Jim OConnor - Jackie Robinson and the Story of All Black Baseball

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Text copyright 1989 by Jim OConnor. Illustrations copyright 1989 by Jim Butcher. All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
OConnor, Jim.
Jackie Robinson and the story of all-black baseball / by Jim OConnor ; illustrated by Jim Butcher.
p. cm. (Step into reading. A step 5 book)
Summary: Presents a biography of the first black baseball player to play in the major leagues when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Also traces the history of all-black baseball teams.
ISBN 978-0-394-82456-7 (trade) ISBN 978-0-394-92456-4 (lib. bdg.) ISBN 978-0-553-53573-0 (ebook)
1. Robinson, Jackie, 19191972Juvenile literature.
2. Baseball playersUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature.
3. African American baseball playersBiographyJuvenile literature.
4. BaseballUnited StatesHistoryJuvenile literature.
5. Negro leaguesUnited StatesHistoryJuvenile literature. [1. Robinson, Jackie, 19191972. 2. Baseball players. 3. African AmericansBiography.] I. Butcher, Jim, ill. II. Title.
III. Series: Step into reading. Step 5 book.
GV865.R6027 2003 796.357092dc21 2002153806

This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient Leveling System.

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v3.1

For Luke Easter, from a fan
J.OC.

For Roberto Clemente
J.B.

April 15, 1947

It is opening day at Ebbets Field, the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Today they are playing the Boston Braves. The crowd is excited. The crowd is always excited on opening day. But this day is special for another reason.

All along the third-base line fans peer across the bright green diamond. They try to see the new player that the whole country has been talking about.

He is over in the Dodgers dugout. He sits by himself. He looks nervous, and his teammates leave him alone.

Soon the announcer begins to call out the Dodgers names. One by one the players run out onto the field. The stands erupt with a deafening roar. Finally the new players name is called. Someone pats him on the back. Then he jogs to first base with a funny pigeon-toed stride that soon will be famous everywhere.

Who is this player? And why is this day so special?

He is Jackie Robinson. Hes twenty-seven years old. And hes just become the first black man to play major-league baseball in the twentieth century.

Today about a quarter of all major-league ballplayers are black. But in 1947 the world is a very different place. Many hotels will not give rooms to black people. Many restaurants will not serve food to black people. In the South there are separate schools for white children and black children.

Even drinking fountains have signs. They say For whites only.

For more than fifty years major-league baseball has been for whites only too. But not anymore. Not with Jackie Robinson in the Dodger lineup.

Black fans have their hopes riding on Jackie. They know it is not easy being the first man to cross the color line in baseball.

During the season Jackie is booed by people in the stands. They call him awful names. They tell him to go back to the cotton fields, where he belongs.

On the field it isnt any better. Pitchers throw bean ballsballs aimed right at Jackies head. Runners try to spike him with the sharp cleats on their shoes.

At home he gets hate mail. There are letters that threaten to kill him, beat up his wife, and kidnap their baby son.

The pressure gets to Jackie. After only a few games he falls into a batting slump. He makes an out twenty times before getting a hit.

But Jackie doesnt quit. It is hard to take the insults without fighting back. It is hard to be the first. But he knows one thing. If other black players are to get a chance in the big leagues, he has to keep quiet and keep playing.

Jackie pulls out of his slump and starts showing what hes got. By the end of the season he is hitting .296. He leads the Dodgers in runs scored and stolen bases. He has belted twelve home runsthe most any Dodger has hit this season.

With every hit, with every stolen base, with every run scored, Jackie wins more fans. Wherever the Dodgers play, the stands are packed with people who want to see Jackie. There is even a train just for fans going to some Dodgers-Reds games in Cincinnati. It is called the Jackie Robinson Special.

By the middle of the season other teams start signing up black players too. It is the beginning of the end for whites-only baseball.