Excellent or better condition.

Please checkout my other auctions.

Baseball

Jackie Robinson

Modern Pioneer

Jackie Robinson was a true pioneer

who paved the way for black

Americans to play in the major

leagues. Robinson was certainly a

player of big league caliber. In his 10

years with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he

had a lifetime batting average of

.311, while averaging 151 hits and

73 RBIs each season. In 1947, his

first year, he led the NL in stolen.

bases, batted .296 and hit 12 homers

as he earned Rookie-of-the-Year

honors. Two seasons later, he topped

NL hitters with 342 and led the

League in his, stolen bases and

sacrifices while scoring 122 runs and

driving in 124. He was chosen the

NL's Most Valuable Player for the

season.

More importantly, though, were the

barriers he was breaking down. Until

Robinson first appeared in a Dodger

uniform, a black man had not played

in the major leagues since 1884, or if

he did, the management claimed he

was an Indian or a Cuban or anything

but a black man.

Brooklyn general manager Branch

Rickey wanted to put an end to the

practice and sent scouts searching for

that unique individual who had the

Jackie in a pre-game warm-up

1977, Editions Rencontre S.A., Lausanne A

proper skills and yet had the patience

of a man of fortitude. In Robinson,

they found a superior athlete who

was a four-sport star at Muir High in

Pasadena, Calif., where he grew up,

and later at UCLA. The 5' 11", 200-lb

served as an Army

Robinson

lieutenant during World War II and

afterward joined the Kansas City

Monarchs, a Negro baseball team. It

was there that Dodger scout Clyde

Sukeforth found him.

MOB

As for being a man of character, the

story is told how Robinson met with

Rickey, and the Brooklyn GM was

putting into words all the slurs and

taunts Jackie would hear on the field.

Robinson asked Rickey if he was

looking for a man with guts enough to

fight back. Rickey replied that he was

looking for a man with enough guts

not to fight back.

Jackie Robinson was that man, and in

1962, he was voted into the baseball

Hall of Fame.

JACKIE ROBINSON

Born Jan. 31, 1919, in Pasadena, Calif.

AWARDS AND RECORDS

NL Rookie-of-the-Year, 1947

NL Most Valuable Player, 1949

Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame, 1962

Photo Focus on Sports

Printed in Italy 03 005 09-27