Transcripts For CSPAN3 Opening Day 20170423

In 2007. It is about an hour. I had the pleasure of introducing him two years ago. When he was discussing luckiest man, the life and death of lou gehrig. Now to be introducing him as he discusses his book opening day the story of Jackie Robinsons first season feels like a book end experience. I was looking at the similarities of the two men he has chronicled in baseball and beyond other aspects of their lives. Both men share these qualities courage, commitment, and commitment was not just playing excellent but to citizenship and contribution to larger society. The other quality both had indeed was character. They both died young. But are remembered as sports icons and in both cases as spectacular as their baseball statistics were there was a lot more to each man. And of course they each represented fabled new york teams and i guess mortal enemies and as such as the transition in life as i started off the fan of one and later made the crossing to the other. But have an appreciation for the outstanding players on both teams. From excerpts that i have read from our authors book on Jackie Robinsons first season, it is not just the usual account of first he did this and then he did that on the field. You get a feel for the larger context in which he operated. Is one great thing for oldtimers like me so that my son once asked me if there was an alphabet when i was a kid. I remember socalled baseball history in which it was just a hagiography. Things were wonderful, there was no discussion off of the field because there might have been a contradiction, but now to see how the discipline has matured over the last 30 or so years, and that has been to me evident that not so many years ago, there was a discussion or a journal article on the Jackie Robinsons first season in which Jackie Robinson, all the accounts came from white newspapers. One of the things that our offer author does so well, is two o talk about life beyond what the Privileged Society was like. If you think about it, you might not think about this when jackie integrated the baseball field, he went back to a small hotel. And when the team traveled, there were places that he could not stay. It was still almost a completely segregated society. Of course, jackie is breaking the color line and made for considerable change and even those people who did not like Jackie Robinson, felt threatened by him, by the end of the season respected him as a capable performer and a gentleman. Jonathans book is eminently readable as attested to by his kids. In one of the excerpts, i believe his son said he liked the book even better than the first one because it was shorter. I dont know how one could want the book to be shorter because it is totally fascinating. And as my son told me from the first day that he went to the a veteran ofand as preschool and kindergarten, he said very seriously to me on that first day of school that they are not messing around anymore. We have an author who was not messing around and it is my pleasure to introduce jonathan eig. Thank you for coming and thank you for that nice introduction. I have to correct an error. The program says i tried my hand at baseball before earning a degree in journalism. Anyone who knows me knows that i was called a four tool player in the little league. I had no glove, no stick, i could not run or throw. I turned to writing at a very early age because i recognized that i would not make it on my athletic skills. There is a famous statute in brooklyn. It is an eight foot bronze statue and by his side is peewee reese. The plaque reads the statue commemorates a moment in cincinnati with jackie may 13, 1947, robinsons rookie season first road trip. He was being heckled so brutally by the crowd, that his teammates who was from kentucky and had a considerable following, walked across the diamond and in a gesture of support and brotherhood put his arm around Jackie Robinson and silence that hostile crowd. Its considered one of the great moments in baseball history. There have been Childrens Books poems written to this moment. It was this moment i thought about two years ago when my view garrett book came out i received a letter from eight fan who said i should do a book about the two. First of all i was flattered that i received a letter that somebody wanted me to write another book. If anybody has any ideas for future books, i am all ears. Dont shout them out because i think there are other writers in the room. When i heard this idea, i thought it is not bad. It is a little saccharine perhaps, but i thought it was worth looking into. How much was there to that friendship . How much did peewee reese me to Jackie Robinson . How did take root in this climate of hostility and would very few people were welcome willing to welcome Jackie Robinson in the league. I found almost immediately was that the embrace did not occur. It did not happen in 1947. Jackie robinson, writing a few years later, saying he remembers an incident in 1948 or 1949 and peewee reese said he did not remember anything in 1947. I went back from blackandwhite papers looking for any mention of this incident and found no photographs or no mention at all. In fact, found robinson wrote in his column that day, he wrote a column for the pittsburgh courier, the black paper, he wrote cincinnati fans were among the kindest he has encountered yet. And even the white newspapers that robinson had been treated much better in cincinnati than other stops along the way. I talked to eyewitnesses that day said they remember anything they dont remember anything like that happening. They were packed with black people that day. The stadium was in a black part of town in a crowded out the white fans and they had been intimidated to call out Jackie Robinson. Suddenly there is a problem with my book idea, peewee and jackie as best friends. On the other hand it occurred to me if peewee reese was not there for Jackie Robinson, who was . If he did not have the support of the dodgers captain, the unofficial captain of the dodgers in 1947, then who did he get support from . How did he get through this year in which his own teammates threatened to boycott and not to play . Maybe i thought the entire experience could be crystallized into that 1947 season and how he goes from a ballplayer just trying to break in and get a chance and prove that he belongs in an environment in which his teammates not to mention the opposition desperately would like to see him gone. To leading his team to the pennant that season and presumably winning their hearts and minds. That is where the idea for this book grew. I realized the 60th anniversary for his game was coming up fast. I first began reading histories of the era. Growing up as a baseball fan, i was more fan than player as i mentioned, i learned a lot about of his street from kids of baseball. I bet there are a lot of people in the audience who would say the same. I would devour these old baseball books of these biographies that were written for young readers. You would pick up little glimmers of history and reading them and you would not even no youre getting that history. You read about babe ruth did you learn about prohibition because of all capone and what of the people who enjoyed more than anyone else in the country. Reading about Jackie Robinson you learned about jimcrow and segregation. I was a baseball historian in my own right because i would keep my box scores of every game i went to and stick them in my desk drawer and to go back years later and see how my favorite players were and how they did on that day. We learn to record history into and to appreciate it through baseball. In trying to get at 1947 i had to understand the climate and the times that we were in. It was a time when arthur sleshinger wrote a great history he wrote this in but he was 1948, writing about the same area, the grounds of our civilization are breaking up under our feet. The year institutions banish as we reach for them as jettison the falling dust. This is after world war ii and the country is on uncertain footing. We are just beginning to wake up to the atrocities of the holocaust and we have won this war. What does it mean for our democracy . The blacks are calling out for the Double Victory Campaign we had victory in europe but now we have to have victory in our own country so the black soldiers coming back from the war will have something or some stake in this country, what did they fight for if they are coming home to be treated as secondclass citizens . At the same time people are sensing long for a normal of of normalcy. E there are some shortages and there is a meat rationing. And baseball gives us a sense of what we used to be as a throwback. That is why we love the game today although it is getting harder to see it as an oldtime game with so much money. But joe dimaggio and bob feller were coming back. And americans cling to baseball. In 1946 attendance is breaking records at every ball park in the country. People are coming now and finding this offers them some solace. In 1947 Jackie Robinson comes along and baseball is as chaotic as everything else. Everything is out the window. To understand that i began calling all the oldtimers many as i could. There were quite a few. I asked my father in fact to who lived in queens and my grandfather had season tickets to that year. I asked my dad what does he remember . He was nine years old he said i have a lot of great memories. Unfortunately i dont remember what they are. Something from yogi berra i think. Other people had been the better memories fortunately. The oldtimers that played with jackie that year they all tell the stories about how they were so eager to embrace Jackie Robinson. Ralph had told me on opening day 1947, he made a point of april 15, standing next to Jackie Robinson during the singing of the you national anthem, and after his brother said what are you doing standing next to that guy what if a andiper takes a shot at him misses him and gets you instead . They all want to be associated with him now but the truth is on opening day nobody would shake his aunt. There was no meeting called by the manager to get them behind this effort. He was entirely alone. That is what intrigues me. What could i explore what he really went through . In one of the things i did early on is i went back to all the Old Newspaper clippings to see how these games were covered not only in the black media but in the white media as well. On that firstday this is a big day. We are celebrating it now with incredible hoopla. It feels like a national holiday. On april 15, 1947 the white newspapers did not mention Jackie Robinsons arrival. It was barely mentioned at all in the bottom of the sports stories and game stories. Not even on the front page of the sports section but at the bottom of the story that the dodgers beat the braves 523. 53. The black media on the other hand had this story stripped across the top of every paper. This was the banner headline. The pittsburgh courier and the York Amsterdam News had pages and pages of photos devoted to the event. One reporter filed a story just on where he sat during each inning during the game. Inning by inning account of where he sat on the bench and to who sat next to him. The black press recognized it was important to know who sat next to him. Would any of the teams leaders make a gesture of support in his direction . And sure enough as often happens with rookies, he was confined to the end of the bench sitting mostly with the other rookies. At one point he sat next to one of the assistant coaches. He was again forced to face this battle on his own. I should backtrack a little bit and tell you that in spring training when it was not clear whether he would make the team, at least six of his teammates came out and said they were willing to make a stand, willing to go public and refuse to play and they would demand a trade or robinson had to go or they would go. The players were mostly southerners like dixie walker raggin. By b reese always said he was not part of that rebellion. I could not find conclusive evidence one way or the other. The rebellion was quickly put down. The manager at the time would later be suspended. He was this unbelievably scary guy. Just pure rage, a very violent character, took no guff. He called a meeting in the middle of the night in cuba called the players out of their rooms in various states of undress and wearing his bright yellow bathrobe, said to his st team i dont care if this guy is black or white or green or yellow or a zebra. If he can play, he will be on this team. You can take your position and stick it up your you know what. Nobody questioned his authority. Players immediately back down. They were told the same the next day, if they did not want to play they will be traded. , the backup catcher had a very marginal hold on his job and he was willing to make this protest. Willing to risk his big league career, bigger at the time then than there was now. But reagan said i would rather be traded. I asked him about that. He said i was a white supremacist. I believed that whites were supreme and superior to blacks in every way. If Jackie Robinson were allowed to cross that line, all my values would crumble. I could not go home or go back to my family, my community would distress me because this is what we were raised to believe. I had a black family in my house all the time but they were mowing the lawn and entertaining us. But the thought of having them treated as an equal or superior to me because he is in the starting lineup i could not handle it. But he told him that day but if he had to he would play he backed down. This is a huge moment for the team. These players are essentially choosing their game, their love for the sport over their prejudice. They are at least willing to live with this and see what happens. Which is all rickey had ever hope for. He is the general manager and part owner of the dodgers. He is a fascinating character. He wanted to integrate because he believed it was the right thing to do and there was money to be made. He had the worst team in york city, that drew the smallest crowds. He sensed there was a possibility to be more competitive by bringing in a black players because there was an untapped talent poll. He also knew he could pay them very little because they would have no other options. He was very complex and doing the right thing and the cheap thing for his career. Fortunately, his commitment to bringing in Jackie Robinson was so great that it helped us overlook some of his parsimonious ways. He decided on Jackie Robinson, we might pause again and ask why jackie . He was not the best black player by far. There were many more qualified players. I think he chose jackie because he was a little older, 28, very smart guy went to ucla did not graduate, he chose him because he was a tough guy. The famous story is that Branch Rickey said can you turn the other cheek . Are you Strong Enough . In Jackie Robinson said yes. So we have this image of robinson as a martyr and pass it pacifist. He was not a all. He was a rage filled man. He was angry all his life and nothing made him angrier than being treated by being mistreated by white people. He saw racism in every glance. He was courtmartialed in 1944 for refusing to go to the back of the bus in the army. He beat the charge and saved his career. This is a guy who is taking a chance with. He had to know if robinson was provoked and people were going to provoke him without a doubt and he responded in anger if he threw a punch or went into a tirade, that it might be the end and who knows how many years it would set integration back. But rickey wanted to send a tone of strength, that we are not just asking blacks to go along and get along and find their way and slipped quietly into the game. He was saying we are going to send a message that black americans are here and part of baseball and you have to deal with it. You have to deal with him. Jackie robinson is not someone to be trifled with. So on that opening day, i mention that the black newspapers covered it and white papers did not. White fans did not show up. 3 5 of the crowd was africanamerican and 6,000 seats were empty. Which suggests white fans were staying away in huge numbers because they were afraid of what was going to happen. There was a lot of talk. A lot of people thought the strategy would backfire. There were writing it was up to African American baseball fans to be on their best behavior and not do anything to do this job any harder for jackie. Every ballpark he visited that year, there were warnings from the black press saying remember dont drink or dont celebrate too much or dont embarrass him. It was a Community Wide effort. Robinson in that first game was zerothree. He scores a run which turned out to be the winning run. I talk to the left fielder that day and he said george , washington did not know it when he was making history and Abraham Lincoln didnt know he was making history when he was delivering that gettysburg address and i did know i was making history when i drove in a black man. I said you better go back and look at the box score. You drove in the fifth run and Jackie Robinson was the fourth. He started again. He said Abraham Lincoln did not know he was making history and i didnt know, dont try to get these guys to change their story after 60 years it is brutal. As i began to chronicle this story, as i realized that these ballplayers tended to embellish their memory. There was one source for this story that i had to have one key person. Who could open this up to me. I wanted to set Jackie Robinson in his historical context. I wanted to show what he meant to america, not now with the gloss of 60 years but right than an there. How he changed lives in a moment. And i wanted to show what his personal journey was like. What he experienced. And the key was his wife who is Rachel Robinson who is 85 years old and lives in connecticut and is still sharp as a tack. You probably saw her this weekend on tv for television events. I called her office and asked for an appointment. I got brushed off. Finally i got 10 minutes on the phone with her. She answered a few questions but she was going through the motions. I was not getting through to her. I asked her secretary to make an appointment. I came in and met her. I asked for one hour. I walked in with a box of candy and a copy of my lou gehrig book and flowers and she comes in , wearing this immaculate suit and tells me i have 20 minutes. She did not give me an inch. I consider myself a pretty good interviewer. I work very hard to get people to warm up. You cannot do it in 20 minutes. So i left very frustrated in that the soul of my book would be missing without her. Over the next few weeks and months, i began sending her stuff in the mail that i would come across. I found a picture of her getting her hair done in harlem before the world series. Everything i found that i thought was interesting like that. I went to the apartment where they lived. They lived in a tiny apartment. They did not even have their own. They rented a room that was in a by 10 and they had a five month old baby. They dont even have their own bathroom or kitchen they are sharing with a woman that her happened to hear they were looking for a place. They did not even know her. Rachel said they did not like her very much and she had a boyfriend who was always talking taking the living room. These were horrible conditions for a young family. It is not what you would imagine a rookie today would be accustomed to. I went to that apartment and took pictures of the room where they stayed in stuck them in the mail and send them to her. I bought a pin on ebay that they were selling outside the ballpark that was printed by one of the unions. The unions and the communist party were huge forces in fighting for his right to play in 1947. Pin. Nt her that i came back for another interview with her the second time. This time she gave me 45 minutes and warmed up slightly. I got her to agree to a third meeting. She said this is your last one. Before i had gone i went to the New York Public Library and rachel had told me throughout all these interviews she could not remember the name of the woman she lived with. I was at the library that morning and i found the names in a reverse telephone directory. While we were sitting down i pulled out a copy of the page of my file and said it was mabel brown and she said that is it. For 60 years i have not been able to remember that name. I hated that woman. [laughter] and we had our first really good interview. I got her to begin to remember what they did at night in what card games theyve played in their room and how jackie would struggle sundays to control his temper at home. Some days she would know to leave him home alone. Other days she would ask him detailed questions about the baseball game because that was the way she got him to open up and talk about his feelings and she began to realize he was expressing his anger on the ball field that was productive and made him stand out from the white players. She was so proud of him because he was using these Negro Baseball League tactics to make himself so effective in the white major leagues. He was taking longer leads and big turns around the bag. Even if he didnt do anything he was always a threat to steal a base and that was so unnerving and rattled his opponents and his way to get back that he could not take a punch at or call names at. I remember at one point i said ok so he would come home and eat dinner. She said they did not have friends or go out it would take the baby for a walk in the stroller. I said where did you park the stroller . Did you bring it in . She snapped out of this state she had been in and said jonathan, that is enough. For 60 years i have kept people out of this apartment i am not letting you in now. By then it was too late. I had my foot in the door. We had a nice, long talk. She came to me at the elevator and she said there is one more thing that i want to tell you. People dont realize how religious he was. How much his faith meant to him. We did not have a church in brooklyn but every night he would kneel by the side of the bed and pray. I was so touched that she wanted to share something extra after i had been pulling teeth for the better part of the year, but i had been given this insight and view into their apartment and now i feel like i had the heart of my book. I had the story that i felt nobody had told before. The baseball stuff was great fun and i love researching and talking to the ballplayers but this was the piece of the puzzle i felt had been missing in what had been written about Jackie Robinson. To get back to baseball, i should tell you that after a very rough april and may robinson starts to hit, really hit the ball. This is not a great team they have very poor pitching, there is only one reliable starter. They have no power hitters whatsoever. Jackie robinson leads the team along with peewee reese with 12 homers at the end of this season. In may and june they are in first place and stay there nobody understands how. They are doing all the little things. They are stealing and moving the runner ahead and bunting and these are all the things that Jackie Robinson does best. He is without a doubt the most important player that here. Even the guys who protested his arrival, who always complained he had a Hardware Store that he would never be able to set foot in again and customers would never come if he had to share a clubhouse with Jackie Robinson even didnt see walker said in july is overheard by a report er giving him tips in hitting. He is pulling pulling the ball too much. He needs to try to go to right field. So the players are coming around. This is a remarkable achievement. This has not happened in any other institution in our country. Not until the next year that harry truman ordered the desegregation of the military. Government offices are still segregated in 1947. He comes first. He shows that it can be done not with armed guards or a court order, but by good old american competition. By giving him a chance to prove he can play. He says one day after one of his games, all season long white reporters are blowing the story. Nobody bothers to ask robinson what he is going through. One reporter shows up at his apartment one day and asks him, and robinson says, i know i have a responsibility to my race but i have got to try not to think about it because it would be too much of a strain. Just say i know this is a test. He knows exactly what is at stake. He is reading these black newspapers that describe him. One of them called him the most important black american in the history of our country. He is more important than ever douglas for this reason. More important than George Washington carver for this reason. I still think that lou gehrigs performance in 1938 when he played a whole season with als is the most single season , schmidt in baseball history, but knowing what Jackie Robinson went through every day for a whole season and in many cases are taunting him, trying to hurt him, it is certainly right up there. His ability to recognize that without the hitting, nothing else matters. If he does not continue to play well it will not happen for him. All season long, he continues to hit. He does not skip a day or take a day off. When the season starts it is not clear that he will be the regular first baseman. They are caring to other first baseman on the lineup. Over time the manager trying to show robinson support he peals them off and trades them away. He trades opponents of integration as well. Just as he agreed to the pirates because he had been so outspoken. He keeps dixie walker because he needs him frankly and he still wants to win. Going down the stretch into the end of the season, the dodgers go to street louis on their last road trip of the year with a chance to clinch the pennant. The cardinals had been one of of worst antagonists robinson all year. Earlier at least a handful of players wanted to boycott. It is not clear if it was a fullfledged threat but a few threatened. Back in August Robinson was by in a close play at first base that he believed that was intentional and even the White Press Corps said it was intentional. If i can take a little diversion, this is a very interesting historical side note. Sitting on the first baseline was a young kid named douglas wilder. He went on to become the governor of virginia. Some of these guys invent the stories and say they were there. He was absolutely there. Go into detail about how i know he was there. He heard some of the guys in his neighborhood barbershopper going to see Jackie Robinson play. He was on a kid but he talked , himself into the back seat of that car. He wanted to go see the cardinals because he was a cardinal fan. He wanted to see his favorite players, but when spiked Jackie Robinson something started to eat at doug wilder. He told me the whole ride home to virginia in that car something was bothering him. , he could not figure out what it was. He realized he could not route for the cardinals anymore that Jackie Robinson was playing for his team now. And Jackie Robinson offered opportunities for a young kid like him that might not otherwise be available. It was one of the many epiphanies that occurred in ordinary people in 1947. When you read my book, it is one of my favorite things to do. Slip in those little epiphanies. Another one is malcolm x was listening to Jackie Robinson from prison on the radio. Or a kid who was 17 years old and interviewed him and did not ask him a single question about race. Only asked him about the cardinals and who were the top pictures or what he thought their chances were. And went to stanford the next year and was shocked to see that stanford was all white. His Favorite Team was integrated why shouldnt stanford be integrated . And he started the first chapter of naacp at stanford. He got the school integrated. And then spent the rest of his career working as a fundraiser naacp. These are the ripples that Jackie Robinson is concerned enabling. And now back to the final series against the cardinals. I want you to see how it felt in 1947 at the end of that season. Robinson is spiked yet again. This is the last game on the road. They are dreaded rivals. After he has been named rookie of the year. They used to give the award before the end of the season, robinson is still facing these threats. He still feels that he is doing an allpurpose. Is doing it on purpose. But next time up a robinson comes up to bat he says something over his shoulder, he feels like he has been around long enough he can give let. He can let a little anger out. And grass yellow was a high ahead. He gets up and they are just too testing getting ready to get at it until they are pulled apart by the umpires and coaches who rushed out. The next time he comes up he hits a home run. He gives the dodgers by 21 lead. Robinson was playing first base. There is a foul ball with two outs and robinson goes over to try to catch it, at leans over the dugout. He catches the ball and starts to fall in and his teammate leaps from his seat, and grabs robinson and pushes him back on the field and tackles him on the grass. The team rushes out and say congratulate him on this great catch and they congratulate frank on the other great catch. He said he was so pleased because a few months earlier he if anyone would bother to break his fall. The team is celebrating, they have locked up the pennant, they go back to new york and they pull into the station and waiting there are thousands and thousands of fans to greet them and congratulate them with signs that say bring on the yankees we are the champs. Jackie robinson gets off and he rushes to a phone booth to try to call his wife and say he is back. This mob starts to follow him and trap him in the phone booth. Time inobably the first American History that a black man has been chased by a white mob intent on hugging. He escapes from the phone booth with a Police Escort and makes his way to the subway. They did not have limousines back then. And the fans are following him and want to pay his subway fare and escort him home. The car is packed with dodger fans. I looked through that picture of the event there are lots of photos looking for images of my father or grandfather thinking wouldnt it be nice if they were there that day . I think just like these guys today who all want to be remembered as part of the Jackie Robinson story, all want to be connected with this great man even though they would not shake his hand, is an association we all want to have. It was wonderful to see so many ballplayers on sunday wearing the number 42. Somebody said you think it was overkill or commercialism . I said no this is a a guide guy said, no, this is a nobody wanted to touch he had to be on his own. He had to stay in separate hotel rooms, he could not travel in certain cities without being afraid for violence, and now 60 years later Everyone Wants to wear his no. I think it is great. I think it is because he stands for something so much bigger than baseball. Democracy was put to the test after the war. He was the leading symbol of the new way of doing things. He proved if you give them a chance and give outsiders new ideas, it makes your team better. It made the dodgers better and america better. I would like to think that by writing this book, i have helped to set the story straight. I have helped to return robinson to his humanity. I would rather see him as a threedimensional person than a eight foot statue in bronze. I found my way of connecting to the story as well. Im happy to share this with you today. Thank you for coming. [applause] we have some time for questions. I would just ask that you come down to the microphone so the cameras can pick up your questions. Yes. [inaudible] i am just curious doing your research, did you detect the kind of schizophrenic perception on the part of black america to accept baseball or Jackie Robinsons introduction into white baseball yet realizing it would be the demise of the black Baseball League . And the other question is when i was little i remember about reading about shirley he was one of the biggest advocates for the integration of baseball. You mentioned earlier there was very little discussion during his inaugural day in the baseball. I was just curious what is your Research Showing regarding Shirley Povich support of Jackie Robinson . Those are good questions. I will answer your second one first. Shirley povich was one of the few white writers who really got it and paid attention to the debut. He also did a terrific job with documenting the way some of the black players who came after robinson in 1947 were treated which was not very well. ,the st. Louis browns, this is a littleknown historical fact, unfortunately. Hired two947, they black players and dismiss them after a month after giving them very little chance or opportunity to play. Shirley povich was all over that. Schizophrenic is a good way to describe 1947. It was absolute jubilation at the opportunity robinson had been given. It was so exciting to see him play. They were special train lines established throughout much of the country to take people to the ballparks. The first time he played in st. Louis people came from all , over the area. The first time in Chicago Black crowds were coming out in huge numbers and there is definitely a sense this was a new dawn of a new day and integration was something that the country badly needed. At the same time they did realize, it would mean the demise of the negro leagues. Negro League Ballplayers were divided. They felt like if you are good enough, youre going to go. They felt there will be a lot of us left behind. Attendance was down in the negro league ballparks. It was not just the first with of a foul odor they knew right away that they would not last long. Jackie robinson had a huge impact right away. The question on this side. One of the black reactions was by Langston Hughes in a famous passage about, i saw Jackie Robinson hit that home run. Was Jackie Robinson aware of hughess reaction . Did he personally know Langston Hughes . Good question. I dont know if there is any contact between robinson and Langston Hughes. There is also a great count basie song. Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball . He was writing columns all season long in the chicago defender about Jackie Robinson. Im sure he must have seen him play, but there is no evidence that there was contact. Jackie robinsons main man in the press was Wendell Smith. He was his roommate on the road. The dodgers hired him to travel with robinson because none of the white ball players would room with him. In cities where they could not find hotels, where they could not Stay Together Wendell Smith and Jackie Robinson would go off on their own and find houses to stay in or blackowned hotels. It was up to Wendell Smith to arrange for black Taxi Companies to pick them up and to find black restaurants where they could eat. Wendell smith was a very important player in the story of Jackie Robinsons success in 1947. I was curious about Jackie Robinsons salary in 1947. Compared to other rookies with his same skill sets, but also in subsequent years of his career. 1947 he made the legal minimum 5,000. He brought in at least 100,000 or 200,000 in revenue for the dodgers that year because they were attracting so many fans everywhere they went. He definitely made Branch Rickey a wealthy man. The following season he was awarded with a small raise. Jackie robinson accepted the first offer in 1948, so he was making far less than other players on the dodgers who were not nearly as talented but perhaps were older and as a result had built up. No matter how enlightened he was, he was not very enlightened when it came to writing checks. He really believed robinson was not entitled to a big raise until he proved himself a few more years. Robinson always felt great admiration, but his wife was bitter about that issue. Yes . You said that you started out the book with the story about peewee reese and Jackie Robinson and found out the actual events did not happen. I remembered the Childrens Book that you had mentioned, there is a short Childrens Book. Were you able to find out how this smith began . I think it began because peewee reese and Jackie Robinson did become very good friends in later years. In 1948, Jackie Robinson switches from first base to second and they are double play partners. They are often on the field during pitching changes and timeouts. People got used to seeing them together. You know how it is on pitching changes and people get together on the field. That was a startling sight. In 1948 and 1949 robinson was still getting some heckling. His careerroughout he was getting heckling from racists. I do think at some point he weak made a point of going over and putting an arm around robinsons shoulder just to silence those hecklers because they both said they remember an incident. Robinson said it was in 1948 in boston. Read said it was in philadelphia in neither one put it in 1949. Cincinnati in 1947. I think writers over the years felt like this story would be more powerful if you made it in that first season in 1947. Not only is that in unfortunate because accuracy is to be cherished. But its important because it sends the message that robinson could not have done it without the help of this white man. I think that diminishes is a congressmans because he was very much alone that year and nobody on a team ever invited him out to dinner, nobody asked his wife to sit with the other wives or to visit with them when the guys were on the road, they had to prove themselves and establish themselves before anybody was willing to give them a chance. That is not as easy to capture in a statute but that is the , truth. There is another question on the side. First of all i enjoyed your speech very much. I have heard the philadelphia was very rough for him and i was wondering in the different cities, was the extent of racism and hatred and threats a reflection of the geographic makeup of the teammates or the manager or the ownership . Or the city in general . And the second question is what can you briefly say about larry dobie and what he went through . I think it was particular in each city through various environments. In philadelphia it was largely the result of the manager of the phillies who was well known as a racist and antisemite. He had been in trouble before for some remarks he made about jews during his playing career with the yankees. He instructed his team and i talked to some of the old guys he instructed the team to give jackie a hard team at to. They were not designed to drive a wedge between robinson and his white teammates. This was in the first week of the first month of the season. It was still new. There was a sense that if robinson did not hit, he would go back to the minors. These remarks that the phillies were shouting, were not just calling him names, but they were suggesting that he would give his teammates diseases or rape the wives of the other players. Things that were insidious and touched on a nerve that was very sensitive at the time when you look at segregation and what some of those issues were and the hot button issues for whites. The ballplayers know it. Chapman knew it was especially vicious. Some cities i think it was other southern crowds. In other cities Jackie Robinson was very well received. Youre second question was about larry dolby. I was surprised he makes his debut with the Cleveland Indians and becomes the first African American player in the american league. But he had a much harder time that first year. One of the things that Branch Rickey did is that he brought robinson along slowly. Gave him a year in minorleague to prepare. Came in cold. One day he is playing in the negro leagues, and the next day he is playing for the indians in the big leagues. That is a tough transition for anybody to make. On top of that the indians did not have a position so he was relegated to pinch hitting. He has no experience in Minor Leagues then comes up to about two or three times a week has no chance to acclimate himself. As a result of that he fared pretty poorly. He became a great hitter as you know, but in 1947 he made very little impact. I think that is testament just how much thought Branch Rickey had put into this approach. If Jackie Robinson came in to serve as a pinchhitter, the message that he sent that american received would not have been nearly as loud or strong. I dont think we would be celebrating the anniversary in the grand way that we are 60 years later. You mentioned problems with the cardinals. This is going back to his previous question, if you know the cardinals were planning on boycotting robinson and not playing him. Playing against the dodgers. Relatively recently there have been suggestions that the Pittsburgh Pirates were also planning to boycott. Do you have any information on that . I there was a news story think 10 years ago on his 50th anniversary suggesting this was a league wide strike that dixie walker had been trying to format leaguee and foment a wide strike by writing letters to players and asking them to pick a day where they would all refuse to play. It does not hold up. Nobody has seen a letter, none has survived. Nobody wrote about it at the time 60 years ago, and i think what more likely happened there was some loud mouths talking trash. Im not saying that out of pure conjecture, that is what the president of the National League said was the case. He gave an interview, many late in life, and he said the whole thing had blown out of proportion by the media. God forbid the media would do such a thing. He believed it was all exaggerated. Its certainly not for never got any traction if there was a league wide effort to keep robinson out of the game. My memory is a little weak but i thought professional football was integrated before 1947. I am not sure about basketball. Could you comment on that . Professional football integrated roughly the same time. I believe it was the fall or the winter or just before robinson played his bigleague game after he had signed his contract. He came first that he was signed to the dodgers and played in the minors. The nfl came in 1948, just after, but it made no impact at the time. There is very little notice because football was not on anybodys radar screen. Baseball was such the dominant game. If football had come first, i dont think it would have made that kind of impact. The only bigger impact is that Jackie Robinson probably would have picked football over baseball because he was a much better football player. [inaudible] baseball had been integrated at the turn of the century and white players forced them out and created this artificial color line. Second question concerning the timing of the commissioners of baseball. Strongly he was opposed to any integration, but then we had chandler who was former governor of kentucky supported this integration. Could you comment . Chandler was a strong supporter of integration as far as i could tell. Branch rickey went to him and said do i have your support to do this and he said absolutely. One of the other interesting notes this famous game where reese and robinson supposedly embrace. Chandler was at that game and , had this phenomenal moment occurred that silenced the crowd and made such a strong impression, i cant believe that chandler who loved to spin yarns and claimed responsibility for everything good that ever happened from the sun coming up in the morning, that Happy Chandler would have let that pass without commenting on it. He talked often about being at that game and congratulating Jackie Robinson and shaking his hand and posing for pictures but he never mentioned seeing the two together with their arms around each other. So i think that is further evidence that particular myth has been inflated overtime. Thank you all very much. Im sorry. There is one more question. You mentioned he had no roommates in his first year. Did he ever have a white roommate in his majorleague career . That is a great question. I wonder if our any diehard dodger fans know. I think he had black roommates through most of his career but i know that he ever had a white roommate. I would to select not. Suspect not. I would be surprised to learn otherwise. If anyone can give me an answer contact me later and let me know. Thank you all very much for coming in has been a pleasure. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] interested in American History tv . Visit our website, cspan. Org history. You can preview upcoming programs and watch college lectures, using tours, archival films, and more. American history tv at cspan. Org history. Tv,ext on American History author Timothy Geithner ,iscusses the civil war era discussing the issue of slavery in the isabella area antebellum era. He explores the evolution him and he also talks about how africanamericans worked to achieve their own rights. This is an hourlong event. We are here now. We are committed to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the reconstruction amendments, what we are calling the nations second soundings. We have a great scholar on civil war reconstruction, professor timothy hueber. He is at rhodes college. His new book is really terrific. You it is called liberty and union. There is going to be a book signin