As a Los Angeles Dodgers fan, I get to claim some amazing history that comes with this team. Jackie Robinson became the first African American player in Major League Baseball when he started for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Robinson became the star the Dodgers were anticipating, winning Rookie of the Year in 1947 and the National League MVP in 1949 and leading the Dodgers to it first World Series championship in 1955. He was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
When Branch Rickey, Dodgers general manager, was scouting Robinson, he told him he was “looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back.” And Robinson lived up to that deal, even though he faced racial harassment and mistreatment from other players and fans throughout his career.
After he retired from baseball in 1957, Robinson served as a vice president for a Fortune 500 company, worked in high positions with the NACCP, helped found a bank in Harlem, and created a construction company to build houses for low-income families. He was a leader in the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1950s and 1960s, often speaking at rallies including the famed March on Washington in 1963, before his 1972 death, at age 53, from diabetes. Today, the Jackie Robinson Foundation carries on work in his name, administering scholarship and leadership development programs for talented college students.
Although he never played with the Dodgers in Los Angeles, Robinson is remembered in multiple ways at Dodger Stadium, including a statue, special jerseys, and annual Jackie Robinson nights that celebrate the remarkable life and career of Number 42.
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