Today, the number 55 Sullivan Place, in the heart of Brooklyn, New York, is a series of 24-story residential buildings where thousands of people live, very close to Prospect Park. Under all that concrete lies buried one of the most important stories of baseball and sports in the United States, which is barely remembered by a small and forgotten plaque on the floor of one of the parking lots.
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The plaque reads: “Site of the home plate of Ebbets Field. Home of the Brooklyn Dodgers 1913-1957. On this spot, on April 15, 1947, Jack Roosevelt Robinson integrated Major League Baseball.”
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“Integrated” is a euphemism for saying that Jackie Robinson broke a barrier of racist exclusion and became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball.
With Robinson as one of their great figures, the Dodgers won the National League six times and the World Series in 1955 for the first time, no less than against the New York Yankees.
In the following season, Jackie retired from baseball and in 1958 the team moved to the city of Los Angeles, leaving behind the historic Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, which was demolished in the 1960s.
When is the legacy of Jackie Robinson remembered and celebrated?
What was not forgotten was Jackie Robinson’s legacy as he became during the 50s and 60s a symbol of the fight for civil rights and against racial segregation in American society.
Months after Robinson, Larry Doby signed with the Cleveland Indians and became the second African American in Major League Baseball and the first in the American League. Quickly, all teams began to hire black players and the last team to “integrate” was the Boston Red Sox in 1959.
To highlight this historic legacy, on April 15, 1997, when it was the 50th anniversary of his first game with the Dodgers, all MLB teams retired the number “42” that Jackie Robinson wore during his career (an exception was made for the baseball players who were already using that number at the time, including Mariano Rivera of the Yankees).
Seven years later, in 2004, April 15 was implemented as “Jackie Robinson Day” and since 2009, all players from all Major League teams wear the number “42”.
A movie tells the legend of Jackie Robinson
In 2013, with Chadwick Boseman as Robinson, the film was released that tells the story of the arrival of the African American baseball player to the Major Leagues; his first steps in the Dodgers’ minor league team in Montreal; the resistance he encountered from his teammates; the abuse he suffered from players, coaches, and fans; and his first season in Brooklyn where he manages to reach the World Series.
The movie highlights the role played by manager Branch Rickey (portrayed by Harrison Ford), for his idealism and also for his vision to understand that in the Negro Leagues, the segregated competition where African Americans played, there were talented players who could become great assets.
And as it couldn’t be otherwise, the name of the movie is “42”.