“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” – Jackie Robinson
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and did it with courage, stubbornness, self-control, and the iron will of team owner Branch Rickey.
A new movie, “42,” will premiere around the country on Friday and portions of the film were shot in and around Chattanooga, with venerable Engel Stadium serving as the stand-in for Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn.
Actor Harrison Ford portrays Rickey in the film.
Robinson is played by Howard Boseman.
The film follows Robinson’s short minor-league career and his first season with the Dodgers and what the future Hall of Famer endured in 1947 – intense racial hatred and bigotry on and off the field.
That year, there were 16 big-league teams and 400 players – 399 of them white. Robinson, obviously, was the lone black player. Prior to 1947, blacks played in the Negro League.
Many of Robinson’s teammates refused to speak to him. Several told Dodgers brass they wouldn’t play on the same field with Robinson either. In April, Philadelphia manager Ben Chapman’s vile taunts launched toward Robinson were legendary. Chapman also reportedly ordered that when a pitcher’s count was 3-0 against Robinson, they should bean him rather than walk him.
The backlash against Chapman was severe and he was later “asked” to pose for a picture with Robinson as a “conciliatory gesture” the next time the two teams met in Philadelphia in May.
When Robinson was viciously heckled in Cincinnati, Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese put his arm around Robinson’s shoulder.
“You can hate a man for many reasons, his color isn’t one of them,” Reese said at the time.
Fiery Dodgers manager Leo Durocher tried to quell hard feelings toward Robinson by Brooklyn players.
“I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a zebra,” Durocher is quoted as saying. “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 cannot use the money, I will see that you are all traded.”
Durocher’s bombast helped to calm the outcry of white Dodgers players.
In his first year, Robinson led the National League in stolen bases, was selected as the NL Rookie of the Year and helped the Dodgers win the pennant.
Robinson went on to have a 10-year career, all with the Dodgers, in which he batted .311.
In 1949, he led the National League with a .342 batting average, led the league in stolen bases – he stole home 19 times in his career – and was named Most Valuable Player. He retired after the 1956 season and appeared in 1,382 games and six World Series.
The former UCLA star, the first Bruin to win varsity letters in four sports, testified on discrimination before the House Under-American Activities Committee. In 1952, Robinson called the New York Yankees a racist organization for not having broken the color barrier five years after he started playing in Brooklyn.
Robinson, who at the age of 3 saw a cross burned on his lawn in Cairo, Ga., died on Oct. 24, 1972, in Stamford, Conn., due to heart problems and complications from diabetes.
Robinson once said, “Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you’re wasting your life.”
From Robinson to the Rams
On Friday, the Tyner Academy baseball team, with all black players and a white coach, will play Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences and then attend the premiere of the Robinson movie.
Although Ahmad Johnson had plenty of black teammates when he joined the Rams’ baseball team as a freshman class of one, he has a sizable understandings of what Robinson did for black players in America.
“He went through a struggle and took a lot, but he opened doors that allowed us black Americans to play baseball today,” said Johnson, 18, who was born 47 after Robinson debuted with the Dodgers.
“I know that nobody would say anything to him in the locker room, even some coaches. I know there was one guy from Louisville (Reese) that talked to Jackie and who was a white man. Jackie Robinson means a lot to me. If it wasn’t for him, there was nothing for the black man in baseball. You could say he’s the godfather of the sport for guys like me. I’m very thankful for the opportunity he gave me.”
In Johnson’s freshman year, the Rams routinely were “run-ruled” by most opponents and weren’t sure enough players would even show up to field a team.
“We had to do with what we had,” said Johnson, who, ironically, is the lone senior on this year’s team. “But my love of the game kept me coming back. There is always some failure in what you do, but in baseball we’re starting to have some success. I’m having some success.
“If you can hit something (a baseball) that’s white and small, that’s coming at you at almost 90 miles per hour, if you can do that, you can do anything.”
So, if Robinson could withstand personally directed racism and bigotry, Johnson could endure run-rule game after run-rule game. And he’s done that, and that’s called sticktoitiveness.
Jackie Robinson did that, only under worse circumstances.
In 2012, the Rams finished fourth in District 6-AA. Opposing coaches were shocked and full of praise for what Tyner players were able to accomplish.
Johnson tasted some success as an eighth grader at Tyner Middle School when the baseball team went undefeated in the regular season only to lose in the first round of the postseason tournament.
Earlier this week, Johnson and his fellow Rams took on East Hamilton, one of the top three teams in 6-AA, at Chattanooga State.
East Hamilton jumped to a whopping 16-3 lead after two innings.
Tyner bowed its collective back.
The Rams scored 10 runs in the third inning, but eventually lost the game, 20-13.
Johnson went 2-for-4 and scored a run and drove in a run while playing three positions – third base, catcher and pitcher. And his body language from start to finish was like that of a young child in a candy shop, practically giddy just to have the chance to be on the field and wearing a Tyner uniform.
“It’s not just about me,” he said. “It’s about the team. I’m proud to say that I’m one of the brothers that stuck with baseball and I’m proud of the group we have now. I came in a c class of one and I’ll leave as a class of one. But I’ve told the other guys that if we stick with it, good things will happen. Maybe championships will come later.”
As for the movie, Johnson is eager to see the finished product.
“I’m very excited to see the movie,” he said. “The actors in the movie are amazing and the fact it was filmed here in Chattanooga at Engel Stadium, makes me very proud of my city.”
Chae Butler, a 16-year-old junior, played middle school ball with Johnson and seven others play summer ball with the Tennessee Express – four players each on two teams – that are coached by Keith Landecker and Al Frias as further proof of their commitment to the sport.
Every Saturday, weather permitting, they spend time at skills and batting sessions with the Express coaches. In lieu of birthday presents, the players request money from family or relatives to help attend college camps or lessons from local hitting/pitching coaches.
“Above all,” Landecker wrote in an e-mail, “they share their love of baseball with other inner-city kids by inviting them to the Saturday, or sometimes Sunday, workouts to rekindle their love for the game or just to have fun.”
Butler, who struck out 13 and pitched a one-hitter – he had a perfect game through six innings – against East Ridge earlier this season, agreed with Johnson that Tyner’s team was in shambles just a few years ago. Butler wasn’t overwhelmed, though. He just went to work.
“I wanted to change the culture of Tyner baseball,” he said. “I decided to grab as many of my friends as I could that played middle school ball and take on the challenge. We all decided to stick together in our hope of changing the culture and that touched my heart.
“I did baseball at first because it kept me in shape. But, it has given me a fire and a passion for the game. I know Jackie Robinson went through a lot to give us the opportunity to play baseball and I’m blessed that he did that. If he was still alive, I wish there was a way I could thank him.”
Junior shortstop Sadik Spence, one of the top basketball point guards in town and also a member of the Rams’ football team, was blunt in his assessment of Robinson’s trials and tribulations in breaking into baseball.
“He’s the one that let everybody know baseball is not about color,” Spence said. “It’s everybody’s game and its’ giving us a chance to use what God gave us, like talent and ability.”
Spence said he began playing baseball at age 3, and always played up in age-group leagues.
And, while most observers of high school sports around Chattanooga would think Spence is headed to college likely to play basketball, he might prefer to give baseball a shot.
“I love baseball,” he said. “It’s my dream to get there (major leagues) one day.”
A Coach, History and Inspiration
Rob Flowers, whose beard dominates his face, is Tyner’s baseball coach. He is a history teacher and former athlete, having played football and baseball at Calhoun (Ga.) High School.
Flowers was coaching at Cleveland High School when he got the Rams' baseball job, is excited by his first team at Tyner and believes his players are inspired by Robinson and other black players that followed him into professional baseball.
“They’re excited about going to the movie after our game on Friday and for several of the guys Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and a lot of other guys have been an inspiration. They have been goal-setters and an inspiring force for them.
“So, when you have an opportunity to take a group of young men that need inspiration, are looking for a chance to prove their worth and be the best they can be out to a movie about a guy like Jackie that paved the way, you have to do that.”
Robinson’s life was not a waste.
Robinson was born, Jan. 31, 1919, in Cairo, the youngest of five children, and raised in poverty by a single mother. Robinson’s older brother, Matthew, won a silver medal in the 200-meter dash, just behind Jesse Owens, at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
Robinson attended UCLA and served in the United States Army during World War II, although he never saw action. However, was arrested and court-martialed during boot camp after he refused to move to the back of a segregated bus during training. He was later acquitted and received an honorable discharge.
After baseball, Robinson continued to lobby for more integration in sports.
Following Robinson’s death in 1972 at age 53, his wife, Rachel, established the Jackie Robinson Foundation as a dedication to his life and work. To date, the foundation has provided $55 million in scholarship assistance and direct program support to deserving students of color.
Rachel Robinson, now 90, recently attended the 2012 ROBIE Awards at the Jackie Robinson Foundation dinner in New York and she had input into the movie by Thomas Tull, CEO of Legendary Pictures, which produced the film. The movie was screened at the White House earlier this month and President Obama has seen the movie twice.
On April 15 each season, Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day and every player on every team wears No. 42 on their jersey.
What Robinson did in 1947 is worthy of such lofty recognition.
In the movie, there is this exchange between Rickey and Robinson:
“I want a player who’s got the guts not to fight back,” Rickey says.
“You give me a uniform, you give me a number on my back, and I’ll give you the guts,” Robinson replies.
Robinson then walks out of the dugout, onto the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers and straight into the baseball history book.
Now, if that doesn’t serve as further inspiration for young black baseball players at Tyner Academy, or anywhere else, then nothing else that could.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com)