Sunday was the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking the colour barrier in Major League Baseball. In his honour, I present a collection of photos from those days, courtesy of my file trading friend, Miss Fipi Lele.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
2 replies on “Jackie Robinson”
When I lived in Montreal, I was told stories about Jackie Robinson’s time there. From the stories, he was not liked at first. French people at the time were a bigoted against “les noir” as other people at that time. The change in attitude came about during Jackie’s first game against New York, I believe it was, when he was booed, hissed at, and had racial slurs hurled against him. Montrealers took offence at someone on their team being harassed. That was the start of their acceptance and welcoming of him.
Jackie R did a great thing. A great player, but not a record-setting star like Babe Ruth or DiMaggio. But why are there no equally great celebrations of the achievents of WORLD & OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS Jesse Owens or Joe Louis, both of whom cracked these barrier years earlier?
Owens & Louis both humiliated Adolf Hitler globally (at the ’36 Olympics and with Max Schmelling respectively). Jackie R only did it in the USA as Canada easily accepted a negro baseballer in Montreal before he went to Brooklyn. And no one remembers them today when we think of Jackie R. Someone should.