Pat Williams - How to Be Like Jackie Robinson: Life Lessons from Baseballs Greatest Hero

Praise for Jackie Robinson

Id run into some of Jackies boyhood friends, and years later theyd remember how he had beaten them in marbles. He just had to win at everything. He was an intense competitor, but it was not to hurt you or damage someone. He was striving to be the best.

Rachel Robinson

Jackies widow

Jackie faced more adversity in the big leagues than most people will ever face in their entire lives. It was rather remarkable how he handled all that adversity, his self-discipline. He held it all in, even with all of the terrible things he saw and heard.

Vin Scully

Dodgers broadcaster

He had a fire in him. His whole life, he believed if things were wrong, he wanted to change them. He had a strong belief in himself and what was right, and he was not going to tolerate any injustices to people. He couldnt stand being on the sidelines and being left out of the action.

Sharon Robinson

Jackies daughter

Jackie Robinson was a man of enormous resolve and dignity. He was not a patsy. Through all his trials, he always maintained his dignity. Jackie showed all of us how to be courageous and keep moving forward.

Tom Brokaw

author and former NBC News anchor

Jackie Robinsons life was built around service to an idea, ideal, or a cause. He was always at the service of something or someone: UCLA, the U.S. Army, the Dodgers, the Republican Party, Branch Rickey, the NAACP. He was a champion that way to all people, not just blacks. Very few in history ever have had that.

the late Ralph Wiley

author and sports journalist

Jackie Robinson was a great man, polished and intelligent. But to me, his most unbelievable quality was his self-control in the face of the indignation he endured. Branch Rickey had prepared him well for the difficult times, but its still amazing. You can search the papers and magazines of that time, and you will not find any reports that Jackie shoved anyone in a parking lot or pushed themno reports of any altercations. Its a great lesson for young people: We cant control all thats said and done to us, but we can control how well react.

Carl Erskine

former Brooklyn Dodger and Robinson teammate

Jackie demonstrated all the great human virtues. However, I think among his most awesome talents was his ability to persevere. He stayed the course. He stuck it out. He held on. He endured. He preserved. He remained. He survived. In fact, he did better than survive. He thrived. And because of that, he is a role model for young women and young men the world over.

Maya Angelou

poet and author

Without Jackie Robinson, there would not be me. I would never have gotten an opportunity if Jackie hadnt played well and handled himself in the proper manner. Ive always tried to take his way and apply it to what I do. I think about Jackie Robinson all the time and ask myself, What would he have done?

Tony Gwynn

former San Diego Padres star

With Jackie Robinson, it wasnt about baseball; it wasnt the playing part. It was the way he conducted himself and kept his mouth closed during those early years of abuse. That was difficult to do.

Willie Mays

baseball immortal

I grew up in Manhattan right near the Polo Grounds, but I was a Dodgers fan. Jackie Robinson was my hero. When I was deciding where to go to college, Jackie wrote me and encouraged me to go to UCLA, his alma matter. That meant a lot to me.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

basketball immortal

Health Communications, Inc.

Deerfield Beach, Florida

www.hcibooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Williams, Pat, 1940

How to be like Jackie Robinson : life lessons from baseballs greatest hero / Pat Williams with Mike Sielski.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-7573-0173-8

1. Robinson, Jackie, 19191972. 2. Baseball playersUnited States Biography. 3. African American baseball playersBiography. 4. Conduct of life. I. Sielski, Mike, 1975 II. Title.

GV865.R6W53 2005

796.357092dc22

[B]

2005040261

2005 Pat Williams

ISBN-13: 978-0-7573-0173-5 (paperback)

ISBN-10: 0-7573-0173-8 (paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7573-9486-7 (e-Pub)

ISBN-10: 0-7573-9486-8 (e-Pub)

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

HCI, its Logos and Marks are trademarks of Health Communications, Inc.

Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.

3201 S.W. 15th Street

Deerfield Beach, FL 33442-8190

R-04-13

Cover photo Copyright Bettman/CORBIS

Cover design by Larissa Hise Henoch

Inside book formatting by Dawn Von Strolley Grove

This book is respectfully
dedicated to Rachel,

Sharon and David Robinson.

Our admiration for them
knows no bounds.

Contents

by Allan H. Bud Selig

Introduction: Consumed and Captivated

Courage in the Crucible

A Hero and His Influence

The Pursuit of Victory

A Man of Action

The Strength Within

I Am the Right Man for the Test

A Leader at Heart

Challenges, Choices and Self-Control

The Character Catalog

Moments of Grace

The Unbroken Promise

The Legacy He Leaves

As the commissioner of baseball, I firmly believe that baseball is an important social institution with enormous social responsibilities. This is most evident when you look back in our history and consider the impact that Jackie Robinson made on the lives, not only of African Americans, but all Americans. I have often stated that Major League Baseballs proudest moment and most powerful social statement came on April 15, 1947the day Jackie Robinson set foot on a major-league baseball field. On that day, Jackie broke the color barrier that had existed for decades in the big leagues, and baseball, for the first time, became our true national pastime.

Fifty years to the day after that historic event, I had the privilege of joining Jackies wife, Rachel, and former president Bill Clinton at Shea Stadium to remember Jackie and the history he made. That night, on behalf of Major League Baseball, it was my great honor to retire Jackies number 42 in perpetuity. It was the first time any sport had bestowed such a gesture on an athlete. No single person is bigger than the game of baseball, no one except Jackie Robinson, I said that night at Shea. He remains bigger than the game.

It is vital that we never forget or minimize the significance of Jackie Robinsons legacy. His achievement predated the integration of the United States Army and the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Jackie Robinson changed the game of baseball, but more importantly, he changed the course of our countrys social history.

Because of that legacy, and because of the imprint that he left on the lives of all Americans, each year on April 15, Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day throughout the major leagues. Every club that plays at home on that day honors Jackies place in our nations social history and also highlights how Jackies contributions live on through programs such as the Jackie Robinson Foundation and the Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life educational program.

When I think of Jackie Robinson, my memories take me back to the summer of 1947. I was a teenager and an avid baseball fan, growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In time, Milwaukee would become a major-league baseball citywhen the Boston Braves moved their franchise there in 1953but in those days we had minor-league baseball. If you wanted to watch major-league baseball you had to go to Chicago. In May of that year, a friend of mine and I took a train to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs, but also to get our first in-person glimpse of the National Leagues newest star. The Cubs were playing the Brooklyn Dodgers that day, and we were going to see Jackie Robinson.