On this day #1
On this day in 1945, Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs picked up a pen and signed a contract with the Montreal Royals, the minor league team of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It may be the most important autograph in baseball history, and odds are nobody handed him a free hot dog for it.
That signature broke Major League Baseball's color barrier. Until then, the big leagues had picked players by color as well as by skill. That's an odd way to run a game that is supposed to be about who can hit, catch and run.
Today, when you settle in to watch a game and cheer for whoever is playing well, you are enjoying something that started with one contract on an October day.
The photo is a portrait of Robinson himself, not a picture of the signing. Still, it's a fine look at the man who changed the lineup for everyone who came after.
Photo: Harry Warnecke / Frank Livia / Robert F. Cranston / William Klein, 1949. Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
Harry Warnecke / Frank Livia / Robert F. Cranston / William Klein, 1949 · Wikimedia Commons, CC0 · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jackie_Robinson,_NPG_97_135.jpg
Sources:
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jackie_Robinson,_NPG_97_135.jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson
On this day #2
On this day in 1945, Jackie Robinson, then playing for the Kansas City Monarchs, signed a contract with the Montreal Royals, the minor league team of the Brooklyn Dodgers. With that signature, Major League Baseball's color barrier was broken.
It happened in an office, not on a field, with no crowd cheering. Still, it changed the game. One man put his name on a page and opened a door that had been shut for a very long time.
The photo here isn't from the signing itself. It's a portrait of Jackie Robinson taken a few years later.
I think about this one whenever I pass a ballpark full of all kinds of families. The game we share now was shaped by someone who agreed to go first, knowing it wouldn't be easy. When you think about going first like that, who comes to mind from your own life?
Photo: Harry Warnecke / Frank Livia / Robert F. Cranston / William Klein, 1949. Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
Harry Warnecke / Frank Livia / Robert F. Cranston / William Klein, 1949 · Wikimedia Commons, CC0 · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jackie_Robinson,_NPG_97_135.jpg
Sources:
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jackie_Robinson,_NPG_97_135.jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson
