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Jack Roosevelt Robinson was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. When the Dodgers signed Robinson, it heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn, which later became a borough of New York City, the team joined the NL in 1890 as the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and assumed several different monikers thereafter before finally settling on the name Dodgers in 1932. From the 1940s through the mid-1950s, the Dodgers developed a fierce cross-town rivalry with the New York Yankees as the two clubs faced each other in the World Series seven times, with the Dodgers losing the first five matchups before defeating them to win the franchise's first title in 1955. It was also during this period that the Dodgers made history by breaking the baseball color line in 1947 with the debut of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to ever play in the Major Leagues. Another major milestone was reached in 1956 when Don Newcombe became the first player ever to win both the Cy Young Award and the NL MVP in the same season.
Roy Campanella, nicknamed "Campy", was an American baseball player, primarily as a catcher. The Philadelphia native played in the Negro leagues and Mexican League for 9 years before entering the minor leagues in 1946. He made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 1948 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, for whom he played until 1957. His playing career ended when he was paralyzed in an automobile accident in January 1958. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest catchers in the history of the game.
Wesley Branch Rickey was an American baseball player and sports executive. Rickey was instrumental in breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing black player Jackie Robinson. He also created the framework for the modern minor league farm system, encouraged the Major Leagues to add new teams through his involvement in the proposed Continental League, and introduced the batting helmet. He was posthumously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.
Walter Lanier "Red" Barber was an American sports announcer. Barber, nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", was primarily identified with broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds (1934–1938), Brooklyn Dodgers (1939–1953), and New York Yankees (1954–1966). Like his fellow sportscasting pioneer Mel Allen, Barber also gained a niche calling college and professional American football in his primary market of New York City.
Walter Francis O'Malley was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. In 1958, as owner of the Dodgers, he brought major league baseball to the West Coast, moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles despite the Dodgers being the second most profitable team in baseball from 1946 to 1956, and coordinating the move of the New York Giants to San Francisco at a time when there were no teams west of Kansas City, Missouri. For this, he was long vilified by Brooklyn Dodgers fans. However, Pro-O'Malley parties describe him as a visionary for the same business action, and many authorities cite him as one of the most influential sportsmen of the 20th century. Other observers say that he was not a visionary, but instead a man who was in the right place at the right time, and regard him as the most powerful and influential owner in baseball after moving the team.
Fred E. "Dixie" Walker was an American professional baseball player, coach, scout and minor league manager. He played as a right fielder in Major League Baseball from 1931 to 1949. Although Walker was a five-time All-Star selection, and won a National League batting championship (1944) as well as an RBI championship (1945) as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, his accomplishments as a player were overshadowed by his attempt to keep Jackie Robinson from joining the Dodgers in 1947. He also played for the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers and Pittsburgh Pirates.
Clyde Leroy Sukeforth, nicknamed "Sukey", was an American professional baseball catcher, coach, scout and manager. He was best known for signing the first black player in the modern era of Major League Baseball (MLB), Jackie Robinson, after Robinson was scouted by Tom Greenwade in the Negro leagues.
Burton Edwin Shotton was an American player, manager, coach and scout in Major League Baseball. As manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he won two National League pennants and served as Jackie Robinson's first permanent Major League manager.
The Jackie Robinson Story is a 1950 biographical film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Jackie Robinson as himself. The film focuses on Robinson's struggle with the abuse of bigots as he becomes the first African-American Major League Baseball player of the modern era.
The Nashua Dodgers was a farm club of the Brooklyn Dodgers, operating in the class-B New England League between 1946 and 1949. It is believed to be the first professional baseball team based in the United States in the twentieth century to play with a racially integrated roster. The team was based at Holman Stadium in Nashua, New Hampshire.
Soul of the Game is a 1996 television film about Negro league baseball.
The 1950 Brooklyn Dodgers struggled for much of the season, but still wound up pushing the Philadelphia Phillies to the last day of the season before falling two games short. Following the season, Branch Rickey was replaced as majority owner/team president by Walter O'Malley, who promptly fired manager Burt Shotton and replaced him with Chuck Dressen. Buzzie Bavasi was also hired as the team's first independent General Manager.
On April 15, Jackie Robinson was the opening day first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first black player in Major League Baseball. Robinson went on to bat .297, score 125 runs, steal 29 bases and be named the first African-American Rookie of the Year. The Dodgers won the National League title and went on to lose to the New York Yankees in the 1947 World Series. This season was dramatized in the movie 42.
Wid Curry Matthews was an American outfielder, scout and front office executive in Major League Baseball. Matthews served as general manager of the Chicago Cubs for seven full seasons and became one of the first front-office employees in the history of the New York Mets in 1961, the year before they began play in the National League. A native of Raleigh, Illinois, Matthews stood 5 ft, 81⁄2 in (174 cm) tall and weighed 155 pounds (70 kg) in his playing days. He threw and batted left-handed.
The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League baseball team, active primarily in the National League from 1884 until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, California, where it continues its history as the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team moved west at the same time as its longtime rival, the New York Giants, also in the National League, relocated to San Francisco in northern California as the San Francisco Giants. The team's name derived from the reputed skill of Brooklyn residents at evading the city's trolley streetcars. The Dodgers played in two stadiums in South Brooklyn, each named Washington Park, and at Eastern Park in the neighborhood of Brownsville before moving to Ebbets Field in the neighborhood of Crown Heights in 1913. The team is noted for signing Jackie Robinson in 1947 as the first black player in the modern major leagues.
The US congressional testimony by Jackie Robinson, the first African-American Major League Baseball player of the modern era, against the famous entertainer and international civil rights activist Paul Robeson, was an American Cold War incident. Its events were precipitated when, at an international student peace conference held in Paris on April 20, 1949, Paul Robeson allegedly made a speech to the effect that American blacks would not support the United States in a war with the Soviet Union, due to continued second-class citizen status under United States law. This subsequent controversy caused the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) to investigate Robeson and Robinson, as a famed African-American baseball player, was called on to impugn Robeson.
42 is a 2013 American biographical sports film about baseball player Jackie Robinson, the first black athlete to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) during the modern era. Written and directed by Brian Helgeland, the film stars Chadwick Boseman as Robinson, alongside Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie, Christopher Meloni, André Holland, Lucas Black, Hamish Linklater and Ryan Merriman in supporting roles. The title of the film is a reference to Robinson's jersey number, which was retired across all MLB teams in 1997.
The United States League (USL), alternately called the United States Baseball League, was one of the several Negro baseball leagues created during the time organized baseball was segregated. The USL was organized as a minor league in 1945 by Branch Rickey to serve as a platform to scout black players.
Wendell Smith was an African American sportswriter who was influential in the choice of Jackie Robinson to become the first African American player in Major League Baseball in the 20th century.
References
- ↑ Klein, Alvin (December 11, 1994). "The Stuff of Legends". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ↑ Braunagel, Don (May 12, 1992). "Review: 'Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting'". Variety. New York: Penske Media Corporation . Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ↑ Jones, Chris (January 15, 2012). "THEATER REVIEW: "Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting" at Lookingglass Theatre". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ↑ Freeman, Zach (January 16, 2012). "Review: Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting/Lookingglass Theatre Company". NewCity Stage. Chicago, Illinois. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ↑ "Search". Jeff Awards. The Joseph Jefferson Awards. Archived from the original on January 2, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2016.