Carrying Jackie's Torch: The Players Who Integrated Baseball--and America

289 Pages·2007·2.72 MB·English

by  Steve Jacobson

Carrying Jackie’s Torch
The Players Who Integrated
Baseball—and America
Steve Jacobson
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Library of Congress Cataloging–in–Publication Data
Jacobson, Steve.
Carrying Jackie’s torch : the players who integrated baseball . . . and America
/ Steve Jacobson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN–13: 978–1–55652–639–8
ISBN–10: 1–55652–639–3
1. African American baseball players—Biography. 2. Baseball players
—United States—Biography. 3. Discrimination in sports—United
States. 4. Baseball—United States—History. I. Title.
GV865.A1J34 2007
796.3570922—dc22
[B]2006014278
Cover design: Todd Petersen
Interior design: Pamela Juàrez
Interior photo credits: Page xxiv, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers; page 2, Jackie
Robinson in 1946; page 14, Monte Irvin; page 28, Larry Doby; page 40, Ed Charles;
page 54, Mudcat Grant; page 66, Ernie Banks; page 76, Elston Howard completing a
World Series home run; page 86, Alvin Jackson; page 96, Charlie Murray; page 106,
Chuck Harmon; page 116, Maury Wills; page 128, Emmett Ashford; page 138, Frank
Robinson; page 152, Tommy Davis; page 164, Bob Gibson; page 178, Curt Flood; page
192, Henry Aaron; page 208, Dusty Baker; page 220, Lou Brock breaking records for
stolen bases; page 230, Bob Watson; page 240, Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey.
All photos courtesy of The Baseball Hall of Fame.
© 2007 by Steve Jacobson
All rights reserved
First edition
Published by Lawrence Hill Books
An Imprint of Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN–13: 978–1–55652–639–8
ISBN–10: 1–55652–639–3
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
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To my parents, Roselyn and Harold Jacobson, who taught me
honesty and the deception of the curveball.
To my wife, Anita, who was her father’s fi rst son at Ebbets Field
and who encouraged me to expand the stories I brought home
from the ballpark.
To my grown children, Mathew and Neila, who smile because
I am their father, and laugh because there is nothing I can do
about it. And to Susan, Mathew’s wife, who hardly knew what
she was getting into.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
1
Equal but Separate
1
Before Jackie Changed Everything
2
He Made His Own History
13
Monte Irvin Might Have Been First
3
Second, and Second to None
27
Larry Doby Bears the Burden with Grace
4
A Closed World Opens Up
39
Ed Charles Finds There Is a Chance
5
Worse than You Imagine
53
Mudcat Grant Dodged the Bullets
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6
Looking Back with Regret
65
Ernie Banks Was Playing Baseball
7
The Pinstripes Go Black and White
75
Elston Howard Hid the Pain
8
You Know You Go in the Back Door
85
Alvin Jackson Reports to Spring Training
9
I’m No Jackie Robinson
95
Too Much Bigotry for Charlie Murray
10
Recognition 50 Years Later
105
Chuck Harmon Gets His Own Street
11
Sometimes People Live and Learn
115
Maury Wills Finds a White Ally
12
Forever Is Not Too Long to Wait
127
Emmett Ashford Umpires Alone
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13
Most Valuable Attitude
137
Frank Robinson Made Them Better
14
The Best of Them Don’t Always Understand
151
Tommy Davis Reminds the Dodgers of Their Heritage
15
Living Up to His Own Image
163
Bob Gibson Overcomes the Stereotype
16
Joan of Arc of Baseball
177
Curt Flood Sacrifi ces His Career
17
Breaking That Record and Bigoted Hearts
191
Henry Aaron Sets the Record
18
What Would Jackie Do
207
Dusty Baker Finds His Answers
19
Coping with the Ever–Present Danger
219
Lou Brock Outsmarted the Threats
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20
The Only Black in the Room
229
Bob Watson Wears a Necktie
21
Epilogue
239
We Integrated Baseball and America Followed
Bibliography 251
Index 253
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Tommy Carney, who heard my thoughts over the
bar and demanded that I write them, and Bob Sales, my favorite news-
paper copyeditor, who made sense out of my original text. Thanks to
agents Jane Dystel and Miriam Goderich, who found an unafraid pub-
lisher, and to Cynthia Sherry and Lisa Rosenthal, who helped me con-
vert decades of sports page idiom for people who might not be able to
recite the infi eld fl y rule.
ix
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