Name Jackie Robinson example essay topic

The Break Through in American Baseball Baseball, what is baseball? Baseball is a game about runs, hits and errors; 73 homers by Barry Bonds and seven no hitters by Nolan Ryan, a. 367 lifetime mark by Ty Cobb and 511 wins by Cy Young. It's all about the 15,000 people who have had the privilege to make it in the league and more, from homerun hitting Babe Ruth to the lately retired Cal Ripken Jr., but there is more to baseball then records and fame; the thing, the man, goes by the name of Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson. The name alone is inspiring and pure.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson (Jackie) was born on 1919, in Cairo Georgia and quickly found out that life wasn't going to be easy. When Jackie was one-year-old his father, Jerry, packed up and left his whole family, after his deserting; Jackie's mother, M allie, then rounded up her five children and moved to Pasadena, California, where she found work as a maid. Not long after moving to Pasadena Jackie soon enrolled at George Washington High School at the age of 17. Not only did he play four sports in high school but he also won the city's Ping-Pong championship.

While Jackie was still young and in high school his brother was way over in Berlin, Germany competing in the Summer Olympics. Mack got second in the 200-meter dash, finishing behind the all-time great Jesse Owens. After graduating high school Jackie then attended UCLA in 1941 and was the first athlete in UCLA history to ever letter in four sports (baseball, football, basketball, and track) in a single year. Not only did he make history there, but he met the love of his life, Rachel.

After one year of college, Jackie entered the army for World War II. He was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, and while he was there he was denied entrance into the Officers' Candidate School because of his skin color. Being the man he is, he protested and protested and stood up for what he believed in and in 1945 was discharged as a lieutenant. After being discharged, Jackie met Branch Rickey on August 28, 1945 and Rickey offered Jackie a contract with one of the Dodgers farm clubs, the Montreal Royals of the International League. Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in the International League, and as you can guess had to overcome a lot of adversity. Although the adversity was hard to deal with, Jackie did just that and won the league's batting title in 1946 and 1947 while playing second base.

Although he won those title's his most memorable moment of the minor leagues was winning the "Little World Series" and scoring the winning run in the seventh and 15 running their opponents. In 1947, just two years after he had begun playing for the Montreal Royals, Jackie was called up to the MAJOR leagues. This move is not only one of most historical events in the history of baseball, but in the history of the world. When Jackie entered into the major leagues, he gave black people hope, hell he gave everyone hope. From what he did the world has changed because of it and that is why he is now in the baseball hall of fame, well that and his outstanding numbers. "There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free". (web) "Jackie Robinson was not just about baseball.

He was equality, about decency, about morality, about injustice, about ending a wrong with a right after more than 60 years of America and Americans in and out of the game suggesting a kid born with black skin could not be a big leaguer, let alone live a good life. Jackie Robinson gave his life for something great; heroes do. He chose to bear the daily, bloody trial of standing up to bean balls and cleats launched into his shins, chest, and chin, and the race-baiting taunts raining down from the stands, along with trash, tomatoes, rocks, watermelon slices, and Sambo dolls. And then he performed with eloquent achievement and superlative poise. Robinson allowed that hatred to strike him as it would a lightning rod, channeling it down into the rugged earth of himself.

All that America saw for many years on the baseball field was that iron as upright as a steeple, never bending. But inside, the strain slowed his body, whitened his hair, thickened his circulation, aggravated his diabetes, and rendered him slow and blind. He was dead by the age of fifty-three-a martyr to trying to make America live up to its creed". (web) Here is a quick fact: During Robinson's ten years with the Dodgers they won 10 pennants. He was also named the National League MVP in 1949, leading the loop in hitting (. 342) and steals (37), and hitting in 124 runs. Jackie was not only a leader for everything he did, he was like a shepherd watching over his flock.

Because of what he did he gave kids / parents, hell everyone across the country a chance to fulfill there dreams, it didn't matter anymore if they were white or black. He did in 10 years what could " ve taken Martin Luther King Jr. a decade. He began what everyone thought was impossible, a relationship between whites and blacks. Jackie's goal when entering the major leagues was not to prove that blacks were better than whites, but instead to make whites understand that blacks are no different and just as equal as anyone else. What do we call this country we live in? THE LAND OF THE FREE, well that saying was an oxymoron for quite some time and without Jackie Robinson playing major league baseball I don't know if it would ever had changed.

"Robinson had a hard time playing in the major leagues, not because of his athletic ability, but because: Each time he took the field a racial insult was shouted loudly, without apology, self-consciousness, or conscience. Other Dodgers would remember hearing hideous references to thick lips, thick skulls, and syphilis sores. Robinson strode to the plate each time without averting his gaze or awarding a glance to the Philadelphia bench. When he took up his position at first base, just fifty feet from the visitors' dugout, the opposing team would wait until Robinson had turned toward the infield to take his warm-up throws before striking up the chorus of name-calling and race baiting. It was, perhaps, the only small sign of shame in those days: they would call a man a nigger, but they could not bring themselves to say it to his face". (web) "Life is not a spectator sport. If you " re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you " re wasting your life". (web) After his retirement of baseball in 1957, he became a vice president for the Chock Full O'Nuts Coffee Company and was later appointed to the N.Y. State Athletic Commission.

As Chairman of the Board for Freedom National Bank, he secured their capitalization by raising $1.5 million. He served with the Rockefeller Foundation and was a deputy national director to Governor Nelson Rockefeller, yet another first for Jackie. The name Jackie Robinson will be remembered forever because of his will to break the color barrier in baseball, but what some people don't understand is that Jackie not only broke that barrier, but changed the world. Robinson was a Saint sent down from heaven to create equals, he made a sport into a inter-racial force, he fixed what was broken because of who and what he was.

His actions and thoughts will never be forgotten..