The Era, 1947-1957: When the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers Ruled the World by Roger Kahn Read Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Roger Kahn
what Stanley Woodward called “the Hookworm Belt” had one thing only against Robinson.
The color of his skin.
You see what you want to see, I suppose. The racists saw ominous black. To others, Jackie Robinson’s color was something else.
Imperial Ebony.
*Leaving a St. Louis hotel with Barber once, I was struck with 95-degree heat and said one word: “Hot.” Barber’s response: “You have to expect heat in St. Louis if you want to be a baseball writer, young man.”
*This may indicate that the Giants, rather than the Dodgers, were truly the beloved bums.
*The Brooklyn organization did sign Newcombe and Roy Campanella, but both were sent to play under circumstances of obscurity and minimal confrontation with the Nashua ballclub of the old New England League in the summer of 1946. Bavasi went to Nashua to oversee a sensitive situation and run the club. On one road trip, a rival general manager refused to turn over the Nashua team’s share of the gate receipts “because you’re just dirtying up our town with your two niggers.” Thus exposed to the peaceful tolerance of New England, Bavasi decked the other man. He got his money.
*Reese says today, “People tell me that I helped Jackie. But knowing my background and the progress I’ve made, I have to say he helped me as much as I helped him.”
+In 1976, Walker approached me at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and asked if we could drink wine together after a game. He was working as a Dodger coach and had just finished giving batting tips to Steve Yeager, a white catcher, and Dusty Baker, a black outfielder. Walker turned out to be an oenophile and we sipped a marvelous Margaux. He told me of a recent trip to England to search for ancestral roots, and he spoke of Salisbury Cathedral and Devonshire gardens. Then Walker got to his point. “I organized that petition in 1947, not because I had anything against Robinson personally or against Negroes generally. I had a wholesale hardware business in Birmingham and people told me I’d lose my business if I played ball with a black man. That’s why I started the petition. It was the dumbest thing I did in all my life. If you ever get a chance, sometime, please write that I am deeply sorry.” Walker died in Birmingham on May 17, 1982.
*In 1948 Parrott quit journalism and became traveling secretary for the Dodgers. In time, he moved up to ticket manager, a position that provides a limitless opportunity for private profit, through off-the-book deals on tickets to sold-out games. O’Malley fired Parrott, who by this time owned a yacht, at Los Angeles in 1968. Parrott spent his remaining years firing salvos toward O’Malley.
Breakthrough at the Ballyards
J ACKIE ROBINSON , who had begun his minor league career so gloriously in Jersey City, began his major league career slowly in Ebbets Field. Opening Day, against the Boston Braves, he grounded out, flied out, and hit into a double play. “Was I nervous?” Robinson said long afterward. “Yes, I was nervous. But it wasn’t nerves that stopped me from getting any hits. Johnny Sain was pitching for the Braves. He threw just about the best curve ball I’d seen.”
Press scrutiny was intense, though not terribly informed. Bob Feller, the great Cleveland pitcher, had done some barnstorming with Robinson. “Good field, no hit,” Feller pronounced. Someone dredged that up after Robinson’s hitless game. (The man batted . 500 through a month of spring training; after one quiet game a columnist writes that he can’t hit.)
That was Tuesday. On Wednesday it rained. On Thursday, again against the Braves, Robinson bunted toward third base and beat the throw. He had his first major league hit. Now things went the other way. “Robinson could bat .300 just bunting,” someone claimed.
People were electric with anticipation and alarm. Bob Cooke, a witty, graceful baseball writer with the
Herald Tribune
, had been a hockey star at Yale. He was social by background but not a
The color of his skin.
You see what you want to see, I suppose. The racists saw ominous black. To others, Jackie Robinson’s color was something else.
Imperial Ebony.
*Leaving a St. Louis hotel with Barber once, I was struck with 95-degree heat and said one word: “Hot.” Barber’s response: “You have to expect heat in St. Louis if you want to be a baseball writer, young man.”
*This may indicate that the Giants, rather than the Dodgers, were truly the beloved bums.
*The Brooklyn organization did sign Newcombe and Roy Campanella, but both were sent to play under circumstances of obscurity and minimal confrontation with the Nashua ballclub of the old New England League in the summer of 1946. Bavasi went to Nashua to oversee a sensitive situation and run the club. On one road trip, a rival general manager refused to turn over the Nashua team’s share of the gate receipts “because you’re just dirtying up our town with your two niggers.” Thus exposed to the peaceful tolerance of New England, Bavasi decked the other man. He got his money.
*Reese says today, “People tell me that I helped Jackie. But knowing my background and the progress I’ve made, I have to say he helped me as much as I helped him.”
+In 1976, Walker approached me at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and asked if we could drink wine together after a game. He was working as a Dodger coach and had just finished giving batting tips to Steve Yeager, a white catcher, and Dusty Baker, a black outfielder. Walker turned out to be an oenophile and we sipped a marvelous Margaux. He told me of a recent trip to England to search for ancestral roots, and he spoke of Salisbury Cathedral and Devonshire gardens. Then Walker got to his point. “I organized that petition in 1947, not because I had anything against Robinson personally or against Negroes generally. I had a wholesale hardware business in Birmingham and people told me I’d lose my business if I played ball with a black man. That’s why I started the petition. It was the dumbest thing I did in all my life. If you ever get a chance, sometime, please write that I am deeply sorry.” Walker died in Birmingham on May 17, 1982.
*In 1948 Parrott quit journalism and became traveling secretary for the Dodgers. In time, he moved up to ticket manager, a position that provides a limitless opportunity for private profit, through off-the-book deals on tickets to sold-out games. O’Malley fired Parrott, who by this time owned a yacht, at Los Angeles in 1968. Parrott spent his remaining years firing salvos toward O’Malley.
Breakthrough at the Ballyards
J ACKIE ROBINSON , who had begun his minor league career so gloriously in Jersey City, began his major league career slowly in Ebbets Field. Opening Day, against the Boston Braves, he grounded out, flied out, and hit into a double play. “Was I nervous?” Robinson said long afterward. “Yes, I was nervous. But it wasn’t nerves that stopped me from getting any hits. Johnny Sain was pitching for the Braves. He threw just about the best curve ball I’d seen.”
Press scrutiny was intense, though not terribly informed. Bob Feller, the great Cleveland pitcher, had done some barnstorming with Robinson. “Good field, no hit,” Feller pronounced. Someone dredged that up after Robinson’s hitless game. (The man batted . 500 through a month of spring training; after one quiet game a columnist writes that he can’t hit.)
That was Tuesday. On Wednesday it rained. On Thursday, again against the Braves, Robinson bunted toward third base and beat the throw. He had his first major league hit. Now things went the other way. “Robinson could bat .300 just bunting,” someone claimed.
People were electric with anticipation and alarm. Bob Cooke, a witty, graceful baseball writer with the
Herald Tribune
, had been a hockey star at Yale. He was social by background but not a
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