Editor’s note: This story, by TSN archivist Steve Gietschier, a Brooklyn native who saw his first Dodgers game in the Robinson era, first appeared in The Sporting News dated April 14, 1997, that marked the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking baseball's color line.
Arthur Daley, sports columnist for The New York Times, covered the event whose golden anniversary we celebrate this week as if it were just another game. Seemingly oblivious to the larger significance of what was unfolding before his eyes, Daley wrote: "The debut of Jackie Robinson was quite uneventful, even though he had the unenviable distinction of snuffing out a rally by hitting into a remarkable double play. His dribbler through the box in the fifth should have gone for a safety.”
Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey had, in fact, made Robinson an official member of the 1947 Dodgers without fanfare just five days earlier. On Thursday, April 10, at Ebbets Field, while the Dodgers were playing an exhibition game against the Montreal Royals (for whom Robinson had played in 1946 and trained with throughout the spring of '47), a terse press release announced that the Dodgers had purchased Jackie Robinson's contract. "He will report immediately," concluded the statement.
"Immediately," in this case, meant "after today's game" because at that very moment Robinson was at bat for the Royals.
When Brooklyn opened the regular season April 15 against the Boston Braves, Robinson was at first base. He grounded to third and flied to left field before hitting into the double play that Daley noted. He nevertheless scored the winning run. With the Dodgers down, 3-2, in the seventh inning, Eddie Stanky drew a walk and Robinson laid down a bunt. First baseman Earl Torgeson fielded the ball cleanly, but his throw bounced off Robinson’s right shoulder and caromed into right field. Jackie was credited with a sacrifice, and Torgeson was charged with an error when Stanky advanced to third and Robinson to second on the errant throw. Both runners were driven in by Pete Reiser's double, and Brooklyn went on to win, 5-3.
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A crowd of 25,623 attended the opener, about 9,000 shy of capacity, but some stayed late. Jimmy Cannon of the New York Post remarked on the postgame scene:
“There was a big crowd waiting outside, and when I came through the doors the players use, the people shouted for Robinson.”
After Wednesday's game was rained out, the Dodgers walloped Boston, 12-6, on Thursday. Robinson went 1-for-3, collecting his first major league hit on a bunt single.
The next day, the Dodgers helped the Giants open their home season at the Polo Grounds. New York hit six homers in a 10-4 romp. Brooklyn managed seven hits, and Robinson got two of them — including his first major league home run.
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The Giants won again on Saturday, 4-3, before 52,355, which set a record for the largest Saturday crowd in NL history. "The Dodgers, according to John Drebinger in the Times, "found themselves hamstrung most of the way and for the second afternoon saw their Negro star, Jackie Robinson, provide most of the power. Robbie got three of the Flock's seven hits, one a double.”
The Dodgers hopped a train to Boston for two games, but bad weather postponed both. So, the week — one that had begun with Daley choosing to view Robinson's debut in merely athletic terms, not societal — was over. Robinson had six hits, including a double and a homer, in 14 at-bats and was hitting .429. He had made no errors and had scored in every game.