Jackie Robinson famously said that a life is not important except for
the impact it has on other lives. As we celebrate Robinson's 100th
birthday in January 2019, Stealing Home profiles nine figures whose
lives were altered by the "great experiment," as the integration of
baseball was called then. Profiled here are Rachel Robinson, the stoic
but thoughtful wife; Branch Rickey, the mercurial but far-sighted
manager/owner of the Dodgers; Baseball Commissioner "Happy" Chandler,
who quietly paved the way for integration; Clyde Sukeforth, the scout
whose assessment of Robinson was crucial to the player's success; Red
Barber, whose own views on integration were altered by Robinson's
example of grace under pressure; Wendell Smith, the prominent black
journalist who helped Robinson navigate through the trappings of a
racist society; Burt Shotton, who managed Robinson during Robinson's
majestic MVP season in 1949; Pee Wee Reese, the Dodgers captain who
united the team behind Robinson; and finally, Dixie Walker, the veteran
Dodgers star who vowed never to play alongside Robinson, but who was
eventually so moved by Robinson's courage that he spent his last years
working to improve the skills of such African-American players as Maury
Wills, Jim Wynn, and Dusty Baker. As Joe Cox concludes, "Perhaps the
ultimate measure of the glory of Robinson's quest is that it converted
those inclined against it to see all men as equal, at least on the great
field of baseball."
