Jackie Robinson Steals Home

Jackie Robinson could run.

He was one of the finest ballplayers anybody had seen — but for a long time there was an unfair rule that kept Black players out of the biggest baseball league in America.

Then a manager named Branch Rickey decided to change that, and he chose Jackie. But he asked Jackie for something very hard. There will be people who say cruel things to you, he said. And you must not answer them back. Not once. You must answer only by playing.

Jackie thought about it. And he said yes.

In 1947 he walked onto the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and some of the crowd was unkind. Jackie kept his promise. He did not shout back. He simply played extraordinary baseball.

He was so fast on the bases that pitchers grew flustered watching him. He would dance off the bag, further and further — and then, impossibly, he would steal all the way home, sliding into the plate in a cloud of dust while the crowd came to its feet.

That year he was named the best new player in the whole league.

And children everywhere watched him and understood that the field belonged to them too.

Goodnight, champion. Rest your fast legs.