by Jonathan Eig
“Blacks lived right next door”: Interview with Ralph Branca.
“the Dodgers are inept and helpless”: “. . . Cardinals and Red Sox Again—Who Else?” New York Post, April 15, 1947.
“C’mon, Jackie!”: “Jackie Sparks Dodgers,” Richmond Afro-American, April 19, 1947.
thirty-three ounces and thirty-five inches: Interview with Anne Jewell, Louisville Slugger Museum.
“Too bad about that double-play”: “Powerhouse,” Daily News, April 16, 1947.
“George Washington and Abraham Lincoln”: Interview with Gene Hermanski.
a mob of 250 people: “Looking ’Em Over,” Richmond Afro-American, April 19, 1947.
he released a heavy sigh: Ibid.
“It was all right”: “Debut ‘Just Another Game’ to Jackie,” Sporting News, April 23, 1947.
CHAPTER FIVE: UP IN HARLEM
“on that Triple-Borough Bridge”: Arthur Mann, Baseball Confidential (New York: David McKay Co., 1951), 130.
“I don’t even have a hotel room”: Ibid., 131.
Stevens had grown up in poverty: Interview with Ed Stevens.
“I was considered one of the best-fielding”: Ibid.
his Dodger days were numbered: Interview with Howie Schultz.
sprain an ankle and miss a few games: Parrott, The Lords of Baseball, 250.
458,000 black people: Biondi, To Stand and Fight, 3.
“The Negro people”: Ibid., 1.
“I consider it a great honor”: “Jackie Robinson Chairman of UNAVA,” People’s Voice, June 1, 1946.
“Branch Rickey was not favorably inclined”: Interview with Lester Rodney.
go slowly and avoid unnecessary risk: Parrott, The Lords of Baseball, 250.
“Jackie’s greatest danger is social”: “Meddling of Well-Wishers Hurts Jackie,” Amsterdam News, April 19, 1947.
“The Negroes have the legs”: Roger Kahn, The Era (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1993), 43.
Jackie Robinson Booster Club: “Jackie Robinson Boosters Ready to Support Star,” Amsterdam News, April 19, 1947.
a high, inside curve: Allan Roth scorecard, Retrosheet, Inc.
“That’s because their heels are longer”: Kahn, The Era, 44.
736 servicemen: “Giants Defeat Dodgers, 4–3, As 53,000 Jam Polo Grounds,” Daily Mirror, April 20, 1947.
dining at Lawson Bowman’s: Photograph, Chicago Defender, May 3, 1947.
Filtered light and the sound of traffic: Interview with Stan Strull, former batboy.
the worst locker in the clubhouse: Sketches of clubhouse made by Stan Strull for author Christopher Renino.
Players were supposed to mark a chalkboard: Interview with Stan Strull.
a woman named Mabel C. Brown: Interview with Rachel Robinson.
Without having seen the place: Ibid.
Robinson gave an interview: Interview with Gil Jonas.
“When my father had some money”: Ibid.
“Would you prefer another infield position: “Robinson Confident of Brooklyn Pennant Success This Campaign,” Lafayette High School newspaper, undated article from Gil Jonas scrapbook.
he snapped a picture of the athlete: Gil Jonas scrapbook.
“All hands agree now”: “Robinson May Oust Stanky at Second Base,” New York Post, April 22, 1947.
a few snippets of the invective: Robinson and Smith, Jackie Robinson, 128.
“Figuratively, he was still fighting the Civil War”: Interview with Howie Schultz.
“For one wild and rage-crazed minute”: Robinson, I Never Had It Made, 60.
“Listen, you yellow-bellied cowards”: Ibid., 61.
Even Dixie Walker: Rowan and Robinson, Wait Till Next Year, 183.
The Sporting News noted that all ballplayers: “Jockeys Ride Every Rookie,” Sporting News, May 21, 1947.
“We will treat Robinson the same”: Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, 183.
“Ballplayers who don’t want to be in the same ball park”: “Name Guilty in Robinson Plot,” Chicago Defender, May 17, 1947.
“I didn’t know people could be that cruel”: Interview with Gil Jonas.
“I watched people who were hard-hearted”: Ibid.
CHAPTER SIX: PRAYING FOR BASE HITS
“Hiya, Babe”: “. . . The ‘Big Guy’ of Baseball Comes Home,” New York Post, April 28, 1947.
Bobby Thomson, a rookie: Interview with Bobby Thomson.
Nor was he interested in Robinson’s color: Ibid.
“We knew he was pretty good”: Ibid.
Louis waved to Robinson: “Stanky Bunt Beats Ottmen in 9th, 9–8,” New York Times, April 28, 1947.
still in debt by about $200,000: Donald McRae, Heroes Without a Country (New York: Ecco, 2002), 242.
impressed by the sharpness of his mind: Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 92.
presenting him with an autographed baseball: “From A to Z,” Richmond Afro-American, May 3, 1947.
Photographers sprang from the dugout: Red Barber, 1947: When All Hell Broke Loose (New York: Da Capo Press, 1982), 162.
tiny bedroom, eight-feet-by-twelve: Interview with Rachel Robinson; visit to 526 MacDonough.
Brown spent most of her waking hours: Interview with Rachel Robinson.
Finian’s Rainbow and Brigadoon: Untitled, undated newspaper article from Rachel Robinson’s scrapbook.
“I think sometimes people miss that part”: Interview with Rachel Robinson.
Rachel would ask the sorts of questions: Ibid.
“like an elevator in the Empire State Building”: Robinson and Smith, Jackie Robinson, 145.
gnashed his teeth: Interview with Rachel Robinson.
the only thing he ever admitted being worried about: Ibid.
Robinson wondered if he would see Schultz’s name: Robinson and Smith, Jackie Robinson, 145–46.
Robinson worried: Ibid.
His biggest fear: Interview with Rachel Robinson.
Not one of them invited Jackie and Rachel: Ibid.
Norma King, the wife: Interview with Norma King.
Rachel had dreamed of the day: Interview with Rachel Robinson.
kneel by the side of their bed and pray: Ibid.
“Our approach was almost humorous”: Interview with Colin Powell.
stopped taping it: “Dodgers Stay With Robinson,” New York Post, May 1, 1947.
“that blacks weren’t ready for the majors: Robinson, I Never Had It Made, 59.
“There were times”: Ibid., 63.
“There were things some people take for granted”: Interview with Rachel Robinson.
“Before I play with you”: Leo Durocher, Nice Guys Finish Last (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1975), 206.
“Stanky, although he was from the South”: Transcript of Rowan interview of Robinson, Library of Congress.
“That’s a hit in my book”: Barber, 1947, 213.
“There’s no reason to get all excited”: “Dodgers Stay With Robinson,” New York Post, May 1, 1947.
CHAPTER SEVEN: CARDINAL SINS
two weeks to cut nine players: “Durocher to Help Rickey Cut 9 Dodgers Adrift by May 19,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 3, 1947.
considerable sum of $250,000: “Pirates Purchase Higbe for Quarter of Million,” Daily News, May 4, 1947.
“poverty and distress, want and sickness”: “Boro Opens $650,000 Drive for N.Y. Fund,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 2, 1947.
“I remember when I was a young boy”: Peter Golenbock, Bums (New York: G.P. Putnam Sons, 1984), 149.
“That there’s dissension on the club”: “Cards’ Poor Showing No. 1 Puzzle to Fans,” Daily News, May 3, 1947.
“Sure, we’re down in the dumps”: “Cards Resolute Despite Slump,” Daily News, May 4, 1947.
A milk-chugging, vitamin-popping: Interview with Marty Marion.
“I heard talk”: Kahn, The Era, 56.
carving and smoothing the handles: Interview with Marty Marion.
“For me at the time”: Kahn, The Era, 56.
> “beat his gums”: Notes from Tygiel interview with Bob Broeg.
“Tell them this is America”: Ford Frick, Games, Asterisks, and People (New York: Crown Publishing, 1973), 97.
“I don’t know how Sam delivered the message”: Ibid.
“You know baseball players”: Transcript of Jerome Holtzman interview of Frick.
Stanley Woodward broke the story: “Frick, Breadon Together Quash Anti-Negro Action,” Herald Tribune, May 9, 1947.
“If you do this you will be suspended”: Ibid.
a race riot had left one prisoner dead: “Race Riot Rages in Army Prison,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 3, 1947.
school officials in Albany were battling: “Judge Voids School Ban on Robeson in Albany,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 6, 1947.
Burt Shotton didn’t believe it: “Check NL ‘Robinson Strike,’ ” Daily Mirror, May 9, 1947.
“essentially right and factual”: “Views of Baseball,” Herald Tribune, May 10, 1947.
playing golf and chopping down trees: Durocher, Nice Guys Finish Last, 261.
“writers have been studiously trying to avoid”: “Robinson Issue Must Be Faced and Settled,” Daily Mirror, May 10, 1947.
“the presence of Negroes”: “The First Negro Player Steps on the Scales,” Sporting News, May 21, 1947.
“a big leaguer of ordinary ability”: “. . . Lynch Mobs Don’t Always Wear Hoods,” New York Post, May 10, 1947.
“Man, they just don’t pitch Jackie”: “Dan Burley’s Confidentially Yours,” Amsterdam News, May 10, 1947.
He checked the lineup card: Robinson, Jackie Robinson, 145.
“the loneliest man”: “. . . Lynch Mobs Don’t Always Wear Hoods,” New York Post, May 10, 1947.
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE GREAT ROAD TRIP
players read and discussed: Barber, 1947, 176.
It hadn’t occurred to Branca to ask: Interview with Branca.
“just can’t bring the Nigger here”: Parrott, The Lords of Baseball, 242.
Chandler had already been on the phone: “Report Robinson Asked Cops’ Aid After Threats,” Daily News, May 10, 1947.
“Jackie has been accepted in baseball”: Ibid.
Freddy Schmidt, a pitcher: Interview with Schmidt.
“We voted not to play”: David Falkner, Great Time Coming (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 165.
“Well, that’s the end of Williams”: Burt Solomon, Baseball Timeline (London: DK Publishing, 2001), 445.
“And don’t bring your team back here”: Parrott, The Lords of Baseball, 243.
he let the rest of the team check into: “Hotel ‘Bars’ Jackie in Philly,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 17, 1947.
“At least two letters of a nature”: “Robinson Reveals Written Threats,” New York Times, May 10, 1947.
hearing rumors of threatening letters: “Report Robinson Asked Cops’ Aid After Threats,” Daily News, May 10, 1947.
“Mr. Rickey thought”: Interview with Buzzie Bavasi.
“Some of the fellows may be riding Jackie”: “Opposing Players Attempting to Avoid Taking Rap for Any Mishap to Jackie,” Sporting News, May 21, 1947.
Chapman told his players: Interview with Schmidt.
“Jackie, you know”: Ibid.
“I know what you are going thru”: Library of Congress archives.
“I happen to be a white Southerner”: Ibid.
“Saw you play in Wichita”: Ibid.
“We are members”: Ibid.
“Your decision to break”: Ibid.
“I can’t take it anymore”: Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, 169.
His mood darkened: Interview with Rachel Robinson.
He made little or no effort: “Jackie Will Get Equal Chance, Rest Up to Him,” Sporting News, May 21, 1947.
“He was the kind of person”: Interview with Rachel Robinson.
“a loving send-off”: Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 180.
an R-17 instead of a G-7: Hillerich & Bradsby archives.
“He was under such pressure”: Interview with Branca.
They appreciated the way he kept to himself: Interviews with Bragan, et al.
just so long as they respected him: Transcript of Rowan interview of Robinson, Library of Congress.
“I wasn’t much in favor”: Interview with Jack Banta.
“To be a Negro was to live”: Sinclair Lewis, Kingsblood Royal (New York: Popular Library, 1947), 62.
Robinson preferred newspapers: Interview with Rachel Robinson.
“I happen to be a bit proud”: Transcript of Rowan interview with Robinson, Library of Congress.
CHAPTER NINE: TEARING UP THE PEA PATCH
Some apartment buildings banned: “Apartment Houses Barring Video Sets,” New York Times, February 13, 1947.
ten beers at ten cents a beer: “Game Challenged by Television’s Growth,” Sporting News, May 21, 1947.
manufacturers produced 20 million radios: Monthly reports, Radio-Electronics-Television Manufacturers, TV Factbook #18, January 15, 1954.
“Certain Aspects of Bovine Obstetrics”: Bob Edwards, Fridays With Red (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 35.
“one foot and five toes in the pickle bag”: “Allen and Barber Give Fans Crisp, Colorful W.S. Airing,” Sporting News, January 8, 1947.
“Well, I’ll be a suck-egg mule”: “ ‘Suck-Egg-Mule’ Kicks Up Fuss, So Barber Explains,” Sporting News, October 22, 1947.
a late lunch one afternoon: Barber, 1947, 49.
“a fine young man”: Ibid., 50.
“I’m going to bring a Negro”: Ibid.
He dabbed some butter: Ibid.
“He had shaken me to my heels”: Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, 54.
“I’m going to quit”: Jules Tygiel, editor, The Jackie Robinson Reader (New York: Dutton, 1997), 58.
“It tortured me”: Ibid.
“Well, I said, I’m Southern”: Ibid., 59.
“If I did do anything constructive”: Ibid., 63.
Margot Hayward and her cousin: Interview with Margot Hayward.
“I always thought their lives”: Ibid.
Little would sit next to his radio: Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (New York: Ballantine Books, 1965), 169.
“become something in life”: Ibid., 35.
“It didn’t bother my teammates”: Ibid.
Glenn Miller’s “Moonlight Serenade”: Ibid., 36.
“Well, yes, sir, I’ve been thinking”: Ibid., 43.
“Jackie Robinson had, then”: Ibid., 179.
CHAPTER TEN: PEE WEE’S EMBRACE
“If tens of thousands of black Southerners”: Nicholas Lemann, The Promised Land (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991), 51.
“Perhaps never in history”: Ibid., 52.
“Police rookies patrol the streets”: The WPA Guide to Cincinnati (The Cincinnati Historical Society, 1987), 224.
Robinson played cards: “Chandler Praises Jackie, Wishes Him Luck,” Richmond Afro-American, May 17, 1947.
They played for no more than twenty-five cents: “Dugout Doings,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 7, 1947.
William Mallory bussed tables: Interview with William Mallory.
many carried shoeboxes: Interviews with Mallory, Donald Spencer, et al.
skies started to clear two hours before the game: “Dodgers Bow to Reds, 7–5,” Daily Mirror, May 14, 1947.
“It was like a picnic, like a holiday”: Interviews with Marian and Donald Spencer.
“The place was packed—all blacks”: Interview with Eddie Erautt.
“I was warming up on the mound”: Golenbock, Bums, 161.
“I saw the incident in Cincinnati”: Interview with Lester Rodney.
“the toast of the town”: “Dodgers’ Pitchers in the Groove—Bullpen to Mound to Showers,” New York Post, May 14, 1947.
“applauded every time he stepped”: “Blackwell to Face Hatten Today; Tatum Goes Well in Debut Here,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 14, 1947.
“M
y father had done his own soul searching”: “In Brooklyn, Honoring Men Who Did the Right Thing,” New York Times, November 2, 2005.
“You know, I didn’t particularly”: “What Jackie Robinson Meant to an Old Friend,” New York Times, July 17, 1977.
warm-up pitches sailed high: “Dodgers Glad to Escape Reds’ Lair as Road Setbacks Increase,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 15, 1947.
“Our team, baseballically speaking”: “Rickey Lauds Shotton, Team at Rotary Lunch,” Brooklyn Eagle, June 5, 1947.
“It is true that I had stored”: Robinson, I Never Had It Made, 80.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE GLORIOUS CRUSADE
not even to the beautiful young secretary: Interview with Wyonella Smith.
“a glorious crusade”: W.E.B. DuBois, Dusk of Dawn (New York: Schocken Books, 1971), 130.
“Everybody was great to me”: Transcript of Jerome Holtzman interview of Wendell Smith.
he was so affable: Interviews with Wyonella Smith and Will Robinson.
“I wish I could sign you, too, kid”: “Wendell Smith—A Pioneer for Black Athletes,” Sporting News, June 22, 1974.
He simply went home and cried: Interview with Wyonella Smith.
seventeen-dollar-a-week job: “Wendell Smith—A Pioneer for Black Athletes,” Sporting News, June 22, 1974.
“While Hitler cripples the Jews”: Hogan, Shades of Glory, 327.
“Have you seen any Negro ballplayers”: Transcript of Holtzman interview of Wendell Smith.
the owners stared in silence: Ibid.
Smith would say he had phoned Muchnick: Ibid.
“wasn’t necessarily the best player”: Ibid.
“And when I said ‘Jackie Robinson’ ”: Ibid.
“ ‘Yes, he’s a bad guy to get along with’ ”: Ibid.
“Now, Mr. Rickey”: Letter from Smith to Rickey, Library of Congress.
“Through all of this”: Transcript of Holtzman interview of Wendell Smith.
“Sure there was added pressure being Jewish”: Hank Greenberg, Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2001), 110.
“That particular play”: “The Sports Beat,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 24, 1947.
“Hope I didn’t hurt you”: Ibid.