Jackie Robinson was a colored baseball player who played in the MLB in the mid 1940s into the 1950s. Robinson served in the second world war where he would then join the Kansas City Monarchs of the negro baseball league. In a total of 34-games with the team in the 1945 season Jackie Robinson would have splits of .375/.449/.600 along with 4 home runs, 27 RBIs and 3 stolen bases.
Robinson would be seen by the head of the Brooklyn Dodgers organization where they would offer him a deal to play with their minor league affiliate team. In several games of scrimmage against the Dodgers Jackie Robinson would put up a batting average over .350 with several stolen bases. After spending a year in the minors Robinson would be brought up to the MLB in 1947 to play for the Dodgers. On April 15th, 1947 at the age of 28-years old Jackie Robinson would step onto a major league baseball field, becoming the first man of color to do so while playing on a team. Robinson faced the Boston Braves in his first career game where he posted 0 hits in 3 at-bats (4 Plate Appearances) as the Dodgers won 5-3, Robinson contributed to the win, laying down a sacrifice bunt, scoring a run.
Jackie Robinson would face racism from fans in the stands to even his own teammates with the opposition team(s) making it known that they did not like nor want him there. With the hate by the players it led to Robinson being hit-by-pitch 7 times, though it will never be known if every single time it was intentional or a mistake. Jackie Robinson battled both physical and mental pain while playing the children’s game, the biggest thing is though is that he never gave up while also ignoring the massive amount of hate that would make others quit. Robinson received death threats with racial slurs on the daily solely due to the color of his skin.
Jackie Robinson would have a very impressive rookie season with splits of .297/.383/.427 with 12 home runs and 48 RBIs, he also walked 74 times and stole 27 bases while being caught 11 times. Those stats would lead Robinson to winning Rookie of the Year, which was just one of several awards he would receive in his major league career of ten years. Jackie Robinson would also win the MVP in 1949 and be part of the Dodgers 1955 World Series winning team.
Robinson would retire after the 1956 season with declining stats at the age of 37, he would have career splits of .313/.410/.477 with 1,563 hits in 1,416 games along with 141 home runs, 761 RBIs and 200 stolen bases.
Jackie Robinson would be introduced to the MLB Hall of Fame in 1962, forever being cemented into the game of baseball.
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