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How Robinson's debut was covered
April 11, 2007
How some media covered Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947:
BROOKLYN (AP) – Pete Reiser, key to Brooklyn's flag chances, blazed a seventh-inning double off the screen a foot inside the right-field foul line at Ebbets Field today to drive across the tying and winning runs as the pilotless Dodgers opened their 1947 campaign with a 5-to-3 victory over the Boston Braves.
Although he did not get a hit in four official times at bat, Jackie Robinson, first Negro to play in modern big league ball, signalized his official debut as a Dodger by sprinting home with the deciding run on Reiser's smash and playing perfect ball at first base.
International News Service
NEW YORK – For the first time in baseball history a Negro played in a major league game today.
The Negro was Jackie Robinson, first-baseman of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who helped his team defeat the Boston Braves 5 to 3.
The Dodgers, minus their manager, Leo Durocher, staged a three-run rally in the seventh to give Hal Gregg the decision over Johnny Sain.
The New York Times
By Roscoe McGowen
Even without Skipper Leo Durocher, the good ship "Dodger" proved yesterday that it could sail safely into port, although slightly storm-battered in the process.
Managed by Clyde Sukeforth, skipper pro tem, who sent eighteen of his crew into action, the Brooks docked just ahead of the Boston Braves and are sharing the National League lead today – if it never happens again.
Flatbush fans, 26,623 of them, who watched their favorite team rally to win, 5-3, had no problem about dividing their cheers. All of them went to an old hero, Pistol Pete Reiser, who has heard that roar of acclaim so many times.
(Robinson mentioned only in play-by-play in sixth and 16th paragraphs)
The New York Times
By Arthur Daley
(second half of his column)
The debut of Jackie Robinson was quite uneventful, even though he had the unenviable distinction of snuffing out a rally by hitting into a remarkable double play. His dribbler through the box in the fifth should have gone for a safety, but Dick Culler, playing in on the grass, made a diving stop, threw to second for a force while prostrate on the ground, and Connie Ryan nailed the fleet Robbie at first for a dazzling twin killing.
The muscular Negro minds his own business and shrewdly makes no effort to push himself. He speaks quietly and intelligently when spoken to and already has made a strong impression. "I was nervous in the first play of my first game at Ebbets Field," he said with his ready grin, "but nothing has bothered me since."
A veteran Dodger said of him, "Having Jackie on the team is still a little strange, just like anything else that's new. We just don't know how to act with him. But he'll be accepted in time. You can be sure of that. Other sports have had Negroes. Why not baseball? I'm for him, if he can win games. That's the only test I ask." And that seems to be the general opinion.
Robinson's tremendous speed afoot did accomplish one thing, since it set up the winning run which he personally carried home. His deft sacrifice bunt was so well placed that Earl Torgeson had to make a hurried throw to Ryan at the bag. And his shot caromed off a Robinson shoulder blade into right field to give both runners an extra base. Then Pete Reiser doubled them both home.
New York Herald Tribune
By Bob Cooke
The Brooklyn Dodgers, still without a permanent leader, found an adequate one for their opener yesterday when they grouped themselves behind Pete Reiser, their winged-footed outfielder, who encircled the Boston Braves with as much ease as he did the bases.
Reiser scored three runs and drove in two more as Brooklyn staged a snappy world premiere with the kind cooperation of the Bostonians. The score was 5 to 3, and it was Reiser who added up the totals.
A solemn crowd of 26,623 customers looked on, none of whom could be accused of relationship to the normal Ebbets Field fan who is frequently guilty of conduct unbecoming to the other boroughs. Both teams were politely cheered when the lineups were announced and John Cashmore, Brooklyn Borough President, was given a timid reception when he threw out the first ball.
The game was played in an atmosphere of stillness interrupted only by the patter of Reiser's feet.
A number of observers had been attracted by the presence of Jackie Robinson, Brooklyn's Negro first baseman, but as the innings passed it was all any one could do to keep their eyes on Reiser.
(10th paragraph)
Robinson fielded his position admirably, but was held hitless in three attempts. He rapped into a double play in the fifth with runners on first and third.
New York Herald Tribune
By Red Smith
Baseball, a game invented in Brooklyn by Larry MacPhail and refined to extreme lengths by Leo Durocher, returned to its birthplace yesterday with both its foster parents missing. Also missing were about 5,800 critters whose absence was unexplained. In spite of honey-and-gold weather, only 26,623 of Ebbets Field's 32,500 seats were occupied, and there were wide, piebald patches of untented pews in left field. This gave rise of to a rumor considered widely implausible in some quarters – that Durocher has 5,800 friends in Brooklyn. …
(12th paragraph)
However, Hatten, helped himself with a skillful play on a grounder by Danny Litwhiler when the Braves were threatening in the fourth, and he might have got through all the way if Jackie Robinson could have aided him in the fifth innings.
That dark and anxious young man had grounded out the first time he faced Johnny Sain and flied out the second. Now he came up for the third time, with two runners on and one out. He seemed frantic with eagerness, restless as a can of worms.
He fouled off the first pitch. Phil Masi, the Boston catcher, caught it but knocked himself goggle-eyed against the Braves dugout and dropped the ball. Robinson took a called strike on the outside corner, then rapped a bleeder toward second which looked like a sure hit for a man of his speed.
Cutler, however, dived on the ball, scooped it to Connie Ryan, who tagged second and beat Robbie with a throw to first for a double play. Robinson kicked up dirt with his spikes but made no protest.
New York Daily News
By Dick Young
It has been said quite often of Pete Reiser, and by no less a person than Branch Rickey, that the kid is somewhat of a "hypo," meaning hypochondriac. Maybe so, but to the Brooks he's a hypo, meaning stimulant, and he wasted no time proving it again this season by breaking the Brooks on top of the NL pack with a masterful one-man show in yesterday's 5-3 opening-day victory over the Braves.
(last paragraph)
In his debut, Jackie Robinson, the majors' most-discussed rookie, fielded flawlessly at first base but went hitless in three official trips to the plate. He rolled out to third in the first, lofted a soft fly to left in the third, rifled a hot double-play grounder to short to close out the fifth, and then scored the winning tally on Reiser's seventh-inning double, after reaching on a sacrifice-error by the Braves' rookie counterpart – Earl Torgeson.
New York Journal-American
By Michael Gavan
The name of the new Brooklyn manager was of comparatively small interest in Flatbush today. Just as long as Pete Reiser can hit the ball and scamper around the bases as he did in the opening game what difference does it make who battles the umpires!
Potentially, the best ball player in the business, Pistol Pete could even mean a pennant if he could escape injury and play every day. He's that good. Fitting example of a healthy Reiser's unestimable value was provided in the glorious inaugural triumph over the Braves.
(Robinson not mentioned in story)
New York World-Telegram
By Bill Roder
EBBETS FIELD – Minus last year's manager and coaches, the Dodgers opened the season here today in the first of three games against the Boston Braves, with Clyde Sukeforth as pro tem pilot.
The Dodgers won, 5-3.
Before a near sellout throng of 31,000 lefty Joe Hatten pitched against 20-game winner Johnny Sain.
Jackie Robinson, first Negro to play in the majors, was on first base for the Dodgers and a newcomer of less than 24 hours, Johnny Jorgenson, was on third base. Jorgenson was purchased last night from the farm in Montreal.
New York World-Telegram
By Bill Roeder
(The following day)
Have the Dodgers gone sane? That's what Brooklyn fans were asking one another today as they praised Clyde (Pro Tem) Sukeforth's first managerial performance and reviewed it comparatively, play by play, in terms of what Leo Durocher would have done.
Some of the fans thought they detected a rare element of cautious baseball in Sukeforth's 5-3 opening day victory over the Braves. Are the fans right or wrong? The answer: yes and no. …
(8th paragraph)
… Howard Schultz replaced Jackie Robinson at first base in the ninth inning.
Sukeforth said he ran Tom Taum for Dixie Walker in the sixth inning, when the Dodgers were behind, because speed was required as a precaution against the double play. "We have so many good players on our team that I could afford to make a move like that," Sukey explained.
Reiser, whose two hits, three runs scored and two driven in represented Brooklyn's effective offense in toto, had a reassuring word for Robinson, who went hitless his first game in the big leagues. "He'll be all right," Pete volunteered. "He'll steady down and he'll be fine." Sukeforth had the same to say about the other rookie, Johnny Jorgenson, the overnight regular at third base.
The New York Post
By Arch Murray
Ebbets Field – With their lost leader a forlorn figure in California and nobody exactly eager for his old job, the Durocherless Dodgers started out today on the quest that failed a year ago. As Leo himself used to put it, they'll be out after the Cardinals all over again.
Billy Southworth's resurgent Braves – the same club that knocked them out of the 1946 pennant on the last day of the season – furnished the initial opposition before a sellout house at Ebbets Field. But the world champion Redbirds, heavily favored to repeat, will be the main target as old.
Joe Hatten, sophomore southpaw who beat the Bostons four times last year without defeat, opened on the mound with Johnny Sain, curve-balling 20-game winner, as his opponent. Jackie Robinson, the first colored boy ever to don major league flannels, started at first base and batted second for the Dodgers.
April 11, 2007
How some media covered Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947:
BROOKLYN (AP) – Pete Reiser, key to Brooklyn's flag chances, blazed a seventh-inning double off the screen a foot inside the right-field foul line at Ebbets Field today to drive across the tying and winning runs as the pilotless Dodgers opened their 1947 campaign with a 5-to-3 victory over the Boston Braves.
Although he did not get a hit in four official times at bat, Jackie Robinson, first Negro to play in modern big league ball, signalized his official debut as a Dodger by sprinting home with the deciding run on Reiser's smash and playing perfect ball at first base.
International News Service
NEW YORK – For the first time in baseball history a Negro played in a major league game today.
The Negro was Jackie Robinson, first-baseman of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who helped his team defeat the Boston Braves 5 to 3.
The Dodgers, minus their manager, Leo Durocher, staged a three-run rally in the seventh to give Hal Gregg the decision over Johnny Sain.
The New York Times
By Roscoe McGowen
Even without Skipper Leo Durocher, the good ship "Dodger" proved yesterday that it could sail safely into port, although slightly storm-battered in the process.
Managed by Clyde Sukeforth, skipper pro tem, who sent eighteen of his crew into action, the Brooks docked just ahead of the Boston Braves and are sharing the National League lead today – if it never happens again.
Flatbush fans, 26,623 of them, who watched their favorite team rally to win, 5-3, had no problem about dividing their cheers. All of them went to an old hero, Pistol Pete Reiser, who has heard that roar of acclaim so many times.
(Robinson mentioned only in play-by-play in sixth and 16th paragraphs)
The New York Times
By Arthur Daley
(second half of his column)
The debut of Jackie Robinson was quite uneventful, even though he had the unenviable distinction of snuffing out a rally by hitting into a remarkable double play. His dribbler through the box in the fifth should have gone for a safety, but Dick Culler, playing in on the grass, made a diving stop, threw to second for a force while prostrate on the ground, and Connie Ryan nailed the fleet Robbie at first for a dazzling twin killing.
The muscular Negro minds his own business and shrewdly makes no effort to push himself. He speaks quietly and intelligently when spoken to and already has made a strong impression. "I was nervous in the first play of my first game at Ebbets Field," he said with his ready grin, "but nothing has bothered me since."
A veteran Dodger said of him, "Having Jackie on the team is still a little strange, just like anything else that's new. We just don't know how to act with him. But he'll be accepted in time. You can be sure of that. Other sports have had Negroes. Why not baseball? I'm for him, if he can win games. That's the only test I ask." And that seems to be the general opinion.
Robinson's tremendous speed afoot did accomplish one thing, since it set up the winning run which he personally carried home. His deft sacrifice bunt was so well placed that Earl Torgeson had to make a hurried throw to Ryan at the bag. And his shot caromed off a Robinson shoulder blade into right field to give both runners an extra base. Then Pete Reiser doubled them both home.
New York Herald Tribune
By Bob Cooke
The Brooklyn Dodgers, still without a permanent leader, found an adequate one for their opener yesterday when they grouped themselves behind Pete Reiser, their winged-footed outfielder, who encircled the Boston Braves with as much ease as he did the bases.
Reiser scored three runs and drove in two more as Brooklyn staged a snappy world premiere with the kind cooperation of the Bostonians. The score was 5 to 3, and it was Reiser who added up the totals.
A solemn crowd of 26,623 customers looked on, none of whom could be accused of relationship to the normal Ebbets Field fan who is frequently guilty of conduct unbecoming to the other boroughs. Both teams were politely cheered when the lineups were announced and John Cashmore, Brooklyn Borough President, was given a timid reception when he threw out the first ball.
The game was played in an atmosphere of stillness interrupted only by the patter of Reiser's feet.
A number of observers had been attracted by the presence of Jackie Robinson, Brooklyn's Negro first baseman, but as the innings passed it was all any one could do to keep their eyes on Reiser.
(10th paragraph)
Robinson fielded his position admirably, but was held hitless in three attempts. He rapped into a double play in the fifth with runners on first and third.
New York Herald Tribune
By Red Smith
Baseball, a game invented in Brooklyn by Larry MacPhail and refined to extreme lengths by Leo Durocher, returned to its birthplace yesterday with both its foster parents missing. Also missing were about 5,800 critters whose absence was unexplained. In spite of honey-and-gold weather, only 26,623 of Ebbets Field's 32,500 seats were occupied, and there were wide, piebald patches of untented pews in left field. This gave rise of to a rumor considered widely implausible in some quarters – that Durocher has 5,800 friends in Brooklyn. …
(12th paragraph)
However, Hatten, helped himself with a skillful play on a grounder by Danny Litwhiler when the Braves were threatening in the fourth, and he might have got through all the way if Jackie Robinson could have aided him in the fifth innings.
That dark and anxious young man had grounded out the first time he faced Johnny Sain and flied out the second. Now he came up for the third time, with two runners on and one out. He seemed frantic with eagerness, restless as a can of worms.
He fouled off the first pitch. Phil Masi, the Boston catcher, caught it but knocked himself goggle-eyed against the Braves dugout and dropped the ball. Robinson took a called strike on the outside corner, then rapped a bleeder toward second which looked like a sure hit for a man of his speed.
Cutler, however, dived on the ball, scooped it to Connie Ryan, who tagged second and beat Robbie with a throw to first for a double play. Robinson kicked up dirt with his spikes but made no protest.
New York Daily News
By Dick Young
It has been said quite often of Pete Reiser, and by no less a person than Branch Rickey, that the kid is somewhat of a "hypo," meaning hypochondriac. Maybe so, but to the Brooks he's a hypo, meaning stimulant, and he wasted no time proving it again this season by breaking the Brooks on top of the NL pack with a masterful one-man show in yesterday's 5-3 opening-day victory over the Braves.
(last paragraph)
In his debut, Jackie Robinson, the majors' most-discussed rookie, fielded flawlessly at first base but went hitless in three official trips to the plate. He rolled out to third in the first, lofted a soft fly to left in the third, rifled a hot double-play grounder to short to close out the fifth, and then scored the winning tally on Reiser's seventh-inning double, after reaching on a sacrifice-error by the Braves' rookie counterpart – Earl Torgeson.
New York Journal-American
By Michael Gavan
The name of the new Brooklyn manager was of comparatively small interest in Flatbush today. Just as long as Pete Reiser can hit the ball and scamper around the bases as he did in the opening game what difference does it make who battles the umpires!
Potentially, the best ball player in the business, Pistol Pete could even mean a pennant if he could escape injury and play every day. He's that good. Fitting example of a healthy Reiser's unestimable value was provided in the glorious inaugural triumph over the Braves.
(Robinson not mentioned in story)
New York World-Telegram
By Bill Roder
EBBETS FIELD – Minus last year's manager and coaches, the Dodgers opened the season here today in the first of three games against the Boston Braves, with Clyde Sukeforth as pro tem pilot.
The Dodgers won, 5-3.
Before a near sellout throng of 31,000 lefty Joe Hatten pitched against 20-game winner Johnny Sain.
Jackie Robinson, first Negro to play in the majors, was on first base for the Dodgers and a newcomer of less than 24 hours, Johnny Jorgenson, was on third base. Jorgenson was purchased last night from the farm in Montreal.
New York World-Telegram
By Bill Roeder
(The following day)
Have the Dodgers gone sane? That's what Brooklyn fans were asking one another today as they praised Clyde (Pro Tem) Sukeforth's first managerial performance and reviewed it comparatively, play by play, in terms of what Leo Durocher would have done.
Some of the fans thought they detected a rare element of cautious baseball in Sukeforth's 5-3 opening day victory over the Braves. Are the fans right or wrong? The answer: yes and no. …
(8th paragraph)
… Howard Schultz replaced Jackie Robinson at first base in the ninth inning.
Sukeforth said he ran Tom Taum for Dixie Walker in the sixth inning, when the Dodgers were behind, because speed was required as a precaution against the double play. "We have so many good players on our team that I could afford to make a move like that," Sukey explained.
Reiser, whose two hits, three runs scored and two driven in represented Brooklyn's effective offense in toto, had a reassuring word for Robinson, who went hitless his first game in the big leagues. "He'll be all right," Pete volunteered. "He'll steady down and he'll be fine." Sukeforth had the same to say about the other rookie, Johnny Jorgenson, the overnight regular at third base.
The New York Post
By Arch Murray
Ebbets Field – With their lost leader a forlorn figure in California and nobody exactly eager for his old job, the Durocherless Dodgers started out today on the quest that failed a year ago. As Leo himself used to put it, they'll be out after the Cardinals all over again.
Billy Southworth's resurgent Braves – the same club that knocked them out of the 1946 pennant on the last day of the season – furnished the initial opposition before a sellout house at Ebbets Field. But the world champion Redbirds, heavily favored to repeat, will be the main target as old.
Joe Hatten, sophomore southpaw who beat the Bostons four times last year without defeat, opened on the mound with Johnny Sain, curve-balling 20-game winner, as his opponent. Jackie Robinson, the first colored boy ever to don major league flannels, started at first base and batted second for the Dodgers.
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we forget,not only was it Rosa PArks and MLK that dance with the flames,but JAckie Robinson the men in the Korean conflict and thousands of others that broke the color line,long before the valiant Rosa Parks.
Thanks for the reminder of my father's hero's long before my father became mine.
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I lived in Brooklyn for over 40 years; starting in 1964. When I came there 17 years after JR's debut, he was still a Brooklyn Icon, but with the huge numbers of other Blacks in diverse sports, he had become the grandfather of the current crop. He will always have the distinction of being the first. However you look at it he had more pressure applied to him and a greater sense of responsibility placed upon him than anyone else in Baseball.
This is the nature of being a "first". In every endeavor which we participat in we have our first. Yet in the struggle I wonder if we have made a mistake in lionizing our firsts. They in reality have it easier than subsequent Blacks. The first is generally treated fairly (in modern times) in contrast to the later generations. It would be obvious to any observer if the first; who comes to the endeavor with great skill and all the other qualifications, was treated unfairly; if that was the case. There is a certain degree of armor or protection to that individual. Such is not the case for the 12th or the 22nd or the 46th. It is in those subsequent individuals that the test of "guts" and "integrity" and dedication takes place. It is those individuals that the racists regularly go after, because their (racists) actions then have the cover of the acceptance of earlier Blacks; thus proving that the system is based on merit.
In most industries, sports, and government we have long gone beyond the occasion of the first. In this current epoch many of us experience institutional tacit and overt racism that the first did not. Yet somehow our continuing struggle is seen as being less noble and less of a struggle for that matter. I ask that we all look within ourselves and discourse on whether or not we co-opt ourselves into this manifestation of racism, when we continue to discuss the "great struggle" of our firsts and view as mundane the continuing struggle we all face. -
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the concern is being the'first' is that you have be be twice as smart,twice as strong and twice as tolerate as the normal man and three time the white man. That's a high standard to the everyday black folks to shoot for,because at the end of the day we're just as human as they are. And for those human faults they bring us low no matter who we are.
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What I did is not remotely close to the same league at what Jackie Robinson did but at a local community college in Southern California (El Camino College) I was the first African American/Person of color elected to the Board of Trustees. Mine was the student representative position not the one that is voted on by the community at large but I did experience a little bit of what you speak Ken. In coded language I was told how well I spoke and how educated I sound. It's interesting in the movie "Far From Heaven" a couple of members of the local NAACP visit the character played by Julianne Moore and the guy speaking over enunciates so much that you know it represented them rehearsing and talking at their meetings that when they went to call on white folks you have to have perfect diction so you could be the "model negro"....I can't imagine what Jackie Robinson went through as he traveled this country at the time he did. Even though I am not a baseball fan I am grateful to his contributions as a sportsman and a human being...
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We all have experienced those 'coded' words but it's strange they only notice when we speak and act to they're standards ( mustard yellow two thousand dollars suit,gator shoes and a gold toothpick in the board room ) If you speak corporate English and dress the part,they'll give you an honorary white status till the end of the meeting,anything else. ( great ideals or problem solving) they'll quickly claim for themselves
All I'm saying is if you know who you are,know what your goals and standard are, that's what makes the difference,that's why Robinson and others could stand through the storm and shine brightly. They were not black people,they were of them selfs standing up for black people. When tehy were called,they didn't sit down and make victim excuses they found a way to success. -
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>>>When tehy were called,they didn't sit down and make victim excuses they found a way to success.<<<
I have been a first so many times that I have lost count. I was raised to be a first. I am a child of the 50s and when Sammy Davis Jr. made his famous be prepared speech, I was 11. My parents and the entire milleu in which I grew up stressed the importance of being an ambassador for our entire race. I lived that paradigm well into my twenties; when the political realities of the 70s made the desire for being a "first" to be untenable.
I fully empathize with your description of the experience of the coded communications from white folks. But I also have experienced the assimilation of the mindset that individual dilligence and application can trump any situation of adversity. Bullshit. Just like the axiom, "just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean noone is out to get you", is true; it is also true that some of us who are victimized and recognize it are not embracing the role of victim and making excuses.
My original proposition that the talented brothers and sisters, who have come after the recognized first receive an even more prejudicial examination, seems to have gotten lost somewhere in the preceeding posts in this thread. I did not say that to detract from Jackie Robinson, but rather to celebrate the brothers and sisters who come after the firsts and encounter even greater adversity. -
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that's because the first is always amazing to whitefolks,a man that speaks well,thinks well and is seem lt above the hubhub. Well in fact he is the pet monster that's chained in the corner they're own curiosity. They came over and over that he is just a fluke,an abnormal black man. When the second and third come along,with a little more pepper,a little more grease but just as logical,just as capable,then they get scared making twice as hard as the 'first'
One man is an amusement,two a puzzlement, one of them has to be scamming,four two of them wants marry they're daughter and move in next door while taking they're good old boy entitlements.
In short Al your right.
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