Jackie Robinson
With Jackie's picture up, I remembered some comments I left in an old MLK thread, where I mentioned Jackie. I just thought I'd repost them:

I agree with both Bean and Stern here. There are some accomplishments that rise above the rest of the noise. MLK's was one of those. At great personal risk, he stood up to a great injustice, and as a result, changed the dynamic for all posterity.I will add one name to the short list of real heroes in this respect: Jackie Robinson. If you've never read about him or watched a documentary on him, take the time to do so. Jackie walked proudly and quietly into a world that despised and resented him and everything he stood for. His silence in the face of an onslaught of abuse and threats belied the passion with which he played the game of baseball.

Every word he didn't speak with his mouth, he spoke at volume with an all-out, no apologies brand of baseball that would, alone, have him standing as one of the all-time greats. That he did so with dignity and grace amidst a cacauphony of hatred set the stage for those who would follow.

Like King, Robinson changed the dynamic at great personal risk and sacrifice. I have no idea what his politics were, and I will never care.

For those that don't follow baseball, or know about Jackie Robinson's accomplishments, Jackie was the first black player to play Major League Baseball (since the 1800s). For years, black players had been accomplishing great things in the Negro Leagues, but were barred from playing in the Majors.

In a game played nearly every day for 6 months at a time, Jackie stood up to hate-filled abuse day after day in his rookie season, (first year in the Major's; not his first year in baseball), and well beyond it. Despite this hardship -- which would have derailed not only lesser men, but many greats as well -- Jackie not only played the game, but played it better than most. In that rookie season, despite the enormous pressure of being a trailblazer in an unfriendly wilderness, Jackie won the Rookie of the Year award. He went on to win the league's Most Valuable Player award in 1949.

Of Robinson, Henry Aaron -- the Major League's all-time home run king, and no stranger to racial abuse -- said,

To this day, I don't know how he withstood the things he did without lashing back. I've been through a lot in my time, and I consider myself to be a patient man, but I know I couldn't have done what Jackie did. I don't think anybody else could have done it. Somehow, though, Jackie had the strength to suppress his instincts, to sacrifice his pride for his people's. It was an incredible act of selflessness that brought the races closer together than ever before and shaped the dreams of an entire generation.

Jackie was inducted into Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame in 1962. In 1997, he became the only man to have his number (#42) retired by every Major League team. No player will ever where that number again.

Jackie made Time's "100 Most Important People of the Century". The tribute, written by Henry Aaron, is well worth the read.

Footnote: In addition to his baseball and civil rights accomplishments, Jackie also served his country for 3 years in the U.S. Army. Prior to that, was the first man in the history of UCLA atheletics to letter in 4 sports (football, baseball, basketball and track) in the same year. The track stadium at UCLA bears his name. - served up by Nomad @ 11:04 AM