Robinson Jackie - Opening day : the story of Jackie Robinsons first season

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Praise for Opening Day

In an age of steroids we wonder, what happened to the heroes? In an age of violence we wonder, what happened to the peacemakers? Jackie Robinson was a hero and a peacemaker. In this passionate and riveting book, Jonathan Eig gives us a Jackie Robinson for our timea man of emotion and talent who needed all his skills, not just his athletic ones, to inspire a nation. Opening Day summons us to believe in heroes againand boy do we need it.

Bruce Feiler, author of Walking the Bible and Where God Was Born

Jonathan Eig brings us back to the grit and determination, the hot summer days, the sweat and insecurities that were part of baseballs finest moment. Sixty years after the fact, the story is finally told right. Opening Day is a wonder.

Leigh Montville, author of The Big Bam and Ted Williams

Masterfully researched and beautifully written, Opening Day is that rarest of narrative histories: a truly important story that is at once sympathetic and unflinching, heartfelt and sober. Eigs powerful account of Jackie Robinsons historic first season surprises, thrills, and even challenges our lifetime of presumptions. In its insight we find not just Robinsons story but our own.

Robert Kurson, author of Crashing Through and Shadow Divers

In Opening Day, Jonathan Eig gives us front-row seats to one of the most awe-inspiring, unsettling, and momentous seasons of baseball. This is history at its absolute finest. Its honest, intimate, and one compelling read. Opening Day is a celebration.

Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here

Jonathan Eig has done it again. Opening Day is the compelling story of not only a great baseball star, but also a critical moment in our nations history. It is a terrific read.

Kevin Baker, author of Strivers Row

Mind-opening... Eig is especially informative about the dynamics among the Dodgers.

George Will, Chicago Sun-Times

A major-league biography of a baseball icon... superb.

Dan McGrath, Chicago Tribune

As did Luckiest Man, Opening Day proves that there is so much to be learned about even our most celebrated heroes.... In this thorough and absorbing narrative, Eig brilliantly connects Robinson to the nascent civil rights movement and shows us how he made an impact that is felt as powerfully today as ever. Opening Day is both invaluable history and compelling drama.

Jeremy Schaap, ESPN commentator and author of Cinderella Man

A fine revisionist study by Jonathan Eig, which tells us that Robinson was not quite what he seemed to be... The lesson of Opening Day is that a good redemptive story isnt always the same as the truth. But if Robinson was a temperamental man, hes no less a hero for his self-restraint and perhaps is even more of one.

Farrell Evans, Sports Illustrated

Eig investigates and sometimes debunks the iconic incidents of this nation-changing season, separating myth from fact, and showing again the sort of courage and determination Robinson displayed on the field and off it.

Katherine A. Powers, The Boston Globe

Jonathan Eig hits it out of the park with Opening Day as an intimate baseball reminiscence. He homers again as the book evolves into a sociological examination of an era, a historical drama, and a biography of a cultural phenom.

Lois Reed, The Dallas Morning News

Jonathan Eig separates fact from fiction and presents a fresh, clear view of Robinsons first season in his latest book.... [W]ith his crisp writing style and sharp reporting, Eig accurately describes a turbulent season that changed the landscape of the gameand reveals Robinson the man, not the myth.

Bob DAngelo, The Tampa Tribune

Opening Day is a noteworthy new account of the year that started it allwhen Jackie Robinson put baseball, and America, on notice.

Austin Merrill, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An excellent account of Robinsons first year with the Dodgers.

Bill Reynolds, The Providence Journal

Jonathan Eig does a superb job of recounting Robinsons groundbreaking efforts.... Eigs stylish account of that first season goes beyond the locker room and ball fields, as he delves into the racial pride and uncertainty that accompanied Robinsons ascension to the big leagues.

Steven Goode, Hartford Courant

A wonderfully thorough and thought-provoking look at Robinsons first season in the big leagues.

Bob Hersom, The Oklahoman

A splendid book and a fitting tribute to a trailbreaker of notable athletic ability and even greater inner strength.

Bob Willis, The Roanake Times

Eig offers a fresh perspective on Robinsons rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Read this book and youll be forced to rethink the manner in which history has treated former Dodgers Dixie Walker and Pee Wee Reese.

Steve Buckley, Boston Herald

You dont have to be a baseball fan, a history buff, or a student of the civil rights movement to enjoy Opening Day, a riveting story of Jackie Robinsons arrival with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat

Captivating... A superb storyteller, Eig not only reminds us of what a truly heroic figure Robinson was, but also looks beneath some of the myths surrounding that season.

Cary Clack, San Antonio Express-News

Beautifully written... Opening Day is far, far more than another sports biography.

Robert Philip, The Daily Telegraph (London)

A vivid, enjoyable account that sheds new light on a season thats been written about many times before.

John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News

For my parents, Phyllis and David Eig

Be the change you want to see in the world.

M OHANDAS G ANDHI

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.

J ACKIE R OBINSON

April 10, 1947

The telephone rang like an alarm, waking Jackie Robinson from deep sleep.

Hello, he mumbled.

It was early morning in Manhattan. Robinson was alone in room 1169 of the McAlpin Hotel, across the street from Macys. He had been on edge all week, his stomach in knots. As he listened to the voice on the other end of the phone, he was poised to embark on a journeyone that would test his courage, shake the game of baseball to its roots, and forever change the face of the nation. Throughout history, heroic quests have often been launched on grand orders. The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River... , wrote Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis. The free men of the world are marching together to Victory! General Dwight David Eisenhower exhorted his troops before the D-Day invasion. But the commanding words that sent Robinson on his way this cool, gray morning were uttered by a humble secretary.

Come to Brooklyn, she said.

He showered and shaved and hurried out of the hotel. He was on his way to meet Branch Rickey, president and part owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and to learn whether Rickey was ready to end the segregation of the races in big-league baseball.

In 1947, some southern states still denied the vote to black Americans. Black children were not entitled to attend the same schools as white children. Lynch mobs executed their own bloodthirsty style of justice while local law enforcement officials looked the other way. Im sorry, but they done got him, one sheriff in North Carolina announced that year after a gang of white men made off with one of his prisoners. Black Americans were excluded not only from certain schools but also from parks, beaches, playgrounds, department stores, night clubs, swimming pools, roller-skating rinks, theaters, rest rooms, barber shops, railroad cars, bus seats, military units, libraries, factory floors, and hospitals. In the North, WHITES ONLY signs were far less evident than in the South, but the veiled message was often the same. Black men on business in Chicago, Detroit, or Cleveland usually stayed in black-owned hotels, rode in black-owned taxis, and dined in black-owned restaurants. If a white man became acquainted with a black man, odds were good that the acquaintance stemmed from some service the black man performed for the white manshining his shoes, for example, or mowing his lawn, or mixing his cocktails.