging of the fans to fight one another, they both go on to become players others could look up to. Each man had to overcome obstacles in order to achieve their dreams. For Robinson it was his skin color and for Greenberg it was his religion. Young readers can watch how these two men did not give in to hatred but instead worked to change people’s minds, to find their own place in the world. The book is beautifully illustrated and also includes a biography of each player with a timeline and additional resources for those wanting to learn more.

What’s Your Story, Jackie Robinson? (2015), by Emma Carlson Berne, introduces young readers to interviewing skills. The story is told as an interview between a cub reporter and Robinson. Each question gives Robinson a chance to tell the young readers about his career and the obstacles he had to overcome. Robinson says, “But I showed them that prejudice hurts sports teams. Teams are stronger when everyone plays together.”2 The message is clear, we need to find ways to play together and ultimately live together. Each question is interspersed with a written response and photographs of Robinson’s family and his playing days with the Kansas City Monarchs and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The interview approach teaches young students about how to ask questions to learn from others.

Among the many other non-fiction children’s books written about Robinson there are a few that are part of larger book series that have a specific approach or message. One example is Character Counts! Young Jackie Robinson (2014) by Edward Farrell. Farrell has written about Robinson’s story of struggle and triumph as part of a program that focuses on the Six Pillars of Character. Farrell chose to focus on the pillar of responsibility in telling Robinson’s story. We each have a responsibility to work to make the world a better place. Another book that fits this pattern of being part of a series is Brad Meltzer’s I am Jackie Robinson (2015). This book is the fifth in a series focusing on how ordinary people can change the world. Robinson’s bravery is highlighted to show kids how to dare to dream big and then go for those dreams no matter what.

Jackie Robinson’s life is a story of hard work, perseverance, and courage. He challenged prejudice and segregation every day and pushed boundaries to make America a place where all could find a home. Writers and illustrators have found his achievements on and off the field to be a great way to introduce young readers to difficult topics, and also as a way to inspire hope and a sense of responsibility in each of us. Whether their books are biographies or fictional stories, each author mentioned, and many others in the bibliography that follows, found a hero in Robinson and have shared his life as lessons for all of us to learn, no matter our age.

LESLIE HEAPHY is an associate professor of history at Kent State University at Stark. Leslie has written numerous articles, book chapters and books on the Negro Leagues and women’s baseball topics as well as the New York Mets. Leslie currently serves as the vice president for SABR and is on the board of directors for the International Women’s Baseball Center.

 

List of Books

Abraham, Philip. Jackie Robinson (Danbury, Connecticut: Children’s Press, 2003) (grades k-3)

Adler, David A. A Picture Book of Jackie Robinson (New York City: Holiday House, 1994) (grades pre-k-k)

Amoroso, Cynthia. Jackie Robinson (Mankato, Minnesota: The Child’s World Inc., 2014) (grades k-2)

Bardham-Quallen, Sudipta. The United States v. Jackie Robinson (New York City: Balzer and Bray, 2018) (grades k-3)

Berne, Emma Carlson. What’s Your Story, Jackie Robinson? (Mankato, Minnesota: Lerner Publications, 2015 (grades k-3)

Berrios III, Frank John. My Little Golden Book about Jackie Robinson. (Racine, Wisconsin: Golden Books, 2018) (grades pre-k-1)

Burleigh, Robert. Stealing Home: Jackie Robinson against all Odds (New York City: Simon and Schuster, 2007) (grades k-2).

Christopher, Matt. Jackie Robinson: Legends in Sports (New York City: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2006) (grades 3-5)

Cohen, Barbara. Thank You, Jackie Robinson (New York City: HarperCollins, 1997) (gr. 3-7)

Davidson, Margaret. The Story of Jackie Robinson, the Bravest Man in the World (New York City: Yearling Books, 1971) (grades 3-7)

De Marco, Tony. Jackie Robinson, Journey to Freedom (Mankato, Minnesota: The Child’s World, Inc., 2014) (grades 3-5)

Denenberg, Barry. Stealing Home: The Story of Jackie Robinson (New York City: Scholastic Paperbacks, 1990) (grades 4-7)

Dingle, Derek. First in the Field: Baseball Hero Jackie Robinson (New York City: Scholastic Inc., 1999) (grades k-3)

Dunn, Herb. Young Sports Trailblazer (New York City: Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing, 1999) (grades 3-6)

Farrell, Edward. Character Counts! Young Jackie Robinson, Baseball Hero (New York City: Scholastic Publishing, 1992-2014) (grades pre-k-k)

Fishman, Cathy Goldberg. When Jackie and Hank Met (Seattle, Washington: Two Lions, 2012) (grades k-2)

Golenbeck, Peter. Teammates (Boston, Massachusetts: HMH Books for Young Readers, 1992)(grades k-2)

Grabowski, John. Jackie Robinson (Baseball Legends) (New York City: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990) (grades 4-6)

Gregory, Josh. Jackie Robinson (New York City: Scholastic Library Publishing, 2015) (grades 3-6)

Greene, Carol and Steve Dobson. Jackie Robinson: Baseball’s First Black Major Leaguer (New York City: Scholastic Library Publishing, 1990) (grades k-3)

Grossinger, Tania. Jackie and Me: A Very Special Friendship (New York City: Sky Pony Press, 2017) (grades pre-k-k)

Gutman, Dan. Jackie and Me (New York: Harper Collins, 1999) (grades pre-k- 5)

Haldy, Emma. Jackie Robinson (My Itty-bitty Bio) (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Cherry Lake Publishing, 2016) (grades k-1)

Hansen, Grace. Jackie Robinson: Baseball Legend (New York City: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2017) (grades k-2)

Herman, Gail. Who was Jackie Robinson? (New York City: Penguin Workshop Publisher, 2010) (grades 3-7)

Johnson, Spencer. Value of Courage (Oxfordshire, England: Oak Tree Publishers, Inc., 1977) (grades k-6)

Kaiser, Lisbeth. Who was Jackie Robinson? (New York City: Penguin Workshop Publisher, 2021) (grades pre-k-k)

Krensky, Stephen. Play Ball, Jackie ! (Lansing, Michigan: Millbrook Printing, 2011) (grades 2-3)

Lord, Betty Bao. In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (New York City: Harper Collins, 2010), (grades 3-5)

Meltzer, Brad. I Am Jackie Robinson (New York City: Dial Books, 2015) (grades k-2)

Michel, Moise. Kwame and his Great Adventures: Kwame meets Jackie Robinson (Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania: Page Publishing Inc., 2017) (grades 1-3)

O’Connor, Jim. Jackie Robinson and the Story of All-Black Baseball (New York City: Random House Books for Young Readers, 1989) (grades 2-4).

Osborne, Mary Pope. A Big Day for Baseball (New York City: Random House Books, 2019) (grades 2-4)

Patrick, Denise Lewis. Jackie Robinson: Strong Inside and Out (New York City: Harper Collins, 2005) (grades 2-4)

Prince, April Jones. Jackie Robinson: He Led the Way (New York City: Penguin Young Readers, 2007) (grades 1-3)

Russell, Nancy. So Long, Jackie Robinson (Santa Fe, New Mexico: Leaf Storm Press, 2007) (grades 4-6)

Scaletta, Kurtis. Trailblazers: Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers in Baseball (New York City: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2019) (grades 3-7)

Schaeffer, Lola. Jackie Robinson (Mankato, Minnestota: Capstone, 2002) (grades pre-k-2)

Sexton, Colleen. Jackie Robinson: A Life of Determination (Hopkins, Minnesota: Bellwether Media, 2007) (grades 3-5)

Simmons, Matt. Jackie Robinson Breaking the Color Line in Baseball (New York City: Crabtree Publishing Company, 2014) (grades 4-6)

Smolka, Bo. Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier (Fort Wayne, Indiana: Sportzone Publishing, 2015) (grades 3-5)

Stoddard, Lindsay. Just Like Jackie (New York City: Harper Collins, 2018) (grades 3-6)

Terrell, Brandon. Dodger Dreams: The Courage of Jackie Robinson (Bloomington, Minnesota: Stone Arch Books, 2009) (grades 3-6)

Thorpe, Andrea. The Story of Jackie Robinson (Emeryville, California: Rockridge Press, 2021) (grades 1-5)

Uhlburg, Myron. Dad, Jackie, and Me (Atlanta, Georgia: Peachtree Publishing, 2010) (grades 1-2)

Walker, Sally M. Jackie Robinson (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Lerner Publishing Group, 2002) (grades 2-5)

Weldhorn, Manfred. Jackie Robinson (New York: Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing,1993) (grades 4-7)

 

Notes

1 Brandon Terrell, Dodger Dreams (Bloomington, Minnesota: Stone Arch Books, 2010), 43.

2 Emma Carlson Berne, What’s Your Story, Jackie Robinson? (Mankato, Minnesota: Lerner Publications, 2015), 4.

 

Soul of the Game premiered on April 20, 1996, on the Home Box Office (HBO) cable network. The docudrama interpreted the challenges and triumphs surrounding the integration of major-league baseball through the lives of three key figures from the Negro baseball leagues; LeRoy “Satchel” Paige (portrayed by Delroy Lindo), Josh Gibson (Mykelti Williamson), and Jackie Robinson (Blair Underwood).1

Soul of the Game sits within a series of dramatic film attempts to capture the experience of African-American baseball history. Since the premiere of The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), new authors and creators arrive to offer a refreshed perspective on the story. The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings (1976) for theatrical release; Don’t Look Back: The Story of LeRoy Satchel Paige (1981), Soul of the Game (1996), and Finding Buck McHenry (2000) all made for television release. These efforts were interspersed with new books and documentaries, most notably the popular Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns (1994), and many special events that highlighted a national resurgence in Negro Leagues history.

In reconsidering Soul of the Game 25+ years after its debut, it can be argued that the film ushers in a more complete interpretation of Robinson. Baseball historians, former players, and many fans feel they know this story because of Robinson’s status as a hero for baseball and civil rights. However, the persona presented in this film was revelatory to the broader public at the time. Despite some problematic licensing and storytelling, the film falls appropriately in line with other films detailing the arc of Robinson’s life, between The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (1990) and 42 (2013), about his spring training and first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Delivering any Jackie Robinson story well and accurately weighs heavily on producers and actors, as the films become a hoped-for validation of his pioneering career and teaching tool for new generations of young fans. Moreover, for observers of Negro Leagues history, opportunities to highlight an often glossed over aspect of Robinson’s baseball experience, his one season with the Kansas City Monarchs, was enthusiastically welcomed. Robinson’s experience as a Negro Leagues infielder is dealt with in The Jackie Robinson Story, but Soul of the Game placed that experience at the center of the treatment, thus bringing new perspective to the Robinson legend.

Soul of the Game has been thoroughly critiqued and reviewed, praised for very strong portrayals by the actors, and lamented for historical departures and licenses taken by the filmmakers for the sake of drama and entertainment. The film strived to have authenticity, shooting in historic ballparks in Alabama and Indiana, as well as sets in St. Louis, Missouri. However, some highlighted stories are arranged out of sequence with the real history, such as the opening scene of baseball in the Dominican Republic (which would have been years earlier in 1937). Some events were fabricated, such as the situation of Paige and Robinson springing Gibson from a mental hospital to play in a high-stakes Negro Leagues vs. major leagues All-Star game in front of scouts at Griffith Stadium.2 Small details like incorrect uniform numbers and several other issues annoy some observers. Among the strongest charges was the fact that, historically, Gibson, Paige, and Robinson, although contemporaries and opponents, most likely did not interact as depicted in the film. Depending on perspective, these issues are at worst negligence or at best minor things to nitpick for an otherwise entertaining product.3

Creating a documentary treatment was not the filmmaker’s goal. However, the license taken, and choices made with the facts, limit the film to a character study of each historic figure. So, did the filmmakers get that right? Are we presented an accurate and compelling interpretation of the great baseball players dealing with monumental change? Examining the many aspects of those questions goes beyond the scope of this essay, but the portrayal of Jackie Robinson does earn our attention.

Exploring the development of the film and choices made by the creators reveals how Robinson’s pioneering life establishes future public perceptions of him. Underwood’s performance is more informed by material available on Robinson’s past and passions leading up to 1945. Among the many things that emerge on film is a sharper focus on Robinson as an intellectual, fiery competitor, and social crusader, and not just a passive participant in the grand schemes of Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey. History reveals Robinson endured a long grueling season in Black baseball with great success and much media attention for his athletic abilities. We also learn that he stood in stark contrast to his peers, clashing in ideals and motivations for his life. In this film, he symbolizes the future, representing the eminent and abrupt change brought by integration in postwar America, as well as a model for the future of Black athletes.

A Season of Change

Baseball fans know the historic year 1947 as the occasion of Robinson’s first major-league season, but they know fewer details of Robinson’s ascendance from the Negro Leagues. The setting for Soul of the Game is the pivotal year 1945. The real history shows a 26-year-old Robinson looking to pursue opportunities to earn money for his family. He experienced a tumultuous final year in the U.S. Army, and now aspired to marry his fiancée Rachel Isum. Robinson is a known sports celebrity, having made headlines in collegiate football, basketball, and track. However, he arrives at the February spring training in Texas for the Kansas City Monarchs rusty on baseball skills and out of conditioning.

The Monarchs, like many teams in baseball, were depleted of talent due to World War II, but whipped themselves into shape for a May 6 regular season opening. There was even an early spring tryout invitation of Black players for major league baseball’s Boston Red Sox, that included Robinson. It was arranged through pressure on the team from the Black press, but it yielded no job offers for the participants.

The Monarchs were on the road constantly, and Robinson earned high praise and media attention for his efforts. Satchel Paige formally joined their travels in late May and made eight known league appearances with the Monarchs between pitching-for-hire/gateattraction opportunities around the country. Team tours included southern and east coast swings, facing teams like the Homestead Grays and slugger Josh Gibson. Robinson generally batted third in the lineup and was rewarded with selection to the East/West All-Star Classic in Chicago. The most complete data shows Robinson appearing in 34 out of 75 league games, with a .375 batting average, four HRs, and 27 RBIs. Paige, at age 38, had three wins against three losses, one complete game, 3.55 ERA, 41 strikeouts, and surrendered 10 walks over 38 innings.4

The grinding season was winding down with no postseason for the Monarchs. They finished second in the Negro American League to the Cleveland Buckeyes, who swept Gibson’s Grays in the Negro World Series. Gibson maintained his solid seasonal play, hitting for a .372 average over 43 recorded regular-season league games, but could muster only two hits and two walks in the championship series.5

Robinson had come to a troublesome crossroads of frustration with segregated baseball and a need to make a living. He was summoned to speak with the Brooklyn GM Rickey and offered a minor-league opportunity with the team. The Dodgers had embarked on a clandestine effort to recruit Black players under the ruse of developing a separate Black major league. Robinson’s acceptance marked the break that helped his immediate situation and set him on an unimaginable historic path.

Baseball in Black and White

In fall 1995, HBO announced Lindo, Williamson, and Underwood would begin October filming of Baseball In Black and White.6 At about the same time, there were other potential treatments on Black baseball history in the Hollywood pipeline, including separate announced projects in early 1995 by directors John Singleton and Spike Lee. With the hot progressive directors getting all the media attention, there must have been some pressure on HBO to bring their project forward. Ultimately, the logjam of films was avoided as HBO was first to get a script into production. The other projects have yet to be produced.7

All these film endeavors rode a wave of culturally broad, increased interest in Black baseball history. Historian Dan Nathan described it as a “steady historical revival” since the 1970s, featuring new research, new exhibitions, player appearances, baseball apparel, and commercial opportunities. “Collectively, these and other cultural texts suggest that more white people may be aware of, knowledgeable about, and interested in the Negro leagues today than when the leagues actually existed.”8

Soul of the Game was directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan based on a script by David Himmelstein. After reviewing several potential treatments, Sullivan was drawn to Himmelstein’s creative choices. “It found the right time frame for the story because [1945] was the year Jackie was a rookie [for the Kansas City Monarchs]. It brought those three men into the same arena at the most crucial moment and really got us into the race to be first.”9

“It’s an extraordinary story of extraordinary characters at an extraordinary time. The country was going through a huge flux,” Himmelstein told the Washington Post. In taking license with the factual accuracies of the story, he added that the goal “was to be true to the spirit of the major players. Every time you try to compress a man’s life, let alone three lives, into two hours, there’s going to be distortion.”10 Himmelstein reflected on his choices 25 years later:

Sometimes you have to bend the facts in service of the human drama. When I was writing Soul of the Game I portrayed Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson as being a lot friendlier than they actually were to each other when they were playing in the Negro Leagues right after World War II. People who were experts immediately pointed that out. But your primary duty is to the story, using it as a springboard to illuminate greater truths. And that same dynamic and push-pull is there.11

At some point, the name of the film was changed from Baseball In Black & White, to Soul of the Game. It is unclear when or why it changed, but the new title became permanent by early 1996.

Blair and Uncle Eli

Excited to play a leading role in the film was actor Blair Underwood. By 1995, the 30-year-old Underwood had a decade of noteworthy television acting credits. The former athlete seemed well suited for the role, both in interest and pedigree. “Football was primarily my game,” he told the Washington Post. “My father was a four-letter man, not unlike Jackie Robinson. But my great uncle, Eli Underwood, played with the Detroit Stars and barnstormed with the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays. I’ve always heard about the Negro Leagues from him.”12

Underwood family roots are traced to the 1850s in Perry County, Alabama. Blair’s grandfather was Ernest Underwood (born around 1902). Ernest’s brother Eli (born around 1906) and their three other siblings were raised by father Robert and mother Isabelle, who were farm laborers. Within a decade of Eli’s birth, the family moved north, and Robert worked in the steel mills of Steubenville, Ohio. Eli would later work in the mill, but soon picked up baseball opportunities for Black barnstorming and league teams.

In the 1930s, Eli Underwood pitched and played outfield with the Buffalo Giants based in Steubenville and the Cuban Giants of Grand Rapids, Michigan, which morphed into the Cincinnati Cuban Giants in 1935. Later, he joined the reformed Detroit Stars, part of a new Negro American League, in 1937. One Underwood family legend recounts that Eli, known for having large feet, had Satchel Paige stealing his shoes in a prank. “But Satch gave them back the next day. My great uncle has big feet, but his shoes weren’t big enough for Satch,” Blair recalled. After baseball, Eli served in the United States Navy.13

Eli’s older brother Ernest also worked in the Ohio steel mill but later became a police officer. With wife Beatrice they had four sons, including Frank, who became an Army Colonel. Military life took Frank Underwood and family to many national and international locations. Their son Blair was born in 1964 at Tacoma, Washington.

Psychological Makeup

Blair Underwood enthusiastically embraced the challenge of playing Robinson but knew he had work ahead of him to get it right. “I was excited when this came along. There haven’t been many stories like it. There was The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, but that was more fictitious,” he noted.14 From his family, Underwood had deep perspective on the Black working class, Black migration, baseball history, and military life; all important components to understanding Jackie Robinson. He still wanted to learn more to play the role effectively:

I knew about Robinson’s natural talents and the taunts and insults he faced from racist fans, but I didn’t know anything about his psychological makeup. . . I didn’t know that this man had a hell of a temper and had to learn how to control it. In my mind, he was someone who pacifically turned the other cheek. Nothing could be further from the truth.15

Underwood gleaned even more insights from a noteworthy eyewitness to history, veteran actress Ruby Dee. Dee was Black cinematic royalty. With husband Ossie Davis, the actress had blazed a historic trail of theater, television, and film appearances. She enjoyed one of the most synergistic career arcs in history. Dee starred as young “Rachel Robinson,” Jackie Robinson’s wife, in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story. Then 40 years later, played Robinson’s mother Mallie opposite Andre Braugher as “Lt. Jackie Robinson” in the 1990 television film The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson. In addition, Dee and Davis were great friends with the Robinsons for many years, supporting numerous civil rights initiatives together. Underwood recalled:

She found it hard to believe the image that was presented was the man she worked with. He was decent and hardworking, but also a man with a temper that he had to learn to control. I did not know that. I remember hearing he had to deal with a lot of mess from people, but the fact is he did not always want to turn the other cheek. 16

Jackie Robinson as an angry Black man is a revelatory nuance that Underwood brings to audiences. Himmelstein’s script highlighted this perspective, adding to the drama of the story in many scenes. Many other reflections on Robinson were available to the film creators to inform this perspective.

 

“And he would fight!”

Among available material in the mid-1990s exploring Robinson’s life was his autobiography I Never Had It Made. In collaboration with Alfred Duckett, Robinson completed the work shortly before he passed away in the early 1970s. In it, Robinson explains his disdain for life in the Negro Leagues and the many pressures weighing on him before his meeting with Branch Rickey. As he explains, the prospect of making $400 a month when he was recruited to the Monarchs was a “financial bonanza” after being discharged from the Army. However, it turned out to be “a pretty miserable way to make a buck.”17

When I look back on what I had to go through in black baseball, I can only marvel at the many black players who stuck it out for years in the Jim Crow leagues because they had nowhere else to go. . . These teams were poorly financed, and their management and promotions left much to be desired. Travel schedules were unbelievably hectic. . . This fatiguing travel wouldn’t have been so bad if we could have had decent meals.18

It was an extremely stressful time for Robinson. He felt “unhappy and trapped” as he questioned his future.19

The book Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy by historian Jules Tygiel appeared in 1983. Tygiel’s seminal work captured important aspects of the Robinson story and beyond. Attention was paid to Robinson’s disdain for prejudice he faced in his youth, the military, and during his time in the Negro Leagues. Tygiel interviewed many of Robinson’s contemporaries, who years later also confirmed Robinson’s temper, competitiveness, and social isolation:

The Robinson personality had been created by these experiences. His fierce competitive passions combined with the scars imbedded by America’s racism to produce a proud yet tempestuous individual. . . His driving desire for excellence and his keen sense of injustice created an explosive urge.20

According to Tygiel, this reputation preceded Robinson, but was noted as an unfair critique initially by Branch Rickey because Robinson was known to stand up to White authority. However, Tygiel surmised that Robinson “was the most aggressive of men, White or Black,” and that his “coiled tension, increased by [his] constant and justifiable suspicion of racism, led to eruptions of rage and defiance.”21

Moreover, Robinson was a devout Methodist, a non-drinker, and non-smoker. Biographer Arnold Rampersad described it as a “priggish” attitude towards morals and mores.22 Much of his attitude clashed ideologically with teammates and stirred-up commotions. Tygiel and Rampersad (writing in 1997) both record accounts from former Negro Leagues players as examples.

Blair Underwood picked up on his unique nature in his studies of Robinson:

He was kind of an outsider in the Negro Leagues. . . When Branch Rickey approached him about moving to the Dodgers, he had to keep it a secret awhile. But it wasn’t that difficult to keep a secret among the players because he was never totally in that inner circle. So that just speaks to his alienation.23

The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson appeared on TNT Television in October 1990. As noted earlier, Ruby Dee and Andre Braugher star in a story that was little known to many, including Braugher. For authenticity, Braugher spoke to his own family members about military life, leaned on reading I Never Had It Made, and got first-person advice from Rachel Robinson, who advised the project and visited the set during filming.

A final resource available for Soul filmmakers to review was Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns which debuted on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in fall 1994. “Inning 6, The National Pastime” dealt almost exclusively with Robinson’s journey from the Negro Leagues to the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the film, viewers meet Sammy Haynes, a catcher, teammate, and roommate of Robinson with the Monarchs in 1945. Haynes was an eight-year veteran of the Negro Leagues and in his third and final season with the Monarchs when Robinson joined the team. Haynes recalled stories of a rookie who humbly and willfully sat in the stairwell of the crowded team bus on a road trip. He also acknowledged concern for Robinson’s ability to handle the abuse to come after deciding to join the Dodgers:

The one thing we (players) weren’t sure of was if Jackie could hold his temper. . . He knew how to fight, and he would fight! If Jack could hold down that temper, he could do it. He knew he had the whole black race, so to speak, on his shoulders. So, he just said ‘I can take it, I can handle it. I will take it for the rest of the country and the guys,’ and that’s why he took all that mess.24

“I’m playing my position, Mr. Paige!”

In Soul of the Game, Robinson’s isolation, hostility, and tenacity are presented right away in the introduction of the character. In one of the film’s signature moments, Underwood’s first words of dialogue have Robinson in defiance of Satchel Paige. During a game versus the Homestead Grays, Paige walks in off the street, late for the game start, to relieve Hilton Smith with runners on base. He immediately throws a double play ball to ease the threat. Then, Paige famously “calls in the outfielders” to leave the field when Josh Gibson comes to bat. Historically, this gag bit had become a signature fan favorite antic employed by Paige. The crowd erupts in approval, but shortstop Robinson is not amused. As Gibson stands in the batter’s box, Paige, annoyed, turns to Robinson, who has not left the field:

Paige: What are you doing?

Robinson: I’m playing my position, Mr. Paige!

Paige: (chuckles) Boy, you don’t even know yo’ position. Let me help ya out. Yo’ position on this team, is right over there (pointing to the Monarchs bench).

Robinson: (angrily) You’re not pitching, you’re putting on a bullshit show. . .

Paige: Wait a sec, hold up there, junior! This my game. This is my game and my show! And you best learn how to act in my show!

Team manager Frank Duncan (Brent Jennings) runs out to retrieve Robinson. With the crowd now jeering him for defying Paige, he storms off the field and confronts Monarchs team owner J.L. Wilkinson (R. Lee Ermey) in the dugout:

Robinson: I signed onto this organization to play baseball. This is not baseball! You got clowns out there doing some kind of song and dance; how do you expect me to do my job. . .

Wilkinson: (interrupts) Hey, don’t you tell me what’s baseball! That clown out there is paying your wages. (dismissively) Do you think all these people came here to today to watch Jackie Robinson?

Gibson: (mumbles to the catcher) Lawd, they gettin’ younger and stupider.

It is interesting to note that, in an early draft of the script Baseball in Black and White, this scene features the initial exchange of Paige and Robinson much friendlier, before it descends into the chaos to follow. By condensing the scene, an interesting editorial choice is made to have Underwood’s Robinson make his first impression towards Paige more defiant rather than reverential. The earlier version, which was not used, reveals Paige, still ever the showman, initiating veteran advice for Robinson to ease the rookie’s tension:

Paige: You new?

(Robinson nods.)

Paige: Know who I am?

(Robinson nods.)

Paige: ‘Course you do. A blind man can see you’re one smart fella. How much Wilkie payin’ you?

Robinson: Three hundred

Paige: That a week or a month?

Robinson: Month.

Paige: Guess you ain’t so smart. . .But don’t you feel bad; Wilkie’s so tight he wouldn’t pay 5 cents to see Jesus Christ ridin’ a bicycle!

(Jackie smiles, won over by Satch’s easy charm.)

Paige: Gonna be throwin’ low and slow. Know what that means?

Robinson: A lot of grounders.

Paige: That’s right darlin’. Now can you go pick ‘em?

(Jackie nods)

Paige: Good. . .’cause Satch don’t like standing out in the fresh air any more ‘n he have to.25

SATCH Rubs the ball and looks over at Jackie as the fans JEER.

Paige: Don’t worry ‘bout that. Just take your phone off the hook an’ do it!26

Little has been chronicled about the relationship of Paige and Robinson in real time. Publicly, they showed great admiration for one another, especially when the announcement came near the end of 1945 that Robinson was chosen by the Dodgers for a contract. However, Paige biographer Larry Tye suggested more of a schism existed privately. Paige certainly expressed great disappointment to family and close friends that he was passed over for Robinson. He seemed to hold no personal grudges, but was confused that, with all he had done in baseball, a rookie on his primary team would be the choice. Conversely, Tye describes fellow baseball barrier-breaking player Larry Doby and Robinson as “dourer” men than Paige. He quotes Doby saying Robinson “detested” Paige:

Satch was competition for Jack. Satch was funny, he was an outstanding athlete, and he was black. He had three things going. Jack and I wouldn’t tell jokes. We weren’t humorists. We tried to show that we were intelligent, and that’s not what most white people expected from blacks. Satch gave whites what they wanted from blacks—joy.27

The character set to personify and respond to internal team tensions brought by Robinson is Jesse Williams (Joseph Latimore). In the film, Williams is initially supplanted at shortstop upon Robinson’s arrival, but Paige later asks manager Duncan to move him to second base because he showed a lack of arm strength. That news came after fisticuffs between Robinson and Williams. Latimore plays Williams as a bitter thorn on Robinson’s psyche, picking at his seemingly fragile temper like a scab. He is resentful of Robinson’s perceived pretensions, and it boils over when he reads a newspaper story praising Robinson. This scene in the Monarchs locker room has Williams taunting Robinson loudly in front of the team:

Williams: I think Wilkie finally went out and got himself a good ol’ white boy! Oh yeah, he looks black enough y’all! Show don’t sound like it. Maybe like some fancy house n___. . .

The insult was a dare and got the expected effect of lighting Robinson’s fuse in retaliation. Williams taunting seems to represent some comeuppance for Robinson’s perceived snobbishness while adding a bit of rookie hazing.

The real-life Jesse Williams, by most accounts, may not have been such an instigator. Jesse “Bill” Williams from Texas was a respected premier infielder in the Negro Leagues. He joined the Monarchs in 1939, was a two-time Negro Leagues All-Star, and a key member of the 1942 championship team. Although he had a stellar 1944 season at shortstop, he was switched to second base to help make room for Robinson on the team. The move was seen as positive, but 1945 was Williams’ last full year in the Negro Leagues. Robinson and other Black players advanced to the major leagues while Williams toiled in Mexico and on barnstorming teams for another decade. If he shared any resentment of Robinson, it does not appear reflected in any interviews or published material.28

A New Generation

Pivotal points of the film turn on discussions of Robinson’s time in the military. The news article that stirred envy in the Williams character was an interview conducted the previous day by the local news reporter and photographer (Bruce Beatty) after Robinson’s defiant response to Paige on the field. After the embarrassing incident, Robinson came to bat, legged out a double with blazing speed, then scored on a botched throw to third after he stole the base. In the locker room after the game, the reporter is initially regaled by Paige with folksy witticisms before turning questions to Robinson:

Reporter: Hey um, Robinson? Satch says your problem is you got a bad temper.

(Robinson glares at the reporter while getting dressed, then tries to ignore him.)

Reporter: Hey, are you the Jackie Robinson that played half-back at UCLA?

(Robinson nobs, sheepishly, yes.)

Reporter: Damn, I knew it, just by the way you were running those bases! I heard you just got out of the army.

Robinson: That’s right.

Reporter: So, what did you do?

Robinson: (standing) Platoon leader, 761st Tank Battalion, Fort Hood.

Reporter: You a Sergeant?

Robinson: Lieutenant.

Reporter: An officer? Man, in that kind of position, what you were doing must seem a lot different from this?

Robinson: Well, I don’t know, but there are some areas where the skills are similar.

Reporter: Like what?

Robinson: (with quiet confidence, but loud enough for everyone to hear) Like the discipline of managing your time. Setting goals. Taking personal responsibility for seeing them through. Ya’ know, things like that.

Reporter: (impressed) I want to take your picture!

It’s an important scene, meant to showcase Robinson’s confidence and intelligence. Moreover, it is meant to signal future change. The reporter realizes and appreciates he is witnessing someone of impact, unlike any athlete he has known. This scene survives the many script edits the film would undertake, and Himmelstein’s notes in the early draft of Baseball In Black and White highlight the significance he hoped for with the exchange:

CLOSEUP- SATCH: For the first time, he begins to realize that if the ‘New Age’ ever does come, he may be left behind. It is painfully obvious that Jackie is from a new generation, and he, while still vibrant and successful, is inarguably from the old. ‘POP’ – his face is illuminated in the reflected light of the big flash as the reporter snaps Jackie’s picture.29

In the film, Robinson’s military record and courage do impress his teammates and is used to grant him a measure of bona fides or credibility. J.L. Wilkinson relates the story of Robinson’s military court-martial to imply why Williams and others should back off on hazing Robinson. Before heading out of town on a road trip:

Monarch player: Hey, did Robinson get traded?

Wilkinson: He and Satch got loaned to Harrisburg. They’ll catch up to us in New York.

Williams: Good! Don’t want him on our bus no-ways.

(Wilkinson chuckles)

Williams: What’s so funny?

Wilkinson: Well, Robinson and buses.

Williams: Yeah, what about it?

Wilkinson: Well, when he was in the service, some driver told him to get to the back of the bus. He set the guy straight and got himself court-martialed.

He beat it, too.

IN TEXAS.

Let’s go guys. (Pointing towards the bus).

Monarch players who were listening nod, impressed by the story.

Williams: (a bit awed by the story reacts quietly) Good for him.

Determined Yet Confused

Most film reviews and critiques of Soul of the Game exalt Delroy Lindo’s performance as Satchel Paige the driving force of the production, and rightfully so. All the actors received high marks, but comments on Underwood’s Robinson were more muted. However, in his review of the film, Phil Gallo of Variety Magazine adequately summarizes the film and Robinson’s portrayal:

The riveting depth of the telefilm’s p.o.v. is embellished by the stellar acting, which dissipates any concern for the blurring of fact and fiction. . .. Underwood plays Robinson as determined yet confused, cautious in his acceptance of the role Rickey assigns him. Robinson’s collected nature is emphasized over his athleticism, contrasting with the veterans’ determination to cross baseball’s color line.30

Director Kevin Rodney Sullivan hoped that Soul of the Game could show viewers that the Negro Leagues, “was a great thing all to itself,” and that it “celebrates what was there and not just what they (players and fans) didn’t have.”31 That sentiment comes through early in the film, but the core of the story was to capture the moment when feelings change towards aspirations of something new – the major leagues. Jackie Robinson is the agent of change.

Despite the objections of some observers and criticism of its overall approach in telling the history, Soul of the Game did succeed in bringing audiences closer to the historical Jackie Robinson in full. His complexity, passion and competitive fire become clearer through the years after 1996 and bring us nearer to knowing who this consequential man truly was.

RAYMOND DOSWELL, Ed.D. is Vice-President of Curatorial Services for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. He manages exhibitions, archives, and educational programs. He holds a B.A. (1991) from Monmouth College (IL) with a degree in History and training in education. He taught high school briefly in the St. Louis area before attending graduate school at the University of California-Riverside. He earned an M.A. (1995) in History with emphasis on Historic Resources management. Doswell joined the staff of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, MO in 1995 as its first curator. The museum has grown into an important national attraction, welcoming close to 60,000 visitors annually. He earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership (2008) from Kansas State University through work in partnership with the museum to develop educational web sites and programs.

 

Notes

1 In December 2020, Major League Baseball announced that seven of the Negro Leagues would be defined as major leagues. This was not the reality experienced by Jackie Robinson and others. Acknowledging that reality, this article will reflect the distinction prior to the recent (and welcome) recognition.

2 Retrosheet.org notes several Negro Leagues vs major-league exhibition games in October of 1945, including a five-game series played on consecutive Sundays featuring players led by Biz Mackey for the Negro Leaguers and Charlie Dressen for the “major leaguers.” Although the games featured future Black major-league players, such as Monte Irvin and Don Newcombe, neither Paige, Gibson, nor Robinson participated. https://www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/1945IR.html. See also William Brashler, Josh Gibson: A Life in the Negro Leagues (Chicago, Ivan R. Dee Publishing, 1978), 133. Brashler references that Gibson would be hospitalized and released on weekends to play, accompanied by hospital attendants, which is like the scenario depicted in the film.

3 A complete and thorough autopsy of Soul of the Game can be found at the “Underdog Podcast,” https://underdogpodcasts.com/soul-of-thegame; see also contemporary reviews and analysis, David Bianculli, “Soul of the Game Hits a Triple,” New York Daily News, April 19, 1996; Hal Boedeker, “The Acting is a Hit, but HBO’s ‘Soul of the Game’ Delivers More Myths than Facts About Three Legends of the Negro Leagues,” Orlando Sentinel, April 20, 1996; Paul Petrovic, “‘Give ‘Em the Razzle Dazzle’: The Negro Leagues in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings and Soul of the Game,” Black Ball Journal, Volume 3, no. 1, Spring 2010, 61-75; Lisa Doris Alexander, “‘But They Don’t Want to Play with The White Players, Right?’: Depictions of Segregation and Negro League Baseball in Contemporary Popular Film,” Black Ball Journal, Volume 5, no. 2, Fall 2012, 19-34.

4 Jesse Howe, “1945: Jackie Robinson’s Year with the Kanas City Monarchs,” Flatland Newsletter web site, https://www.flatlandkc.org/people-places/1945-jackie-robinsons-year-kc-monarchs/; Aaron Stilley, “Jackie with the Monarchs: Reliving the 1945 Kansas City Monarchs Season,” blog http://jwtm1945.blogspot.com/; www.Seamheads.com Negro Leagues Database.

5 www.Seamheads.com Negro Leagues Database.

6 “HBO’s Coming Attractions,” Los Angeles Times, September 25, 1995.

7 Although the film was never produced, in March 2020, Spike Lee released a completed version of his Jackie Robinson script, free for the public to review on his social media platforms. A live virtual table reading was conducted by the Los Angeles based arts group The Talent Connect on April 15, 2020.

8 Daniel A. Nathan, “Bearing Witness to Black Baseball: Buck O’Neil, the Negro Leagues, and the Politics of the Past,” Journal of American Studies, volume 35, no. 3, 2001, 453-469.

9 Susan King, “The Hard Run to First,” Los Angeles Times Magazine, April 14, 1996: 5.

10 Michael E. Hill, “HBO’S Film Touches Heart of the Matter,” Washington Post, April 14, 1996.

11 Drew Himmelstein, “A Talk with My Dad, screenwriter of ‘My Name Is Sara,’ his first Jewish film,” Jewish News of Northern California, February 4, 2021.

12 Hill, Washington Post

13 Hill, Washington Post; family research from www.Ancestry.com U.S. Census records; Eli Underwood baseball research courtesy of historian Gary Ashwill and www.Seamheads.com Negro Leagues Database.

14 Hill, Washington Post.

15 Eirik Knutzen, “Soul of the Game Recalls Pivotal Point in Baseball History,” Copley News Service and the News-Pilot, San Pedro, California, April 16, 1996.

16 King, Los Angeles Times Magazine.

17 Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made: The Autobiography of Jackie Robinson (New Jersey, The Ecco Press, 1995), 23.

18 Robinson, 22-23.

19 Robinson, 23

20 Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy, Expanded Edition (New York, Oxford University Press, 1997), 62.

21 Tygiel, 63.

22 Arnold Rampersad, Jackie Robinson: A Biography (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), 118.

23 King, Los Angeles Times.

24 Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns, “Inning 6: The National Pastime, 1940-1950,” Florentine Films, 1994.

25 David Himmelstein, “Baseball In Black and White, First Draft Re visions, June 1995,” HBO Films, 20. Script is from the collection of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

26 Himmelstein, 21.

27 Larry Tye, Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend (New York, Random House, 2009), 200.

28 Tim Hagerty, “Jesse Williams,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/jesse-williams/.

29 Himmelstein, 28.

30 Phil Gallo, “Soul of the Game,” Variety Magazine, April 18, 1996.

31 King, Los Angeles Times Magazine.

Bent for Blood at Ebbets Field

Do you remember when a gun for hire almost shot Jackie Robinson at Ebbets Field from behind the dugout on the first-base line? Of course, you do. How could you forget a moment like that? Everybody was there: Dixie Walker, Ralph Branca, Clyde Sukeforth, Eddie Stanky, Pee Wee Reese, and Spider Jorgensen. They all saw it. Hilda Chester and her cowbell along with the Dodger Sym-Phony saw it, too. They saw the man in the short-sleeve Hawaiian shirt pull a pistol from his lunch bag and point it at Jackie Robinson.

If you’re having a hard time remembering, let me refresh your memory. After the shooter aimed his pistol, but before he got a round-off, he was shot twice, possibly three times, by unknown gunmen.1 He slumped over dead on the first-base dugout and Jackie continued to play baseball unharmed. The guardian angel shooters were never caught, but nobody really looked that hard for them. The real bad guy was dead and they were the unsung heroes.

Still having a difficult time placing the aforementioned actions? One reason might be because none of it ever happened. Although, given the climate of our country at the time of Robinson’s major-league baseball career, and the well-documented history of death threats against him, this kind of violence is not that far-fetched. But no, in reality, there was no man in a Hawaiian shirt bent on assassinating Jackie Robinson only to be foiled in the final seconds. This was all from the mind of author Robert B. Parker and contained within the pages of his exciting novel, Double Play.

Getting to know Mr. Parker

When one thinks of Robert B. Parker, if they know anything about him, they don’t typically think baseball writer. You’re not going to find his image next to W.P. Kinsella’s, or his smiling mug sandwiched between Roger Angell and Bill James. You are much more likely to find Parker’s list of related searches populated by Elmore Leonard, Dean Koontz, and Raymond Chandler. He was a writer of fast-paced fiction, mostly of the mystery/detective genre, who also had a deep love of baseball, which is evident in the pages of Double Play.

Parker was born on September 17, 1932, in Springfield, Massachusetts. He attended Colby College in Maine where he earned a bachelor’s degree. Following his graduation, he served in the U.S. Army and fought in the Korean War. Shortly after the completion of his service, he was married to Joan Hall. They were married for 53 years, until his death, and had two sons, named David and Daniel.2

After the Parkers were married in 1956, it was time to get down to the business of starting and supporting a family. While Parker’s dream was to be a writer, he needed a steady income. So he joined corporate America as an editor and technical writer working in advertising and insurance. Robert quickly tired of the corporate life and decided to head back to college and pursue a teaching career that would also permit some writing time on the side. He graduated from Boston University with a Ph.D. and began teaching at Northeastern University, where he put his writing plan into action.3 In 1973 his first novel, The Godwulf Manuscript, was published.

The Godwulf Manuscript was the first of his Spenser novels; he eventually wrote over 30 books in the series. It was the Spenser novels that put Parker’s name on the map, bringing him wealth and critical acclaim. He went on to release two other best-selling series and many other stand-alone novels, all of which saw great success, including the western Appaloosa, which was made into a movie starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen. In total, Parker wrote nearly 70 books before his death on January 8, 2010.4 He suffered a heart attack and was found at his desk. He had been working on a novel when he passed.

Double Play

Robert Parker was well into a successful writing career when Double Play, one of three of Parker’s novels published in 2004, was released. Double Play was a break from the norm for Parker and a nice change of pace for readers who had tired of the previous 30 Spenser novels.

The critical response to Double Play was overwhelmingly favorable. Publisher’s Weekly went so far as to state that “Parker…has never written so spare and tight a book; this should be required reading for all aspiring storytellers.”5 The Kirkus book review took it a step further saying that “the talk is electric, the pacing breakneck, the cast colorful and empathic. After a couple of so-so efforts, Parker flat out nails it here.”6 It is safe to say that Parker critically saved his career with Double Play by writing a “deeply felt and intimately told memory tale.”7

The plot of Double Play follows a typical, sometimes referred to as “Parkeresque,” novel. The chapters are three to four pages long with short paragraphs and a simplistic, blunt, Hemingway-like writing style. The central character of the book is Joseph Burke, an ex-Marine who took “five .25 caliber slugs”8 to the chest at Guadalcanal, which sent him to a hospital and put him out of commission for nearly a year. While laid up, Burke’s wife left him, leaving behind a deeply scarred man. But, being the supremely trained killing machine that he is, Burke is not only physically tough, but also mentally, and he develops a protective exterior to guard his psychological wounds. He finds that the best medicine is to not care about anything.

But, even those who don’t care need money to survive, so Burke looks for a job doing what he knows best, which is being a tough guy. Initially, he tries his hand at boxing, following the advice of a fellow Marine that he served with, but sees little success other than a black eye and a headache. He then becomes an enforcer in the underworld followed by a bodyguard for a spoiled heiress (who he falls for). This path eventually leads him to Branch Rickey who needs someone to protect his new rookie. The rookie is, of course, Jackie Robinson.

Shortly after their meeting, and Rickey’s hiring of Burke as Robinson’s bodyguard, Jackie and Burke run into some trouble at a restaurant owned by a low-level mobster. They are grabbing a bite to eat after a doubleheader against the Giants and the mobster, Mr. Paglia, offers a bottle of champagne to Robinson. Robinson respectfully declines the bottle, but in the process offends Mr. Paglia. It is this confrontation that ultimately sets up much of the action in the story and the dramatic attempted assassination of Robinson at the close of the book. And while the physical drama of the story keeps the reader turning the pages, it is numerous emotional storylines that are the real meat behind Double Play.

 

There are a few different arcs taking place in Double Play. The first is that of Burke. We learn about his backstory from how he met his wife, his injury, his descent into being an emotional recluse, and his eventual salvation in the arms of the aforementioned spoiled heiress. The second storyline is that of “Bobby.” The storyline of Bobby is completely separate from the rest of the book. The Bobby chapters, of which there are 10, are printed in italics and obviously reflect the experiences of a 16-year-old Parker (whose first name is Robert or Bobby). During the Bobby chapters, Parker discusses his love of baseball, his concern over racial tensions, and seeing Jackie play at Ebbets Field while “sitting among Negroes, between two heavy black women.”9 The Bobby chapters are a way for Parker to tell his story and reflect on why he felt the deep need to write a book about Robinson in his voice.

The third storyline is Jackie Robinson. Robinson doesn’t “physically” enter the book until chapter 17 when he is introduced to his intended bodyguard, Joseph Burke, by Branch Rickey. “Robinson came in wearing a gray suit and a black knit tie…[and] moved as if he were working off a steel spring.”10 Burke and Robinson don’t necessarily hit it off, but they don’t dislike one another either. There is a guarded quality about their first interaction that remains for some time. Initially, it is obvious that protecting Robinson is just a job for Burke, but as he gets to know Robinson that changes. Throughout their time on the road, eating meals, and staying together in Black hotels, Burke experiences the day-to-day racism that Robinson must endure. It is through these experiences that Burke develops an understanding of the Black experience.

We also follow the historical Robinson who is surrounded by numerous Dodger greats, both players and personalities. But most important is Robinson’s character and the moral center that it provides in the novel. His temperament gives the reader a barometer to which all others are judged including Robinson’s bodyguard, Burke.

Ultimately Robinson and Burke learn to trust each other and make it through a jungle filled with racism and violence, culminating in the shootout at Ebbets Field with the Hawaiian-shirted gunman. Following the squelched assassination attempt, Burke realizes, because of his time with Robinson, that he does care about living. His protective exterior is broken down and he allows himself a chance at love.

And while Burke has experienced the sweetness of redemption, Robinson has all the while been a normal guy just trying his best to make his way in the world and at the same time changing the course of history and opening the door of civil rights.

Parker, Jackie and What They Mean

Parker grew up an out-of-place Dodgers fan in New England. He was born during the Great Depression and was 9 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Until the advent of World War II, he grew up during FDR’s New Deal, which helped the country out of the Great Depression. When World War II engulfed the nation and the world in a violent struggle between good and evil everything changed for Parker. His idyllic, prosperous childhood was gone in an instant. It is through Double Play, and more specifically the Bobby chapters, that Parker expresses his sorrow for days past. By reliving, through Bobby, his final nice summer days before the war in 1941, he sets the elegiac tone for the book.

While the Bobby chapters are contemplative and dreamlike, the rest of the book is written with a sense of urgency, almost like Parker was trying to bring back what was lost from before the war and his New Deal childhood. It is through Robinson, Parker’s hero following World War II, that Parker tries to recapture, or save, what has been lost. If Parker can rescue his postwar hero, Jackie Robinson, in the pages of Double Play maybe he can preserve a piece of his prewar childhood.

While Parker attempts to recapture what was once lost through Jackie Robinson, he also puts Robinson in great peril throughout the book. Robinson is hunted both physically and mentally throughout Double Play. Both Robinson’s fictional story and the real-life events that he experienced are a microscopic reflection of what African American people have experienced in this country since they were forced to come here in chains. And while the physical chains are gone, the immaterial chains are just as strong, or stronger, than they were in 1619 or 1947. Robinson was hunted in real life, and the pages of Double Play, as African Americans are still hunted to this day on the streets of their own country. It is a somber thing to say, but sometimes it seems that not much has changed since Jackie Robinson took the field 75 years ago.

BENJAMIN SABIN is a baseball writer and editor for Last Word On Sports, editor-in-chief of Cheap Seats Press, and a baseball card artist. He enjoys keeping score at ballgames and prefers sauerkraut on his dogs. He is a proud SABR member since 2017.

 

Notes

1 Robert B. Parker, Double Play (New York: Berkley Books, New York, 2004(, 239.

2 https://www.bookreporter.com/authors/robert-b-parker

3 https://robertbparker.net/author

4 https://robertbparker.net/author

5 https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-399-15188-0

6 https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/robert-b-parker/double-play/

7 https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/books/crime-594946.html

8 Parker, Double Play, 1

9 Parker, Double Play, 273.

10 Parker, Double Play, 98.