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 color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. The Dodgers signing Robinson heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s.
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.
Donald Newcombe, nicknamed "Newk", was an American professional baseball pitcher who played ten non-consecutive seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He began his career in the Negro National League and ended it in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
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. In 2008, O'Malley was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to and influence on the game of baseball.
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.
Emil Joseph "Buzzie" Bavasi was an American executive in Major League Baseball who played a major role in the operation of three California baseball franchises from the late 1940s through the mid-1980s, most notably as the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1958 to 1968.
Clyde Leroy Sukeforth, nicknamed "Sukey", was an American baseball catcher, coach, scout and manager. He was best known for scouting and signing Jackie Robinson, the first black player in the modern era of Major League Baseball (MLB), to the Brooklyn Dodgers, after Robinson was scouted by Tom Greenwade in the Negro leagues. He was also instrumental in scouting and acquiring Roberto Clemente for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Charles Walter Dressen was an American third baseman, manager and coach in professional baseball during a career lasting almost fifty years. He is best known as the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1951 to 1953, where he won two National League pennants. Indeed, Dressen's "schooling" of a young baseball writer is one of the most colorful themes in Roger Kahn's classic 1972 memoir, The Boys of Summer. He threw and batted right-handed and was listed at 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall and 145 pounds (66 kg) during his days as an active player.
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.
Ralph Theodore Joseph Branca, nicknamed "Hawk", was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1944 through 1956. Branca played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Detroit Tigers (1953–1954), and New York Yankees (1954). He was a three-time All-Star. In a 1951 playoff, Branca surrendered a walk-off home run to Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants; the game-winning hit was known as the "Shot Heard 'Round the World".
Kenneth Stanley Washington was an American professional football player who was the first African-American to sign a contract with a National Football League (NFL) team in the modern era. He played college football for the UCLA Bruins.
Robert Randall Bragan was an American shortstop, catcher, manager, and coach in Major League Baseball and an influential minor league executive. His professional baseball career encompassed 73 years, from his first season as a player in the Class D Alabama–Florida League in 1937, to 2009, the last full year of his life, when he was still listed as a consultant to the Texas Rangers' organization.
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 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.
Jackie Robinson Stadium is a college baseball park in Los Angeles, California. It is the home field of the UCLA Bruins of the Big Ten Conference. Opened 43 years ago in 1981, it is the smallest ballpark in the conference, with a seating capacity of 1,820. It is named after former Bruin athlete Jackie Robinson, the first African-American major league baseball player of the modern era.
Homer Elliot "Dixie" Howell was an American professional baseball catcher. He appeared in eight seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1947 and 1956 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers.
The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers season was the team's 65th season of play overall and its 58th season of play in the National League (NL) of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Dodgers finished in first place in the National League with a record of 94–60, five games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals. They advanced to the 1947 World Series against the American League champion New York Yankees, but lost the series in seven games. The Dodgers played their home games at Ebbets Field.
Robert Clay Hopper was an American professional baseball player and manager in minor league baseball. Hopper played from 1926 through 1941 and continued managing through 1956.
John Richard Wright was a Negro league pitcher who played briefly in the International League of baseball's minor leagues in 1946, and was on the roster of the Montreal Royals at the same time as Jackie Robinson, making him a plausible candidate to have broken the baseball color barrier. Instead, Wright was demoted from Montreal and returned the next season to the Negro leagues.
42 is a 2013 American biographical sports film written and directed by Brian Helgeland. The plot follows baseball player Jackie Robinson, the first black athlete to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) during the modern era. The title of the film is a reference to Robinson's jersey number, which was universally retired across all MLB teams in 1997. The ensemble cast includes Chadwick Boseman as Robinson, alongside Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie, Christopher Meloni, André Holland, Lucas Black, Hamish Linklater, and Ryan Merriman in supporting roles.
John Wendell Smith was an American sportswriter and civil rights activist who was influential in the choice of Jackie Robinson's career as the first African American Major League Baseball player. Similarly, Smith was one of the first African American sport-writers to be a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, and was posthumously awarded the J. G. Taylor Spink Award by the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993.
