Jackie Robinson’s
Legacy 70 Years Later
Part 2 – Branch Rickey
Jackie Robinson’s tenure in the
Negro Leagues, as a member of the Kansas City Monarchs, didn’t last long. Being
in the army, and his time in college, he had been used to a structured
environment. The disorganization of the Negro Leagues appalled him, and the
hectic travelling schedule caused a burden on his relationship with Rachel
Isum, a woman he had met while at UCLA and would eventually marry.
In 47 games with the Monarchs,
he hit .387 with five home runs and 13 stolen bases.
During the season, he attempted
to find other opportunities in baseball. A farcical tryout with the Boston Red
Sox proved frustrating, but later in the summer, Jackie would meet with Branch
Rickey, club president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Rickey was eager to break MLB’s
colour barrier and had dispatched scouts to the Negro Leagues to find a
suitable candidate. The Dodgers’ GM selected Robinson from a list of players
and arranged a meeting on August 28, 1945. During the three-hour interview,
Rickey asked Jackie if he would be able to accept the verbal insults and racial
abuse, that would no doubt be heaped upon him, and restrain himself from
retaliation and “turn the other cheek.”
“Are you looking for a Negro who
is afraid to fight back?” Robinson sarcastically asked Rickey. The GM responded
that he was looking for someone “with enough guts NOT to fight back.”
After the two agreed that
Robinson would have to restrain himself from responding to the antagonism,
Jackie accepted an offer that would pay him $600 a month while playing for
Brooklyn’s minor league farm team, the Montreal Royals of the International
League, for the 1946 season. It has been acknowledged by baseball historians
that Rickey chose Montreal because Canada was considered relatively tame in its
racism and bigotry as opposed to the United States.
When word of the agreement
became news, many players in the Negro Leagues were upset that Robinson, not
the best or most talented player in the league, had been chosen to become the
first Black player in Professional
Baseball since the 1880s. Among them were Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and even
Larry Doby, who would become the first black player in the American League with
the Cleveland Indians. All three considered themselves more talented than
Jackie.
With the offer with the Dodgers
under his belt, Jackie left the Monarchs and returned home to California for
the remainder of 1945. In September, he signed a contract with a barnstorming
team in the California Winter League, the Kansas City Royals (no connection
with the current MLB team with that name.)
In February of 1946, before
leaving to join the Montreal club, he married Rachel Isum.
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