Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American Libraries
TV News
Understanding 9/11tv Opening Day CSPAN April 15, 2017 4:00pm-5:01pm EDT
4:00 pm
certain, he is a person of volcanic temperament but he learns early on to control himself. whos a horse was more columns the very high strung, very skittish, very fast hamilton hamilton, and when washington isn't around gets himself into a lot of trouble. for our american tv schedule go to c-span.org. this year marks the 70th anniversary of the integration of major league eightball. on april 15 1947, african-american jackie robinson played his first game with the brooklyn dodgers. history bookshelf, jonathan eig talks about his book, opening day, the story of jackie robinson's first season.
4:01 pm
this was recorded at the national archives in washington in 2007. it is about one hour. >> i have the pleasure of introducing him to years ago, when he was discussing luckiest man, the life and death of lou gehrig. as he be introducing him discusses his book, opening day, the story of jackie robinson's i was thinking about the similarities in the two men that he has chronicled inir baseball and beyond, some respects, other aspects of their lives. both men share these qualities, .ourage, commitment, that commitment was not too plain excellence, but to , and a contribution
4:02 pm
to the larger society. the other quality they both had indeed was character. they both died young. remembered as sports , and in both cases as spectacular as their baseball statistics were, there was a lot more to each man. represented fabled new york teams, i guess mortal enemies and such is the transition in life that i started out the fan of one and later made the crossing to the
4:03 pm
other. had an appreciation for the outstanding players on teams. readexcerpts that i have from our authors book on jackie robinson's first season, it's not just the usual account of first to get this, did -- then he did that on the field. for the larger contexts in which he operated. it is one of the things where so that mylike me, son once asked me if there was an alphabet when i was a kid. i remember so-called baseball it was just a --. there were wonderful people on the field. there was no discussion of on
4:04 pm
the field. see how the discipline has matured over the years, that has evident that not so many years ago, there was a discussion or a journal article on jackie robinson's first season in which jackie robinson's -- all the accounts came from white newspapers. one of the thing that our author does so well is to talk about life beyond what the privileged society was like. if you think about it, many of you might not think about this, when jackie integrated the toeball field, he went back
4:05 pm
a small hotel. when the team traveled, there were places that he could not stay. was almost completely segregated society. linee's breaking the color made for a considerable change and even people who did not like him so threatened by him by the , with respectson for a capable performer and a gentleman. jonathan's book is readable as attested to by his kids are in -- kids. , i one of the excerpts believe it was his son said, he
4:06 pm
liked the book even better than the first one because it was shorter. one could wantw the book to be shorter, has it is fascinating. as my son told me from the first day that he went to the first grade, and as a veteran of preschool and kindergarten so forth he said to me very seriously that first day, dad, they are not messing around anymore. well we have an author who is not messing around and this is a real pleasure to introduce jonathan eig. eig: thank you very much for coming and thank you for that nice introduction. error forcreate an
4:07 pm
the national archives. your program said i tried my hand into baseball before earning a degree in baseball -- journalism. i was what they called a four tool player, all my tools were broken. i had no glove, no stick. i could not run, couldn't throw. i turned it to writing at an early age. i recognized i would not make it on my athletic skills. there is a famous statue that many of you have probably seen in brooklyn, an eight foot bronze statue of jackie robinson. by his side is he week reese -- pee-wee reese. cincinnati,tes jackie robinson's rookie season on the team's first road trip, he was being heckled so bruce lee by the crowd that his
4:08 pm
who had arees, considerable following in the crowd walked across the diamond and an adjuster of support and brotherhood put his arm around robinson and silenced the hostile crowd. it is considered one of the great moments in baseball history. there have been children's books, poems movies. it was this moment i thought about two years ago when my lou gehrig book came out. i received a letter saying maybe you should write a book about ehe friendship between pee-we and robinson. . was flattered if anyone in the audience has ideas for future books i am all ears. out.on't shout them i think there are some other writers in the room this afternoon. when i heard this idea i thought, it's not bad, a little
4:09 pm
saccharine, perhaps. i thought it was worth looking into. mean to did reese jackie robinson? when black-and-white were so distrustful of each other as very few people were willing to welcome jackie robinson into the leak. what i found up immediately was that they embraced it -- the embrace did not happen in 1947. jackie said he remembered a similar incident in 1948 or nine. of theback through all old newspaper accounts, black and white papers from cincinnati and new york, looking for any mention of the incident and found no photographs and no mention. in fact, found that robinson , ine in his column that day his column he wrote that cincinnati fans were among the
4:10 pm
kindest fancy encountered yet. even some of the white newspaper said that robinson was treated much better at cincinnati than other stops along the way. i talked to some fans that were that day andgame they don't remember anything like that happening. black fans crowded out the white fans that day. their impression was that they would not have dared to record if he didn't have the support, how did he get through this year
4:11 pm
which is own teammates sprinted to boycott and not to play. satellite thought maybe that's my story. could be whole story crystallize into 1947 season, and you can look at how he goes from a ballplayer just trying to get a chance and prove that he belongs, in an environment of his own teammates not to mention the opposition would like to see him gone, to leading his team to the pendant that season and presumably winning their hearts and their minds. that's where i began. dayoked at my calendar that and i realized it was the 60th anniversary of robinson's first game was coming up. one of the first things that i did was to begin reading histories of the era. iowing up as a baseball fan, learned a lot about history as a
4:12 pm
kid from baseball. a lot of the people in the audience would say the same. these old baseball books, these biographies that were written for young readers. you would pick up little glimmers of history and reading them, you wouldn't even know you are getting the history. you would read about david ruth and you and learn about prohibition. people who enjoyed the 20's perhaps anyone else in , reading about jackie robinson of course you learned about jim crow and segregation. i was a baseball historian and my own right as a kid because i would keep my boxscores at every game and stick them in my desk drawers. -- myd look at who might favorite players and how they did on that day.
4:13 pm
i learned to record history and appreciated it a little bit from baseball. 1947 i hado get it to understand the climate and the times we were in. arthur/injure wrote -- wrote/injure wrote he about the same era, the grounds of our civilization of our server to our breaking up under our feet. ii. is just after world war the were is uncertain footing and we are beginning to wake up to the atrocities of the holocaust. we won this war but what does it mean for our democracy? we have achieved victory in europe now we need to fight for victory in our own country so the black people and in particular the black soldiers coming back from more will have some stake in the country.
4:14 pm
time, people are unit for a sense of normalcy again. the whole country is in chaos. there are food shortages, truman is ordering rationing of me. people look at a spa, baseball baseball -- -- -- other7, joe dimaggio, and myths because they were in the service. americans clung to baseball. in 1946, attendance broke records in every ballpark in the country. people were coming out and finding this offer them some solace. in 1947, jackie robinson comes along. don't applyrules anymore. everything went out the window.
4:15 pm
to understand that i began calling to the old-timers, ballplayers who were still around. i asked my father, my dad lived in queens, what do you remember about that? he said i have a lot of great memories about that seasons, unfortunately i don't remember what they are. other people had better memories. the old-timers, that played with jackie that year. about howthe stories they were so eager to embrace jackie robinson. told me opening day in 1947, april 15 he made a point of standing next to jackie robinson during the singing of the national anthem. he said after the game his whater teased cap and said are you doing standing next to him?
4:16 pm
what if a sniper got him and you are standing next to him. 1947,uth is on april 15, nobody would shake his hand in the clubhouse, there was no meeting called by the manager of the team. how much could i explore what he meant to us? one of the other things i did early on and as john mentioned, i went through the old newspaper clippings to see how things were covered. on that first day, april 15, 1947, this is a big day. we are seeing it -- celebrating it 60 years later. but in 1947, the white papers didn't mention his arrival. it was not mentioned at all. on on the front page, not the front page of the sports section but at the bottom of the
4:17 pm
story it was reported the dodgers beat the braves 5-3. it was carried in one of the columns that ran as a sidebar. the black meaty, on the other hand, have this story strip across the top of every page. courier, andh others had pages of photos devoted to it. one reporter filed a story on where robinson sat during each , as that was important. the black press reported that. was it just the rookies? his fellow outcasts, or where any of the teams leaders make a gesture of support in his direction. sitting mostly with the other rookies.
4:18 pm
he was forced to face this battle on his own. the spring training of that season, it was not clear whether he would 15. at least six of his teammates came out and said they were willing to go public and refused to play with him. robinson had to go or they have to go. those players were mostly southerners, dixie walker, some member-wee reese was a of the rebellion but rees said he was not. i could not find evidence one way or another. the rebellion was quickly put down. leo derosier was the manager at that time. he took no guff pity: a meeting in the middle of an night in cuba and pulled the players out
4:19 pm
of their rooms, wearing his bright yellow bathrobe said, i don't care if this guy is black, yellow, green or a zebra. if he can play he can play on this team. there was no question of his authority. he asked each one of them, will you play or will you go. i talked to bobby reagan who was the third string catcher. he was willing to make this protest. willing to risk his big-league .areer he said i would rather be traded. and he saidabout it i was a white so promise. he said i believe white was
4:20 pm
spring's commerce -- supreme. if jackie robinson were allowed to cross that line, all my values would crumble. i could not go home. i could not go back to my family. my community would just trust me. this is what we were raised to believe. i have black family in my house, they entertained us, they cleaned our house. treated as superior to me him in the starting lineup and i was not, i could not handle it. day if rance ricky that he had to he would play. he backed down. this was a huge moment for the team. choosingyers as such a their love for the sport over their prejudice. they are at least willing to live with this and see what happens. was just all that he was hoping for. the president and heart owner of
4:21 pm
the dodgers, he wanted to integrate because he thought it was the right thing to do. he believed there was money to be made. he had the worst team in new york city, he sensed there was a possibility to be more competitive by bringing an black players, because it was an untapped talent pool. he could also pay them very little. he was a complex man. doing the right thing and doing the cheap thing throughout his career. totunately, his commitment bringing in jack your robinson was so great it helps us to overlook some of his ways. he decided on jackie robinson. we might ask why jackie robinson , he was not the best player in the new rowley, not by far -- in the negro league.
4:22 pm
he was a little bit older, 28, a very smart guy, he had gone to ucla, didn't graduate but a very smart guy. he was a tough guy. told jackie that he robinson, are you strong enough to turn the other cheek. we have an image of jackie robinson as a pacifist. he was not at all. he was a rage-filled man all his life. nothing made him angrier than being mistreated by white people. in 1944ourt-martialed for refusing to go to the back of the bus in the army and he beat the charge. it's saved his career. ricky was guy who taking a chance with. robinson was provoked and people would provoke him, and he
4:23 pm
responded in anger or if he went on a tirade and threw a fit, it might be the end. how many years that would set integration back. the important thing is that ricky wanted to send a tone of blacks -- heing was saying that we are going to send a message that black americans are here and they are part of baseball. this is a man you have to deal with. he was not someone to be trifled with. on the opening day. mentioned the black newspapers covered it and the white ones did not. white fans did not show up at the game, but black fans did. three quarters of the fans were african-american. white fans were staying away in huge numbers because they were afraid of what was going to happen. a lot of people felt like the
4:24 pm
strategy would backfire. black newspapers were writing that it was up to african-american baseball fans to be on their best behavior and not make anything harder for jackie robinson than it already is. there were warnings from black press say, remember, don't drink , don't celebrate too much and don't embarrass jackie robinson too much. it was a community-wide effort. -- an error.se on it turned out to be the winning run. i talked to one man who said george washington didn't know it when he was making history. abraham lincoln didn't know he was making history. i didn't know i was making history. i'm the one that drove him in. i didn't know i was making history but i was.
4:25 pm
i said you drove in the fifth run, jack and robinson was the fourth. again, i said -- he said i didn't know i was making history. thet get them to change story after 60 years, it's brutal. realized that these ballplayers tended to embellish their memories are bit. i recognized there was one source i had to have. one person who could open this up. i wanted to show what he meant to america, but right then and there how he changed lives in the moment. i wanted to show what his personal journey was like, what he experienced. was his wife, rachel robinson, who was 85 and lives in connecticut.
4:26 pm
i called up her office and asked for an appointment -- appointment. finally i got 10 minutes on the phone with her. she answered a few questions. she gives a lot of interviews and i wasn't getting through to her. finally asked her secretary to make an equipment form a i walked into the office and asked for an hour. candy andher a box of some flowers. she comes in wearing this immaculate suit and sits down across from me and said, you have 20 minutes. she did not give me an inch. i consider myself a pretty good interviewer. get peoplery hard to to warm up and you cannot do it in 20 minutes. , fearingry frustrated -- aok would have a whole
4:27 pm
whole in my heart. found that i felt was interesting i went to the apartment where they live, they lived in a tiny apartment in brooklyn. they didn't even have an apartment. they rented a room. they had a five-month-old baby. there were three people living in this room, they didn't even have their own bathroom or kitchen. they shared it. they didn't like her very much, she had a boyfriend who was always hugging the living room so they couldn't even use the living room. .hese are horrible conditions i went to the apartment and picture the room where they stayed.
4:28 pm
on ebay and bought a pen they were selling a 1947 outside of the ball hard that said, i'm for jackie robinson. the unions were for -- played a huge part supporting jackie robinson. she warmed up to me slightly. a thirdr to agree to meeting and she said this is the last one. i showed up and just before i had gone i went to the new york public library and reach her -- rachel told me she couldn't remember the name of the woman she live within 19th or the seven, who had that apartment. and a reverseme telephone directory. pulled outking and i a copy of the page from the phone directory, i put it on the desk it was mabel brown. does she ring about?
4:29 pm
and she said yes god i hated that woman. had our first really good interview. i began getting her to remember what they did at night, what kind of card games stood they play in their room and how jackie struggled to control her how he woulde, some days she would know to leave him alone and not ask any questions and on other days she would ask him detailed questions about the game. that way she could get him to open up and talk about his feelings. was expressing his anger on the ball field. he was making himself effective in the white major-league's, he was taking these take turns bases.the he was always a threat to steal a base.
4:30 pm
that rattled his opponents. it was his way to get back to his opponents. said, he would come home and is some dinner and go for a walk, she said we didn't have any friends, we would >> she snapped out of this great that she had been an. in said i am not let me back there now. by then, it was too late. i had my foot in the door. as i was leaving the interview we had a nice long talk. elevatedto me at the and she said there is one more thing i want to tell you, people don't realize how religious jackie was.
4:31 pm
we didn't have a church in brooklyn that year. every night he would kneel by the side of the bed and right. -- pray. i was so touched by this. i then given this insight, this view into their apartment. i felt like i had the heart of everok that nobody had told anyone four. the baseball stuff was great. that this was the piece of the puzzle that was missing. baseball, after a rough april, robinson started to hit the ball. this is not a great dodger team. this is a team with very poor pitching. have no power hitters whatsoever, jackie robinson leads the team with 12 homers at the end of the season.
4:32 pm
at the beginning of may and june, they are in first place and they stay there. no one understands how because they are doing all the little things, they are stealing, one these are all the things that jackie robinson does best. he is without a doubt the most important player on the team that year. who protestede walker isdixie overheard by a reporter given thanksgiving robinson some tips on hitting. he is pulling the ball much too much. he is to try to go to right field. the players are coming around, this is a remarkable achievement. it is not until the next year that jackie robinson get some
4:33 pm
credit. harry truman orders desegregation of the military. government offices are not segregated in 1947. jackie robinson comes first. he shows it through good old american competition, giving a guy a chance to prove he can play. posted among the white reporters are blowing the story, nobody bothers to ask robinson what he is feeling, what he is going through. jackie robinson said i know i have a responsibility to my race but i don't want to think about it. he is reading these black newspapers that describe him as the most important black american in the history of our country. they go on and on. he is more important than frederick douglass for this
4:34 pm
reason, more important than washington carver for this reason. jackie robinson playing every day in 1947, knowing the burden that is on him, knowing that half of the guys out there are opposed to him playing and are taught him, sometimes trying to hurt him, it is certainly right up there. his ability to recognize that without the hitting, nothing else matters, if he doesn't continue to play well, it will not happen for him. all season long he continues to head. doesn't take a day off. the dodgers are carrying to other first baseman on the roster. he traits them away. -- trades them away. he traded a bay to the pirates
4:35 pm
because a big had been so opinion thatut his black people shouldn't play baseball. the dodgers go to st. louis on their last road trip of the year with a client -- chance to clip the pennant. the cardinals have been one of the worst antagonist of robinson. at least a handful of players threatened to boycott their game. it wasn't clear if it amounted to a full-fledged threat. at least a few of them were threatening to walk. slaughtergust, even had spiked jackie robinson on a flight. most of the people said it looked like it was intentional. if i can take a little diversion sitting on the first baseline that day in the stands was a young kid named douglas wilder who went on to become the
4:36 pm
governor of virginia. some of these guys will indent the story and say they were there. douglas wilder was there. i can go into detail about how i know. he heard some of the guys at his favorite barbershop were going to jackie robinson flight. he talkedy a kid but himself into the backseat of that car. he was a very good talker, even at that age, he wanted to go see the cardinals. when slaughter spiked jackie robinson, something started to eat at the wilder. -- doug wilder. theaid he could root for cardinals anymore. jackie robinson offered opportunities for a young kid like him that might not
4:37 pm
otherwise be available. it was one of the many activities that occurred in ordinary people. i like to slip in those little epiphanies. another when you will read about is mathematics. -- malcolm x. they didn't think to ask them a single question about race. they only asked about the cardinals and/or the top pictures and what he thought the dodgers chances were that year. they went to stanford as a freshman and were shocked to see that stanford was all right. white. it started the first chapter of naacp. dublin city -- are the rebels that jackie robinson is causing in 1947.
4:38 pm
now to take you back to st. louis in that final series against the cardinals, i want you to see how it felt in 1947. a close play at first, he drives his spikes into jackie robinson's but. even after he proved himself, they used to give the award before the season. robinson is still facing the threats. up, he sayse something over his shoulder. has been around long enough that maybe he can get a little lip. he has established himself. he and jackie robinson are chest to chest, ready to go at it until they are pulled apart.
4:39 pm
the next time he comes up to bat, jackie robinson hits a home run. they are going into the ninth inning. robinson was playing first base. a foul ball with two outs hit over by the doctor. he leans over into the dugout, catches the ball and start to fall in. he leans in and grabs robinson and pushes him back onto the field and tackles him onto the grass. the team rushes out of the dugout and they congratulate robinson on this great cash. robinson says after the game that he was so pleased because a few months earlier he didn't know that anybody would have bothered to break this fall. the team at that point is celebrating that they have locked up the pennant, they go for to brooklyn, waiting
4:40 pm
them there are thousands and thousands of fans to greet them, to congratulate them with signs and bring on the eight years. champs, jackie robinson gets off this train and rushes to a phonebook to call his wife and say he is back. this mob starts following him and they trap them in a phonebook. it is probably the first time that a black man has been chased by the white mob in -- with intent on hugging him. he escapes from the phone booth and with a police escort he makes his way for the subway. these fans are all following and they want to pay a subway fare for them. they escort them home, the train cars are packed with dr. fans. fans.gers they're looking for images of the father or grandfather thinking that it would be nice if they had been there that day.
4:41 pm
i think that just like these guys, who all want to be remembered as part of the jackie robinson story, they all want to be connected with the straight is an association we all want to have today. i thought it was wonderful to see so many ballplayers wearing the number 42. >> issa entegris is a guy that nobody wanted to touch. he had to stay in separate hotels from this team. there were death threats. everyoneyears later, wants to wear his number and i think it is great. is because he stands for something so much bigger than baseball. testracy was put to the after the war. jackie robinson was the leading symbol of the new way. he proved that if you give people a chance, could you give
4:42 pm
outsiders new ideas, if you give chance, it makes the dodgers better, it makes america better. i think that by writing this book, i have helped to set the story straight, i have helped to turn robinson to his full humanity. i would love to see him in his full human self rather than an eight foot statue in bronze. i am happy to be able to share with you so thank you for coming. we have some time for questions.
4:43 pm
>> when i was little i remember reading about povich. he was one of the great advocates for baseball. there was very little discussion
4:44 pm
during his inaugural day in baseball. i'm just curious, what is your research showing regarding povich? >> surely povich was one of the white lighters -- writers that really got it. he did a terrific job of documenting the way that some of the black players came after robinson were treated. louis browns, this is a little-known historical fact. to black players and dismissed them after a month after giving them very little opportunity to play. to your first question, schizophrenic is a good way to describe the reaction of black america. atwas absolute jubilation the opportunities that robinson had been given. it was so excited to see him
4:45 pm
play. there were special train lines established. the first time he played in st. louis, train lines would burn people from all over the area. the first time he played in chicago, there were coming out in huge numbers, there was a sense that there was a new dawn of a new day. thatration was something the country badly needed. at the same time, they did realize that it would probably mean the demise of the negro leagues. ballplayers were divided, they felt that if they were good enough, you got to go. at negroe was way down league ballparks. of awas not the first with foul odor, they knew right away that they would not last long, jackie robinson had a huge -- had a huge impact right away.
4:46 pm
>> one of the reactions was my -- by langston hughes. is, was jackie robinson aware of the reaction and did he personally know langston hughes? i don't know that there was any contact between robinson and hughes. song and thereat first lyrics were written in 1947. he was writing about him often and i'm sure you must have seen him play. jackie robinson's main man in the press, wendell smith was his roommate on the road. the dodgers actually hired him to travel with robinson. in cities where they couldn't find hotels, where the white and
4:47 pm
black players couldn't stay together, wendell smith and jackie robinson would go find houses to state -- stay in. it was up to wendell smith to arrange for black taxi companies to come pick them up and find black restaurants where they auld eat. wendell smith was very important player in the story of jackie robinson's in 1947. >> i was curious of jackie robinson's salary in 1947 compared to other rookies with his same skill sets. jackie robinson may delete minimum, $5,000. the league minimum, $5,000. season, he was
4:48 pm
rewarded with a very small raise. jackie robinson accepted the first offer that he gave him in 1948. he was making far less than other players on the dodgers who were not nearly as talented. and noey were older matter how enlightened he was, that really believed robinson was not entitled to a big race until he proves himself accumoli's -- for a few more years in the league. his wife was bitter about that issue. >> you said that you started off the book with a story about human beings and jackie robinson. you did the research and found that the actual offense did not .appen i remembered the children's book
4:49 pm
that you had mentioned. for you able to find out how this began? pee-wee race and jackie robinson they become very good friends. they were double play partners. they were often together on the field during pitching changes. i think people got used to seeing them together. it was a startling sight, i 1949, robinsonnd was getting some heckling. point, that at some pee-wee made a point of putting an arm around robinson's shoulder. robinson and ricky said they both remembered an incident. robinson said it was in 48 in inton and reese said it was
4:50 pm
49 in philadelphia. i thought it would be a bit more powerful -- evocative if you made it in that first season. not only is that unfortunate because accuracy is to be itrished but it is because ruins the message that robinson could not have done it without the help of his white man. i think that diminishes his accomplishment. he was very much alone that year. nobody on the team ever invited him after dinner. no one asked his wife to sit these guysher wives had to prove themselves and establish themselves before anybody else was giving a chance. another question on the side. heard that philadelphia was very rough for him. if theust wondering
4:51 pm
extent of the racism and the hatred and the threats a the geographic makeup of the teammates or the ownership of the team or the city in general? what cand question is you briefly say about larry doby and the kind of person he was. i think it was particular in each city to various environments. i think in philadelphia, it was largely the result of ben chapman. he had been in trouble before for some remarks he made about jewish people during his time with the yankees. team to give the jackie a hard time and bust them as best he could. it is interesting to me about the comments is they were not only designed to's upset jackie robinson.
4:52 pm
was in the first month of the season when it was still new. thee was a sense that remarks that the phillies were shouting were not just calling them names but they were suggesting that he was going to give his teammates diseases or rape the wives of the other players. it touched on a nerve that was very sensitive at the time. i think that the ballplayers knew it, ben chapman knew it and it was especially bishops, it area. in other cities, in jackie robinson, it was very well received. doby came along -- i was surprised to learn this, just a few weeks after jackie robinson.
4:53 pm
much harder time that first year. one of the great things that the owner did is he gave robinson a year in the minor leagues to prepare. doby came and cold. one day he was playing in the negro leagues, the next he was in the india -- playing for the indians in the big leagues. that is a tough transition for anybody to make. he was relegated to pinchhitting all season long. has noe somebody who experience in the minor leagues. he's fared pretty poorly in his first year. in 1947 he made very little impact. i think that is a testament to how much ram stick he had put into the approach.
4:54 pm
was -- woulde sent not have been as lead or as strong. i don't think we would be celebrating the anniversary in the way that we are. >> you mentioned the problems with the cardinals. this is going back to his previous question, as you know, the cardinals were planning on boycotting robinson and not playing him. i was going to ask you relatively recently if there had been suggestions that the pittsburgh pirates were also planning to boycott. i was wondering if you had any information on that. this was a leak --
4:55 pm
league wide strike. asking them to pick a day and we would all refuse to play. it doesn't hold up. none of them had ever survived, nobody ever wrote about it at the time. likely what was more that happened was there were some loudmouths talking trash. -- outt saying that the of pure conjecture, that is what the president of the national league said he believed was the case. said he thought the whole thing had been blown out of proportion by the media. he believed that it was all exaggerated. it certainly never got any traction.
4:56 pm
>> my memory is a little weak. i thought professional football has been integrated before 1947, i am not sure about basketball, could you comment on that? hadational football integrated roughly around the same time. it may have been just before robinson played his first big-league game. -- 1948, it was just after. it made no impact at the time because football wasn't on people's radar screen. this fall was the dominant game in america. even if football had come first, i don't think it would have made that impact. probably would have picked football over baseball because he was a much better football player.
4:57 pm
>> baseball had been integrated at the turn of the century until white players forced them out and then created to this artificial color line. >> i have a second question concerning the timing of the commissioners of baseball. opposed totrongly the integration but then we had chandler who was a former governor of kentucky. he supported this integration. >> branch rickey went to him and said to have your support? was a famous game where reese and robinson supported cincinnati. had it happened, had this phenomenal moment occurred that
4:58 pm
silenced the crowd and made such a strong impression i can't believe that chandler who loved to spin yarn, who loved to claim responsibility for everything good that ever happened from the sun coming up in the morning, chandler would have let that pass without commenting on it at some time. he talked often about being at that game and congratulating jackie robinson and shaking his hand and posing for pictures with him. he never mentioned seeing jackie robinson or pee-wee reese together. i think that is further evidence that that particular myth has been inflated over time. >> there is one more question. x you mentioned that you had no white roommates, did he ever have a white roommate? that is a great question. i wonder if any of our diehard -- fanspends -- bands
4:59 pm
know this? i would suspect not. if anybody could give me an answer on that, contact me later. all very much for coming, it has been a pleasure. >> on history bookshelf, here from the country best known history writers of the past decade every saturday at 4:00 p.m. eastern. you can watch any of our programs at anytime. you are watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span three. >> one of the things that i love -- wayhe l.a. times
5:00 pm
before i was there book editor, i wanted to be first in line for stuff. .e had all these panels these are people who don't get to see each other or have conversations frequently. there is this moment and conversation with his people are canng something that they -- they are coming up with in that instant. it is that electric exchange of ideas that can only happen in the moment. >> all weekend, april 22 or 23rd on book tv, on c-span two. >> american history tv, the editor of jane's monro's papers discusses the early part
60 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
CSPAN3
Television Archive 
Television Archive News Search Service 
Uploaded by TV Archive on
