Google Maps: Jackie Robinson

from My Queen's Jazz Trail
After living in apartments In Brooklyn, Jackie bought this home. Later he and his family moved to Stamford, Connecticut

Pee Wee Reese And Jackie Robinson

the audio is from an npr broadcast of Sept. 28, 2001 images of Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson and some of their teammates, including the racist Dixie Walker. Also a few scans of the children's book "Teammates," by Peter Golenbock that are relevant to the story. In the book version, however, Pee Wee refuses to sign the petition. Note in the team picture of 1947, Dixie has his head turned on purpose to show his displeasure of being Jackie's teammate. Branch Rickey would have him traded soon afterwards to Pittsburgh.

The year was 1947, and Jackie Robinson, baseball's first African-American player, was being unmercifully taunted by fans and opponents in Cincinnati's Crosley Field. Sickened by what he was hearing, my father walked from his shortstop position and draped his arm around his teammate. The simple gesture not only stopped the racial razzing that day, but it sent a profound message throughout baseball and the nation.
Remember, this was eight years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. A public show of support between a white southerner and black man was unprecedented in 1947.
Long before terrorism had entered the American lexicon, another ism -- racism -- was the shadowy enemy that threatened to tear this country apart from within.
So there we were, looking at the statuettes, thinking of a different era when an unexpected visitor entered. The windows rattled and our souls shuddered -- terrorism arrived in a horrifying manner.
We now know the terrorists are trying to tear our county apart from the inside out. "Freedom and fear," said President Bush, "are at war." In some cases, that fear has provoked racism against American Muslims. Where does that leave freedom?
In 1947, these freedoms were tested when my father's teammate and best friend Dixie Walker circulated a petition that tried to bar all black players from Major League Baseball. And anyone who supported Robinson, Walker warned, also would be chased out of the game. At first, my father gave in to his fears, and supported the petition.
But in 1999, the year my father died, he told me he had learned an important lesson that trying day in Cincinnati: Don't give in to your fears. When the first World Trade Center tower crumbled like a house of glass, I held my mother close. I wanted to keep her from being trampled to death or pelted by debris. We ran into a neighboring building as fast as my mother's 79-year old legs would allow. In the dark of a bomb shelter, mom turned to me and said, 'I'm just glad your father isn't here to see this.'
At that moment, I couldn't help but think about those miniature bronze statuettes that had been left behind to fend for themselves at city hall. Amid the debris and dismay they represent courage, determination, and teamwork -- something we as Americans have been seeing a lot of lately. So I turned to my mother and said, 'No, mom, something tells me Pee Wee is here with us. And so is Jackie. Because we need their courage now more than ever.' My mother bravely smiled and nodded in agreement.
Mark Reese is a Los Angeles-based documentary film maker and writer. He and his mother were within a few blocks of the World Trade Center on the morning of Sept. 11.

Jackie Robinson: Opening Day

from npr from 4/13/07

April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond that afternoon at Ebbets Field, he became the first black man to break into major-league baseball in the twentieth century. World War II had just ended. Democracy had triumphed. Now Americans were beginning to press for justice on the home front -- and Robinson had a chance to lead the way.He was an unlikely hero. He had little experience in organized baseball. His swing was far from graceful. And he was assigned to play first base, a position he had never tried before that season. But the biggest concern was his temper. Robinson was an angry man who played an aggressive style of ball. In order to succeed he would have to control himself in the face of what promised to be a brutal assault by opponents of integration.In Opening Day, Jonathan Eig tells the true story behind the national pastime's most sacred myth. Along the way he offers new insights into events of sixty years ago and punctures some familiar legends. Was it true that the St. Louis Cardinals plotted to boycott their first home game against the Brooklyn Dodgers? Was Pee Wee Reese really Robinson's closest ally on the team? Was Dixie Walker his greatest foe? How did Robinson handle the extraordinary stress of being the only black man in baseball and still manage to perform so well on the field? Opening Day is also the story of a team of underdogs that came together against tremendous odds to capture the pennant. Facing the powerful New York Yankees, Robinson and the Dodgers battled to the seventh game in one of the most thrilling World Series competitions of all time. Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Jonathan Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil-rights era. Full of new details and thrilling action, Opening Day brings to life baseball's ultimate story.

Google Maps: Jackie Robinson

from my google map of Homes of Famous Brooklynites and Other Places of Interest

October 9, 1949: Jackie Robinson And Don Newcombe In The World Series

Donald Newcombe (born June 14, 1926 in Madison, New Jersey), nicknamed "Newk", is an American former Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher and left-handed batter who played for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers (1949-51 and 1954-58), Cincinnati Reds (1958-60) and Cleveland Indians (1960).
Newcombe was the first outstanding black pitcher in major league history. A 6'4", 225-pound fireball thrower, he is also the only baseball player to have won the Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards. In 1949, he became the first African-American pitcher to start a World Series game.
Newcombe was also an excellent hitting pitcher. He was one of the very few pitchers in the Major Leagues used as a pinch hitter.

from 10/9/07 from pseudo-intellectualism

To avoid directly watching the Yankees go down to defeat I occupied myself with finding images to match this recording (great resource here). It's the play by play of the 1949 World Series (found on the prelinger archives), which was decided in the fifth game on October 9, 1949. The score was 10-6, Yankees defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers. This audio only encompasses the pre-game part of the broadcast. The full audio is available of games 3,4 and 5 are on prelinger's A summary from the baseball almanac site
"After nine unsuccessful seasons with both Boston and Brooklyn (in which he never finished higher than fifth), manager Casey Stengel finally had success in the minors while coaching Oakland to the Pacific Coast League pennant in 1948. Shortly after, he was called up to replace Bucky Harris as the Yankees skipper in what would become the start of a long-standing... and winning relationship. New York, who had fallen from first to third under Harris, responded to Stengel's appointment by winning their sixteenth American League pennant and doing so in dramatic fashion. Stengel's team trailed Boston by one game as manager Joe McCarthy's Red Sox arrived at Yankee Stadium for a season-closing two-game set, but the Yankees swept them in classic "Curse of the Bambino" fashion. Across-town the Brooklyn Dodgers were "cutting it close" as well while managing to beat the St. Louis Cardinals (by one game) in the National League pennant race.
Don Newcombe, who had a 17-8 record as a Dodgers rookie in 1949, drew the start and did all he could to spoil Stengel's debut. Through eight innings of Game 1, Newcombe struck out eleven Yankees, walked no one, surrendered only four hits and had not permitted a run. Pitching rival Allie Reynolds wasn't far behind with nine strikeouts, four walks, two hits and no runs. Reynolds managed to retire the order in the ninth on a grounder, popup and fly ball, but Newcombe was not as lucky as the Yankees' Tommy Henrich put one in the right field stands for the win. The Dodgers answered the close Yankees' triumph the next day with a Game 2 nailbiter of their own. Preacher Roe outpitched Vic Raschi for the 1-0 win and Gil Hodges singling home Jackie Robinson, who had doubled, in the second inning.
The tensions continued in the third game as both teams remained locked in a 1-1 stalemate through the eighth. Former National League slugger Johnny Mize, (purchased in August from the New York Giants), knocked a bases-loaded single off Dodger starter Ralph Branca in the top of the ninth for the 3-1 Yankee lead and Jerry Coleman followed with a run-scoring single off reliever Jack Banta. New York's Joe Page, having pitched 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief since taking over for Tommy Byrne in the fourth, shouldered that lead into the Dodgers' half of the inning. Page was rocked for two home runs, the first a one-out shot by Luis Olmo, who hit one homer for Brooklyn in the regular season, and the second a two-out smash by Roy Campanella. But no one was on base either time, and Page and the Yankees hung on for a 4-3 victory.
In Game 4, the Yankees drove Newcombe from the mound with a three-run, fourth (Cliff Mapes supplied the key hit with a two-run double) and then got three more in the fifth when Bobby Brown drilled a bases-loaded triple off Joe Hatten. Brooklyn answered back with four runs in the sixth off Eddie Lopat. Reynolds came to the rescue by retiring Brooklyn's final ten batters and New York, a 6-4 winner, was one victory from their twelfth World Series title.
Determined to finish the job, the Bronx Bombers ended all the trends and came out swinging in Game 5. The Yankee sluggers scored in five of the first six innings and promptly built a 10-2 lead. Gil Hodges' three-run homer in the Dodgers' four-run, seventh cut into the deficit, but Page's relief work in place of Vic Raschi shut down Brooklyn's batters. In the end, the Yankees prevailed 10-6 with Coleman driving in three runs and Brown and DiMaggio both collecting two RBIs each. "Joe D", (who missed half of the season because of an injury, but still batted .346 with sixty-seven RBIs in seventy-six regular-season games), struggled overall in the Series, but added a bases-empty homer in the fourth. Although it was the Yankees twelfth World Series title, it was Casey Stengel's first and there were many more to come."
Note, many images of players in the video were not in the 49 series, but were basically from the 1949-1953 Yankees and Dodgers.

Famous Brooklyn African Americans

The images are from the Brooklyn Public Library's Digital Collection. The soundtrack is Joy Spring, featuring Clifford Brown on trumpet and Brooklyn's own Max Roach on drums.
Max lived at one time at 210 Putnam Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant

Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball: Game Footage

Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball?

It went zoomin cross the left field wall.

Yeah boy, yes, yes. Jackie hit that ball.
And when he swung his bat,
 the crowd went wild,

Because he knocked that ball a solid mile.

Yeah boy, yes, yes. Jackie hit that ball.
Satchel Paige is mellow,

So is Campanella, 
Newcombe and Doby, too.

But it's a natural fact,
 when Jackie comes to bat,

The other team is through.
Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball?

Did he hit it? Yeah, and that ain't all.

He stole home.

Yes, yes, Jackie's real gone.
Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball?

Did he hit it? Yeah, and that ain't all.

He stole home.

Yes, yes, Jackie's a real gone guy

Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?

My Tribute to Jackie on the 60th Anniversary of his first major league game
from 4/10/07 from
pseudo-intellectualism

Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball?

It went zoomin cross the left field wall.

Yeah boy, yes, yes. Jackie hit that ball.
And when he swung his bat,
 the crowd went wild,

Because he knocked that ball a solid mile.

Yeah boy, yes, yes. Jackie hit that ball.
Satchel Paige is mellow,

So is Campanella, 
Newcombe and Doby, too.

But it's a natural fact,
 when Jackie comes to bat,

The other team is through.
Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball?

Did he hit it? Yeah, and that ain't all.

He stole home.

Yes, yes, Jackie's real gone.
Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball?

Did he hit it? Yeah, and that ain't all.

He stole home.

Yes, yes, Jackie's a real gone guy