Rickey & Robinson (36 page)

FOLLOWING ARE THE FIRST BLACK PLAYERS SIGNED into the major leagues, listed in chronological order by the date of their debut and by team. Daggers indicate eventual election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I am certain each man has, or would have had, an interesting story to relate. I’d further suggest that for his struggle against bigotry, everyone on this list qualifies as an all-star.

A LONG TIME AGO, IN 1952, THE LATE
NEW YORK HERALD Tribune
loosed me on the world of organized baseball. Perhaps neither I nor baseball has since been quite the same.

Although in time I covered all three New York teams, I primarily wrote on the Brooklyn Dodgers. They were not the best team of that era. The New York Yankees were. But with Robinson, Rickey and later Walter O’Malley, the old Dodgers were the most interesting of ball clubs.

My friendships with Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey date from that period. Talk during those friendships was a vital source for this book. But significant fresh research was required. Here I benefited from the help of Joseph Bacchi, a star student at a college near my home, SUNY New Paltz.

Mark Weinstein of Rodale brought vigor and intelligence to his task as editor. He has my gratitude. My literary agent Robert Wilson, now of Orlando, Florida, was supportive and helpful throughout.

On a personal level reliving the integration of baseball was quite an experience. In plain English, it made for one hell of a trip.

RK

ROGER KAHN IS WIDELY REGARDED AS THE GREATEST living American sportswriter. The author of 20 books and hundreds of articles for national magazines, he is the only baseball writer to have had three titles appear on the
New York Times
bestseller list. His 1972 classic,
The Boys of Summer
, was named the best baseball book of all time by the editors of
Sports Illustrated
. Kahn joined the staff of the
New York Herald Tribune
as a copy boy in 1948 and rose quickly to the position of baseball writer. He began to cover the Dodgers in 1952, and also traveled with the other New York teams, the Giants and the Yankees. In 1956, Kahn was named sports editor of
Newsweek
magazine and then from 1963 to 1969 served as editor-at-large of
The Saturday Evening Post
. For a decade he wrote a monthly column for
Esquire
magazine. Five times his articles were voted the best in the country and awarded the E.P. Dutton prize. His 1993 book,
The Era
, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Kahn has taught writing at various colleges and lectured at Yale, Princeton and Columbia universities. Mr. Kahn held the distinguished position of Ottaway Professor of Journalism at SUNY New Paltz in the spring of 2004, and in 2006 he was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. A native of Brooklyn, where he grew up rooting for the Dodgers, he now makes his home in Stone Ridge, New York, with his wife, Katharine.

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Internet addresses and telephone numbers given in this book were accurate at the time it went to press.

Copyright © 2014 by 33 Productions

Ballpark capacities verified by Gary Gillette

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

Book design by Elizabeth Neal

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher

ISBN: 978-1-62336-297-3 hardcover

eISBN: 978-1-62336-298-0

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