Show Me Some Jackie Robinson Stuff

Originally Posted by Dewey

Very cool, Ronald.

Here's a photo that I think matches your can.

Thank You & it does, I added my coffee can with my 1956 topps Jackie Robinson

[ValKehl]

Yesterday, June 24th, in 1945 was a special day for Jackie Robinson in Wash., DC. I think you all will enjoy this interesting read by Frederic J. Frommer that appears in today's Wash. Post:

Before Jackie Robinson made history, he went 7 for 7 in his D.C. debut

By Frederic J. Frommer
(Frederic J. Frommer, a writer and sports historian, is the author of several books, including “You Gotta Have Heart: Washington Baseball from Walter Johnson to the 2019 World Series Champion Nationals.")

When Jackie Robinson came to Washington in the summer of 1945 for a Negro League game, people were already talking him up him as a potential major leaguer, two years before he broke baseball’s color barrier.

“Jackie Robinson, sensational shortstop, [UCLA] athlete, All-American football star and tabbed as the one Negro player of major league caliber,” wrote the Chicago Defender, a Black newspaper, on the eve of the June 24 showdown between Robinson’s Kansas City Monarchs and D.C.’s Homestead Grays.

Later that summer, Robinson met Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey, leading to a minor league contract that paved the way for him to break baseball’s color barrier on April 15, 1947 — an event that has been celebrated during this 75-year anniversary season.

Less remembered: Earlier in 1945, Robinson had a tryout with the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, along with two other Black players — Sam Jethroe, a future major leaguer, and Marvin Williams. The team only hosted those players under duress: Boston City Councilman Isadore Muchnick, a civil rights champion, had threatened to rescind the waiver from Blue Laws that let the Red Sox and Boston Braves play on Sundays unless they gave Black players an opportunity.

After the April tryout, Boston Manager Joe Cronin, the former Washington Senators star player-manager, raved about Robinson, telling Muchnick, “If I had that guy on the club we’d be a world-beater.” The city councilman had the same take: “You never saw anyone hit the wall the way Robinson did that day. Bang, bang, bang — he rattled it.”

In 1979, Cronin acknowledged to the Boston Globe, “It was a great mistake by us” to pass on Robinson, who recognized the tryout was a sham from the start.

“We knew we were wasting our time,” he said years later, according to a 1972 Boston Globe column. “It was April 1945. Nobody was serious then about Black players in the majors, except maybe a few politicians. … They said we’d hear from them. We knew we were getting the brushoff. We didn’t wait around to work out with the Braves. It would have been the same story.”

(The Red Sox wound up being the last team to integrate, in 1959.)

Two months after the tryout, Robinson was on his way to D.C.’s major league ballpark, Griffith Stadium, which the Senators rented out to the Grays.

“Outstanding newcomer to the Monarchs is shortstop Jackie Robinson,” The Washington Post reported in a preview, “six foot, 200 pound former football, basketball and baseball star at the University of California of Los Angeles, who presently is being acclaimed as the 1945 Negro baseball rookie of the year.” The article predicted that Robinson “may steal the show” from teammate Satchel Paige and Grays star Josh Gibson.

“Robinson not only is shaping up as a consistent hitter with tremendous power,” The Post reported, “but also is fitting neatly [at shortstop] despite his big frame. The big fellow is amazingly agile, is a smooth and graceful defensive man and has one of the best throwing arms in baseball.” (Robinson would play just one game at shortstop in his major league career, according to baseball-reference.com.)

The doubleheader, staged in the waning days of World War II, pitted the defending Negro national champion Grays against the star-studded Monarchs. With the Senators out of town on a 19-game road trip, 18,000 came out to see the twin bill, The Post reported. That was more than double the Senators’ average crowd of around 8,400 that year, even though the team was in a hotly contested American League pennant race, which saw Washington finish just 1½ games out of first.

The Grays were stacked with four future Hall of Famers: Gibson, Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell and 49-year-old Jud Wilson. The Monarchs had three Cooperstown-bound players: Robinson, Paige and Hilton Smith.

Robinson exceeded even the most bullish predictions. Batting third, he went 7 for 7 in the two games with a pair of doubles, although he did commit a costly error as the Grays swept the doubleheader.

“Although Jackie Robinson solved [pitcher Roy] Welmaker for a pair of doubles, two singles and a walk in four appearances, it was his poor throw to the plate with the bases filled, in the sixth inning of the first game, that brought ruin to the visitors,” the Baltimore Afro-American reported.

Robinson’s Monarchs returned for another game in Washington on Aug. 16, this time as part of a four-team doubleheader that drew 19,000. Robinson would finish the season with a team-best .375 batting average, a .449 on-base percentage and a .600 slugging percentage in what turned out to be his only Negro League season.

When Robinson helped fill the seats at Griffith Stadium, he also helped the bottom line of Senators owner Clark Griffith, who relied on rent from the Grays as a revenue stream. Robinson’s deal with the Dodgers signaled the beginning of the end of the Negro Leagues. Perhaps worried about a loss of income, Griffith assailed Rickey for signing Robinson without compensating the Monarchs.

“While it is true that we have no agreement with Negro leagues — National and American — we still can’t act like outlaws in taking their stars,” said Griffith, according to the Associated Press, on Oct. 24. “If Brooklyn wanted to buy Robinson from Kansas City, that would be all right, but contracts of Negro teams should be recognized by organized baseball.”

Rickey was unmoved. “The Negro organizations in baseball are not leagues, nor, in my opinion, do they even have an organization. As at present administered they are in the nature of a racket,” he said, according to the New York Times.

In his autobiography, Robinson recalled the objections by Griffith and other owners.

“Overnight, some of the prejudiced white owners and officials became extremely concerned about the future of the Negro leagues,” he wrote. “They mourned because Mr. Rickey was destroying the defenseless black clubs.” When the Monarchs threatened to sue Rickey, some major league owners encouraged the Negro League team, Robinson added.

“These owners wanted to stop blacks from getting into the mainstream of baseball, and some were making money leasing their ball parks to the Jim Crow teams,” he wrote. “Clark Griffith, owner of the Washington Senators, said that the Dodgers should pay the Monarchs for my services.” Griffith was the only owner Robinson mentioned by name.

Ironically, Griffith had in years past spoken about the possibility of integrating baseball. As far back as 1937, he told legendary Black sportswriter Sam Lacy of the Washington Tribune, who grew up just five blocks from Griffith Stadium: “The time is not far off when colored players will take their places beside those of other races in the major leagues. However, I am not so sure that time has arrived yet.”

Indeed, it would be another 17 years before the Senators finally put a Black player on the roster; they promoted the Cuban-born Carlos Paula in September 1954.

Lacy, who had long championed the cause of integrating baseball, said in a 1990 interview with Sports Illustrated that he was unimpressed with Griffith, who fretted that if he signed Black players he would hasten the death of the Negro leagues. “The Negro leagues were a symbol of segregation,” Lacy told the magazine. “If they had become successful, the world outside might never have known of Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron or Willie Mays. The black leagues were separate and unequal.”

Robinson spent 1946 with the Dodgers’ top minor league team in Montreal then played his entire major league career with the Dodgers in the National League, at a time when Washington played in the American League and interleague games didn’t exist. Although Robinson appeared in several exhibition games with the Dodgers at Griffith Stadium over the years, fans never got another chance to watch him play a regular season game in Washington.

[scmavl]

Had this for awhile, but just got it slabbed. Now I can enjoy handling it more instead of just having it in a toploader. It's a photograph of a 1948 Petitto Studios Jackie Robinson Candy Container Bust. Not sure if it was taken by the company that produced it, or just someone who owned it. Odd thing to have a photo of, really, but probably a unique signed item!

[irv]

Originally Posted by scmavl

Had this for awhile, but just got it slabbed. Now I can enjoy handling it more instead of just having it in a toploader. It's a photograph of a 1948 Petitto Studios Jackie Robinson Candy Container Bust. Not sure if it was taken by the company that produced it, or just someone who owned it. Odd thing to have a photo of, really, but probably a unique signed item!

A signed Jackie of anything is a signed Jackie.

Great pick up, imo.

Congrats.

[brian1961]

Val Kehl, I just wanted to say a big thanks for your long, fascinating read from June 25th. So interesting, and depressing, how major league owners and officials did their best to prevent Black Americans from entering organized baseball. --- Brian Powell

[GeoPoto]

My thanks to Val also for posting the interesting article regarding Jackie Robinson's integration of MLB in 1947 and the related intrigue involving Clark Griffith and the Homestead Grays. The article points out that Washington didn't field a black player until 1954. It is also true that Washington didn't sign an African American player until 1957 when they signed Joe Black.

Joseph "Joe" Black. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1957. 30 wins and 25 saves in 6 MLB season. 1952 NL rookie of the Year. He helped the Baltimore Elite Giants win two Negro League championships in 1943-1950 before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952-1955 becoming Jackie Robinson's roommate. In 1952, he had his best season posting a 15-4 record with a 2.15 ERA in 142.1 innings pitched. That post season he became the first black player to win a World Series game, starting and winning Game one before starting but losing Games 4 (2-0) and 7 (4-2). In 1957, he became the first black player signed by the Washington Senators. He pitched 12.2 innings for Washington that year all in relief.

Beginning in 2010, the Washington Nationals have presented the Joe Black Award to a Washington area organization chosen for its work promoting baseball in African American communities. The award recognizes Black as the first African American player on the Washington Senators (1957).

The reverse of the photo has an International News Slug: First Negro to join Nats. Wash. D.C... Former Dodger pitcher Joe Black, first Negro to sign with the Washington Senators, is shown after today's game between the Nats and the Chicago White Sox. Black, formerly with the Dodgers, was sold to Cincinnati and from their (sic) to the Seattle Pacific League (Minors) where he was obtained by the Nats. He did not pitch today's game which the Nats took 5-4. 8-1-57.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1656531207

[campyfan39]

[whiteymet]

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

My thanks to Val also for posting the interesting article regarding Jackie Robinson's integration of MLB in 1947 and the related intrigue involving Clark Griffith and the Homestead Grays. The article points out that Washington didn't field a black player until 1954. It is also true that Washington didn't sign an African American player until 1957 when they signed Joe Black.

Joseph "Joe" Black. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1957. 30 wins and 25 saves in 6 MLB season. 1952 NL rookie of the Year. He helped the Baltimore Elite Giants win two Negro League championships in 1943-1950 before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952-1955 becoming Jackie Robinson's roommate. In 1952, he had his best season posting a 15-4 record with a 2.15 ERA in 142.1 innings pitched. That post season he became the first black player to win a World Series game, starting and winning Game one before starting but losing Games 4 (2-0) and 7 (4-2). In 1957, he became the first black player signed by the Washington Senators. He pitched 12.2 innings for Washington that year all in relief.

Beginning in 2010, the Washington Nationals have presented the Joe Black Award to a Washington area organization chosen for its work promoting baseball in African American communities. The award recognizes Black as the first African American player on the Washington Senators (1957).

The reverse of the photo has an International News Slug: First Negro to join Nats. Wash. D.C... Former Dodger pitcher Joe Black, first Negro to sign with the Washington Senators, is shown after today's game between the Nats and the Chicago White Sox. Black, formerly with the Dodgers, was sold to Cincinnati and from their (sic) to the Seattle Pacific League (Minors) where he was obtained by the Nats. He did not pitch today's game which the Nats took 5-4. 8-1-57.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1656531207

George:

Being a Phillies fan I always wondered about this notation on his baseball reference page under transactions:

May 25, 1957: Purchased by the Philadelphia Phillies from the Cincinnati Redlegs.

July 5, 1957: Released by the Philadelphia Phillies.

August 6, 1957: Signed as a Free Agent with the Washington Senators.

November 25, 1957: Released by the Washington Senators.

He never played for the Phillies Wonder what he was doing those appox. six weeks when the Phillies owned his contract? Minor leagues? Actually just looked and he pitched in 4 games for the Phils AA team Tulsa Oilers in 1957! Who knew?