America's favorite past time is baseball, right? Baseball has been around for quite a while, and has continued growing in popularity since. Because of this, there have been many players who have changed the face of baseball. One of these fantastic population was Jackie Robinson-born Jack Roosevelt Robinson and known as the first contemporary African-American major league baseball player.
Jackie Robinson was born in 1919 in Georgia. Soon, his father left his family and his mom and siblings moved to Pasadena, California. While growing up, Jackie joined a neighborhood gang until he was convinced by a friend to get out of it. Throughout high school, Robinson was a sports fanatic. He participated in football, basketball, tennis, track, and, of course, baseball. In college, Robinson played basketball, football, and baseball-and continued to excel at all three. Soon he transferred out of society college to University of California-Los Angeles. He had the honor of being the first athlete at the school to earn varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track.
Georgia High School Football
Just before graduating with his degree, Jackie Robinson pulled out of school for financial reasons. He played for the Honolulu Bears for a short time. Soon after, he was drafted into the army during World War Ii. He served from 1942-1944 and shortly received an honorable discharge.
Robinson was playing in the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs when he was superior to come to be a part of the Montreal Royals. He was the first African-American player to break the "baseball color line" in about 57 years. Because of his fantastic performance, he was soon asked to play in the major league. Throughout his baseball career, Robinson had to deal with full, and intense racism and hatred. He handled himself well and was glad that several coaches and managers stood up for him. He went on to have an extremely thriving career. He is quoted as saying , "I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me...all I ask is that you respect me as a human being".
Baseball has right on come a long way. Jackie Robinson broke the boundaries of the "color line". He was strong and stood up for what he knew was right. We can predict that baseball will continue to grow in popularity as will puny kids playing catch with their fathers and the masses looking for the best Mlb pick.
listen to this podcast The Legend of Jackie Robinson
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