The Furious Spinner

On April 15th for the second year in a row, Jackie Robinson's number was unretired and baseball players on all 30 teams wore the number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson. On some teams, including the Dodgers (Jackie's team) every player wore the number. Jackie Robinson was the player that finally for all time broke the color barrier in baseball. (Jackie Robinson was not the first Black player in Major League Baseball; but he was the first in about 60 years.) When he was hired, the owner of the Dodgers warned him that it would be a difficult time for him. He asked Robinson to promise not to fight back, just to take whatever abuse came his way. Robinson agreed to hold his tongue for at least a year, although he wasn't happy about it.

His teammates did not rally around him. Other teams were verbally abusive to him (to say the least). When some of his own teammates were giving Robinson a hard time, Leo Durocher, the manager, told the whole team, "I don't care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a fucking zebra. I'm the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What's more, I say he can make us all rich. And if any of you can't use the money, I'll see that you are all traded.'' Robinson got hate letters and he and his wife were threatened. Sports writers often said (and wrote) racist and denigrating things about him. He played with the Dodgers for ten years and then he retired just as they traded him to the Giants. He remained a civil rights activist until he died quite young of a heart attack.

So on Wednesday, on the 61st anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first day in the Majors, 300 ballplayers and onfield staff donned his number in his honor. All kinds of men, all hues. In Seattle, they painted his number in the dirt in the ballpark. I watched the Mariners play; there was something beautiful and touching seeing these players wearing the number 42. Something hopeful.

Today as I'm watching another Mariners game, I'm thinking of the players and fans who were so abusive to Robinson. What were they thinking? Why do people act in such reprehensible ways? In particular, I think of the Phillies manager Ben Chapman who lead and encouraged his players to scream out epithets when Robinson and the Dodgers first played in Philadelphia after Robinson became part of the Dodgers. Chapman apparently instructed his pitchers to bean Robinson every time he came up to bat. It was so bad that the newspapers noticed and wrote about it and the commissioner of baseball chastised Chapman and his players for it. Chapman's abuse backfired and united the Dodgers.

Chapman didn't last in baseball much longer after that; Robinson was around for another ten years. I wonder if Chapman was ever sorry about what he did? Everything ever written about him (at least that I've seen) has the word "racist" after his name. What kind of legacy is that? I don't think we should judge people by the worst thing they've ever done. Was that the worst thing Ben Chapman ever did? Or did he live a lifetime of hatred and racism?

Jackie Robinson broke the color line in baseball. He was on the board of the NAACP and a civil rights activist who supported Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. He was also a Republican, a liberal Republican who tried to get Rockefeller elected and he was quite vociferous in his disgust of GOP bigots. In 1964 he was part of Republicans for Johnson and he enjoyed helping get Lyndon Johnson elected. My kind of Republican. 0 comments

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