Three Heroes

January 31, 2013 would have been Jackie Robinson's 94th Birthday. He was more than a baseball hero:

It only takes one person -- one person with courage to stand up for what is right -- to change the world. One person can stand up to injustice. One person can lead. One person can turn the tide of history. But in one particular instance in America’s history it took three.

Jackie Robinson was the consummate athlete. The brother of 1936 Olympic silver medalist Mack Robinson, Jack excelled in just about every sport in high school and college and was slated to represent the United States in the 1940 Olympics which were canceled due to Hitler’s rise to power. His athletic skills were outstanding, but what led him to greatness was what he did not do.

Branch Rickey was a forward-thinking executive on the Brooklyn Dodger’s management team. He had a dream. He wanted the Dodgers to win the World Series. He needed a consummate ballplayer to renew his team’s chances as the league reorganized after the war. He also wanted to change the face of segregated baseball by hiring a black player with skills and gumption. He found what he wanted in Jackie.

Rickey was upfront with Jackie when he offered him a position: “Jackie, we’ve got no army. There’s virtually nobody on our side. No owners, no umpires, very few newspapermen. And I am afraid that the fans may be hostile. We’ll be in a tough position. We can only win if we can convince the world that I am doing this because you’re a great ballplayer, and a fine gentleman.”  Rickey needed a gentleman, a man who could take the jeers and threats of fans and fellow-players and not fight back. Could Jackie be that man? He promised he would try.

Robinson played short stop. When he was signed by the Dodgers, the player most threatened should have been shortstop Pee Wee Reese. Pee Wee felt that if Jackie was the best, he should have the position. ­­­­­­The other Dodgers were not so welcoming. Someone started a petition to get Jackie off the team. They would not play ball with a black man. They asked Pee Wee, who grew up in the segregated South, to sign.  He considered it, but turned them down.

 So here are our heroes:  Robinson, the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues, Rickey, the man who wanted to integrate the game, and Reese who felt that any man who could play deserved the chance. Jackie kept his promise; he held his temper; he didn’t fight back. Rickey stood by him as a player and a man. And Reese made him a friend. During a game when fans and the opposing team were raining insults and threats on Jackie as he took his position at first base, Pee Wee walked casually across the turf, and put his arm around Jackie’s shoulder.  His gesture silenced the crowd and announced to the entire world that Jackie was his teammate and equal.

During the fifties and sixties, America struggled to shed its policies of segregation. Rickey signed African-American and Hispanic players. His dream came true; the Dodgers, with Reese and Robinson playing, won the 1955 World Series. Robinson marched with Martin Luther King who called him “a legend and a symbol.” He was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor for his contributions to the Civil Rights movement.  Reese played ball and managed players. His quiet strength and Robinson’s noble courage are immortalized in a bronze statue outside of Key Park in Brooklyn. They stand shoulder-to-shoulder as teammates. 

Jackie Robinson said, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” As fans stream by that statue today, our three heroes’ most amazing legacy is that kids passing by will have to be told that this statue represents something which they take for granted: we all stand together as equals. 

The story of these three heroes is told in the picture book Teammates by Peter Golenbock. Share it with your children. Let us impact our children’s lives; let us all stand together.