because documenting the negro- leagues have been a massive undertaking. archivists have spent decades coming through box scores and newspaper reports and the process continues because information is incomplete. the research is teaching us not only about baseball but the racial history of our country. >> it tells you that a lot of this was done on purpose. i was close to hank aaron, hank and i used to talk about it all the time, about how it used to get him upset along with myself, that a lot of people misunderstand what happened on april 15th, 1947. they always say jackie robinson proved to the brooklyn dodgers that blacks could take -- could play baseball. -- blacks could play baseball. it was a fear factor for officials, that they could play and they would overshadow the
this week every player on every major league baseball team wore the number 42 to mark 75 years since jackie robinson broke the color barrier. april 15th, 1947 when he took the field as a brooklyn dodger. his debut was a turning point for baseball and for america, quite honesty. we think of it as a watershed moment now, and it is, absolutely it is. but the nation didn't stop that day in awe of robinson's review. in fact, he would face a barrage of abuse including death threats, players deliberately spiking him, racial epithets from fans and others being held at him, but he helped lead the dodgers to the national league pen net and he also won the rookie of the year, an award named for him in both the
every major league baseball team for the number 42 to marks -- broke the color barrier and integrated professional sports. robinson broke the color barrier on april 15th, 1947, when he took the field as a brooklyn dodgers. his debut was a turning point for baseball and for america, quite honestly. we think of it as a watershed moment now. it is. absolutely, it is. the nation didn't stop that day in awe of robinson's debut. in fact, he would face a barrage of abuse that that you're, and many other years, including death threats, players deliberately spiking him. racial epithets from founds being hurled at him. he helped lead the dodgers to the national league. he also won the rookie of the year. an award now named for him in both the national and american leagues. now, sensible people like you and me would argue that it is
42. today, in stadium after stadium, a tribute for the number 42. it was 75 years ago today, april 15th, 1947, ebbets field in flatbush, brooklyn. a young jackie robinson on the field with the brooklyn dodgers, the first african american to play in a major league game. he would go on to win rookie of the year, beginning an electrifying hall of fame career. today, tributes from all over the country. at new york's citi field, where the rotunda is named after him, this statue, nine feet tall, towers with robinson's retired number. every player wearing 42. robinson's granddaughter right there too. >> the granddaughter of jack r roosevelt robinson. >> reporter: and in times square, 42nd and broadway is today jackie robinson way. former players and managers honoring his legacy. >> he went through things that i can't imagine what he's gone
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soup ads, the moms delivering soups, we all love those moms. terrence, go ahead. >> i think it's a myth when people believe that this is a recent phenomena this fusion between athletes and society. we're actually going back to the future, okay? you go back to the times when ali, we certainly remember that, when he's like the ultimate in that of showing he's at the height of his career and showing injustices. you got jackie robinson, went behind april 15th 1947 breaking the color barrier. you're talking about he was fighting for justice with dr. martin luther king in early 1960s in the south. you've got arthur ashe the things he stood up for, kareem abdul-jabbar. it was only that dead period in the 1990s when charles barkley said i am not a role model. michael jordan didn't want
birthday. she turned skal eed 68. in honor of the occasion, today's five things will highlight 1947. number one, "meet the press," it debuted on nbc in '47. it became a sunday happen for all things political. including, tim russert and chuck todd. chuck also hosted "meet the press" daily on msnbc at 5:00 p.m. eastern. >> number two, jackie robinson, april 15th, 1947. he played his first major league baseball game when he took the field for the brooklyn dodgers, making history as the first african-american player to play in the major leagues. number three, a christmas miracle. an oscar won for miracle on 34th street, which premiered in may. miracle on 34th street also starred maureen o'hara who passed away on saturday. number four, going supersonic. chuck jaeger became the first person to break the sound
contributor about his life and, segregation and how jackie robinson urged him to speak out about issues far beyond the baseball field. >> you know, i always thought it was ironic on april 15th, 1947, jackie robinson breaks the color barrier. you hit that home run to top babel ruth on april 8th, 1974. that's almost 27 years almost to the date, and he was your hero and i always was fascinated about that story that you told me when you first saw jackie robinson when you were a kid. >> of course, back then i was my mother -- my parents expected me to go to school, and i had read about what jackie and the dodgers were going to play an exhibition game in mobile, and jackie was speaking i believe at a drugstore. i said, now, i'm not going to have this opportunity again, so i said i better take my chance on listening to jackie robinson now. and little did i know that i got
told me, hank, i didn't know what to do when you started running around the bases and those two guys started running behind you. i said, i'm glad you didn't shoot, because they would have it -- those two guys was having nothing but just fun, that's all. >> i can remember very clearly that monday the day that you hit the home run, parents and the two brothers and i gathered around the television set. it is similar, it had to be to where perhaps you and others back on april 15th, 1947, gathered around the radio for jackie robinson. you were our jackie robinson. did you get the sensation of how important you were to the black community with what you were doing, what you were going through? >> yes, i did. in some ways i felt the importance of what i was doing was really sending a signal to the world, was telling people that, hey, yeah, all you wanted to do was having the playing field level. just give me an opportunity. yes, i felt that way. i felt that way that not only
everything else in america life, was completely shut off to african-american players. and then came jack roosevelt robinson. on april 15th, 1947, he stepped on the everett field for the first time in a brooklyn dodgers uniform and changed a nation. in 1951, jackie played a game in cincinnati after receiving a death threat. two letters received said he would be killed on the field. he was spit on by catchers and he endure racial slurs. he described what it was like to play in one city, philadelphia. >> and when you went to philadelphia in the early years, you couldn't stay in the same hotel, you had to find your own accommodations and then there was ben chapman and some of the other phillies that were really