On April 15th, 1947, the Dodgers started their new season with a new addition to their team, Jackie Robinson. He made his debut against the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field playing first base. The first series were a flop for Jackie Robinson. Overwhelmed by the pressure, he was unable to produce. Teammates, opponents, and fans racially harassed Robinson on a daily basis. As the next couple of weeks progressed, more problems arose. Although the incidents were unfortunate, they did have a positive spin. Throughout the ordeals, baseball proved its support of Robinson and Robinson proved he was the right man for the experiment (Tygiel 180-182).
[...] Baseball's Chaotic Response On April 15th the Dodgers started their new season with a new addition to their team, Jackie Robinson. He made his debut against the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field playing first base. The first series were a flop for Jackie Robinson. Overwhelmed by the pressure, he was unable to produce. Teammates, opponents, and fans racially harassed Robinson on a daily basis. As the next couple of weeks progressed, more problems arose. Although the incidents were unfortunate, they did have a positive spin. [...]
[...] Due to the previous incident, the two team owners agreed to have Robinson shake hands with Chapman to increase positive publicity. The photo ended up looking contrived and forced, though. During the photo shoot Chapman made false statements and mocked Robinson. It took a lot of control for Robinson to shake a man's hand he had no respect for. Although the handshake was thought as a tactic to cool things down, the Phillies went beyond verbal abuse. Within the dugout, the players started to act out ways to kill Robinson like making a bat look like a machine gun. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
