A first in the history of baseball - a quadruple header featuring Jackie Robinson, Richie Allen, ...

[DreamGypsy]

....Eddie Klepp, and Bob Newhart. Great baseball players all.

Sixty-six years ago today on April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson crossed the color line.

From Wikipedia:

Robinson broke the baseball color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15, 1947. As the first major league team to play a black man since the 1880s, the Dodgers ended racial segregation that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for six decades.[2] The example of Robinson's character and unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation, which then marked many other aspects of American life, and contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement.

But if you're reading this post in the Baseball Group, you already know what an incredible athlete and baseball player Jackie Robinson was. There's a new movie about him, entitled '42', that is getting great reviews - you've probably seen it twice.

I thought today might be an appropriate time to pay tribute both to Jackie Robinson, and to the greatest baseball fan I know - my older brother. My brother has a T-shirt displaying "I Could Have Been a Millionaire - But My Mother Gave Away My Baseball Cards" and it's probably true. He kept every issue of The Sporting News from about 1967 until 2010 - much to the chagrin of his wife as they moved the whole library several times. His baseball almanacs and other books fill a very large bookcase. He resumed collecting baseball cards probably 25 years ago, even though he'd lost the valuable early collection. He is in a nursing home now, with progressing stages of dementia, and is no longer interested in baseball, music, beer, or dogs. His wife checked about the boxes and boxes of recent baseball cards - they aren't worth very much. I'll be thinking about my brother a lot today...on Jackie Robinson's day.

Below are four 'songs' dedicated to my brother. I hope you enjoy them.

1). A tribute to Jackie - Mr. Robinson:

2). A bit of baseball history that you might not know, The Ballad of Eddie Klepp, whose story is very much like Jackie Robinson's, but also very different. The song was written and is performed by Chuck Brodsky, who has composed many baseball songs:

3). Another of Chuck's songs, Letters in the Dirt. As you might guess this song/story is about Ritchie Allen. One lesson from the song is that Jackie opened MLB to African-American players, but that was only a part of the battle. The Phillies were my brother's favorite team, but he was a big Oakland A's fan, too.

4). A bit of humor to end the game. As my brother and I were growing up, we were exposed to comedy records (LPs) from Shelly Berman, Nichols and May, Tom Lehrer, and others, including Bob Newhart who realized Nobody Will Ever Play Baseball:

Hey, Al. There are no perfect games in life. We all get hits, we all make errors, we always suit up. Nothing motivates us like the loving of the game. Thinking of you.