The man known as Jackie Robinson was so much more than just a man — he was so much more than just a ball player. He was a vehicle and a symbol for change, progress, integrity and justice.
As every player in MLB wears No. 42 in his honor today, we are all aware of the big things Robinson did for the game and for his country. But if we dig a little deeper, we can look at some of the smaller things that helped to define the icon the baseball world said goodbye to over four decades ago.
April 15, 1947: The debut game on Opening Day for Robinson has been officially recognized as Jackie Robinson Day since 2004. He went 0-for-3 in the game and reached base once on a throwing error to first base after he laid down a sacrifice bunt.
April 18, 1947: Robinson hits his first career home run, a solo shot off New York Giants pitcher Dave Koslo as the leadoff hitter in the top of the third inning on a 0-1 count.
June 14, 1947: In the top of the first inning against the St. Louis Cardinals, Robinson doubles to center field, beginning his longest hit streak as a pro that would eventually end at 21 games. No MLB player has ever carried out a longer hitting streak in their rookie season.
At the culmination of the 1947 MLB season, Robinson became the inaugural winner of the league wide Rookie of the Year award. As a 28-year-old with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he led the league in stolen bases with 29, hit an impressive .297/.383/.427 and plated 125 runs. Robinson finished fifth in MVP voting. As a 28-year-old rookie, he is the only player ever to win a ROY award at that age and holds the highest BA, runs scored and home run totals for an aged 28 rookie since 1947.
August 28, 1948: Robinson hits for the cycle in reverse natural fashion. He hit a two-run home run in his first at-bat, followed that up with a leadoff triple and then doubled an inning later in his third at-bat of the game. After lining out in the top of the sixth, Robinson made it to the plate in the eighth for his fifth at-bat of the game and singled with a runner on first to center field.
May 1949: Robinson records 116 ABs in the month and bats .431. He played in and started 28 games and collected at least one hit every day in May except for three.
BoSox Injection
At the culmination of the 1949 season, Robinson was named the National League’s Most Valuable player. He was the first second baseman to earn the distinction since it was handed out in its inaugural year to St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Frankie Frisch in 1931. The next to win the award at his position after him was Joe Morgan of the Cincinnati Reds in 1975. The honor made him the first of 19 more players who would follow him to win both an MVP and a ROY award.
Robinson was 30 when he won the award, leading the league in stolen bases (37) and winning himself an NL batting title by hitting .342, only a point less than the same years AL MVP Ted Williams. Robinson struck out only 27 times in 704 plate appearances. His 124 RBI marks the 16th most by anyone since his debut season in their aged 30 season. Even more impressive, Robinson hit only 16 home runs that season. Since 1947, he is the only player to hit better than .300 and drive in over 120 runs while having less than 20 long balls in a year.
In 1948, Hank Majeski of the Athletics put together a line of .310-12-120 and in 1997 Tony Gwynn went .372-17-119. A distinction Robinson shares with Gwynn is both players have career batting averages over .300 and neither one of them ever struck out more than 40 times in a single season over their entire careers.
September 28, 1950: Robinson steals his 12th and final base of the season, capping a consecutive four-year run where he stole a league high 100 bases without getting caught once. Over the same 1947-50 stretch, Bob Dillinger finished second with 91 stolen bases, but was thrown out 41 times, or in 45 percent of his attempts.
September 15, 1952: Facing pitcher Joe Nuxhall of the Reds, Robinson hits his second home run of the game tying his personal best of 19 in a season. If it weren’t for coming up one short of 20 in both ’51 and ’52, as per Satchel Price at Beyond the Boxscore, Robinson would have been only the eighth and ninth instance of a player attaining 20-20 status for home runs and stolen bases in between 1901 and 1954.
October 1952: Robinson’s yearly salary for playing baseball peaks at $39,750 dollars. The average cost of a home in the United States that same year is $9,050.
July 13, 1954: Elected to his sixth and final All-Star Game, Robinson starts in left field and hits seventh. He goes 1-for-2 with a double and records two runs batted in.
September 28, 1955: Much to the dismay of New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra who goes ballistic on the umpire in Game 1 of the World Series, Robinson successfully steals home. The Dodgers went on to lose the game 6-5 but ultimately won the series in game seven for the first championship in the franchises 61 year history.
September 30, 1956: Robinson hits a home run batting out of the cleanup spot in the final game of his historic career. While it wasn’t in his last ever at-bat like Teddy Ballgame, Robinson joined he and Mickey Cochrane as the only Hall of Famers to go deep in the swan song game of their careers.
October 24, 1972: Jackie Robinson passes away in Stamford, Connecticut at the age of 53, only 16 years after he retires from baseball. Only a few days later, U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger declares “peace is at hand” after a visit to South Vietnam. About a month later, Atari releases the video arcade game Pong. The average cost of a new home in America that year is $27,550, a pair of denim Wrangler jeans costs $12 and a pound of ground beef at the super market is 98 cents.
In 2013, the average cost of a home was $289,500, or $6,750 less than the total career earnings made by Robinson in his 10 year playing career that forever changed a nation.
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