Remembering Jackie Robinson and Ernie Banks on Their Birthday
Born January 31, 1919, Jackie Robinson broke the modern color barrier and opened up Major League Baseball for others to come after him.
The 2017 season will be a big one for remembering Jackie Robinson. On April 15, Major League Baseball will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the day he became the first African American to play in the major leagues in the 20th century. Every player in the league will wear Robinson’s number 42 that day, a tradition that started in 2009. That same day, the Los Angeles Dodgers will unveil a 10-foot-tall statue of Robinson at Dodger Stadium.
Robinson was the player chosen by Branch Rickey, the club president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, to be the first African American to play in the modern major leagues. This was not a popular choice among Negro League players at the time. Robinson had only played one year with the Kansas City Monarchs when Rickey signed him and he was not the best or most famous African American player available. Satchel Paige was a legendary pitcher who had performed well in exhibition games against major league players. Josh Gibson was a very talented catcher known as “the Black Babe Ruth.”
Larry Doby, who became the second African American player in the big leagues just a couple months after Robinson played his first game, said, “One of the things that was disappointing and disheartening to a lot of the black players at the time was that Jack was not the best player. The best was Josh Gibson. I think that’s one reason why Josh died so early—he was heartbroken.” Gibson died at the age of 36 about three months before Jackie Robinson made his debut with the Dodgers in 1947.
Robinson was the man chosen to be the trailblazer and he had the mental toughness to not only survive the abuse he received, but to shine through it. He played one year with the Montreal Royals in the Triple-A International League before debuting with the Dodgers as a 28-year-old first baseman in 1947. He led the league in steals and sacrifice bunts and was named the Rookie of the Year. He finished fifth in NL MVP voting. He did all this while battling rampant racism by the fans and opposing players. Even some of the players on his own team were hostile towards him.
That was the start of a very good, if short career. Because Robinson didn’t get his start in the big leagues until he was 28. His career only lasted 10 seasons. He was still a good player in his final years, but didn’t play as much as he would have liked because of injuries. After playing an average of 150 games per year during his first six years (when the season was 154 games long), Robinson averaged 120 games per year over his final four seasons.
As it happens, January 31 is also the birthday of another famous African American player who is in the Hall of Fame. Ernie Banks was born on January 31, 1931, 12 years after Robinson. Six years after Robinson broke the modern color barrier, Banks became the first African American to play for the Chicago Cubs.
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It’s important to remember that some teams took longer to integrate than others. In 1947, Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby and Hank Thompson were the first African Americans to play for Brooklyn, Cleveland and the St. Louis Browns, respectively. The New York Giants got on board two years later, with Monte Irvin and Hank Thompson, followed by the Boston Braves in 1950 (Sam Jethroe), the Chicago White Sox in 1951 (Minnie Minoso) and the Philadelphia Athletics in 1953 (Bob Trice).
When Ernie Banks took the field for the Chicago Cubs on September 17, 1953, only half of the 16 major league teams had fielded an African American player. This was six years after Jackie Robinson had been the first. It would be another six years before all major league teams had been integrated (the Red Sox were the last team to sign an African American player).
Ernie Banks got a cup of coffee with the Cubs as a 22-year-old shortstop in September of 1953. That year, Jackie Robinson was near the end of a run of six straight All-Star seasons. He would be an All-Star for the final time in 1954 when he hit .311/.413/.505. Ernie Banks was still establishing himself in 1954, but would come into his own the next season with a 44-HR, 117-RBI season that saw him make the All-Star team for the first of 11 times. Robinson would play one final season in 1956. Banks would be one of the best players in the National League over the next five years, which included back-to-back MVP seasons in 1958 and 1959.
Jackie Robinson and Ernie Banks were born on the same day, 12 years apart. They both spent time in the military and both were the first African American players on their major league teams. They did it with very different personalities, though. Being the pioneer, Jackie had to tolerate the attacks with quiet dignity, particularly during his first season. Later, he could let his natural assertiveness show. He was aggressive and daring on the base paths and had an intensity about him that was unmatched.
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Ernie Banks was famously more easy-going. He often had a big, welcoming smile on his face and a warm greeting for everyone he met. When Banks died two years ago, Bud Selig spoke at Wrigley Field, saying that Banks was “synonymous with a childlike enthusiasm for baseball.” Banks was also well known for saying, “Let’s play two!”
As he tells it, “It was a very bad day in Chicago. And I came into the locker room and I was feeling great! And I said to all my teammates, ‘It’s a beautiful day—let’s play two!’ That was a time in my life that I was really excited about going to Wrigley Field. I was just so happy, that’s what I said, ‘It’s a beautiful day—let’s play two!’”
In November of 2013, Ernie Banks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama. This—along with the Congressional Gold Medal—is the highest civilian award of the United States. It recognizes those people who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural, or other significant public or private endeavors.” Jackie Robinson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1984.
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During the ceremony in 2013, President Obama said of Banks, “Ernie became known as much for his 512 home runs as for his cheer, and his optimism and his eternal faith that someday the Cubs would make it all the way.” Banks gave President Obama an official Jackie Robinson bat. He said the ceremony served as a symbolic passing of the torch when he gave the first African American president the bat of the first African American ballplayer. Happy birthday to both Jackie Robinson and Ernie Banks, two of baseball’s all-time greats both on the field and off.