Jack Roosevelt Robinson free essay sample

From at a young age Jackie was very into sports and due to this fact he was very upset with he and his family moving. This move however did not inhibit his ambition to be an athlete though. He played baseball, basketball, football, and ran track while attending the University of California in Los Angels. He was one of the top players on the football team as well as the only athlete to letter in four different sports. Unfortunately Jackie left college before getting a chance to graduate due to financial problems but not before meeting his future wife Rachel.After his departure from UCLA he began working for the National Youth Administration at a work camp but it soon closed down and in 1941 he joined the Honolulu Bears, a professional football team in Honolulu Hawaii. He was then drafted into the U. S. Army where he was refused admission to the Officer Candidate School. We will write a custom essay sample on Jack Roosevelt Robinson or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He fought this until he was finally accepted and graduated as a first lieutenant. He was in the Army from 1941 until 1944 and was stationed in Kansas and Fort Hood, Texas.During the time he was stationed in Kansas he worked with a boxer named Joe Louis so that he could eight against unfair treatment towards African-Americans in the military and when training in Fort Hood, Texas he refused to go to the back of the public bus and was court-martial for insubordination. Due to this he never made it to Europe with his unit and in 1944 he received an honorable discharge. After he left the Army he joined the Kansas City Monarchs, an all African American baseball team inside of the Negro League.Due to low pay and constant traveling he decided he did not want to make baseball a career even though he was one of the top players. Until 1947 only white players were allowed in Major League Baseball but in 1945 Clyde Superhero who was a scout for Branch Rickety who was the Brooklyn Dodgers club president had been looking for an African-American player and was watching Jackie fo r a while. Rickety signed Jackie to play for the Dodgers minor league team named the Montreal Royals. Jackie was emotionally tired but he enjoyed and appreciated all the support from the fans in this Canadian city because it was so different from the verbal abuse he had before experienced. Jackie Robinson was 27 years Old with an extremely bad temper when he finally Egan playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Rickety went to Jackie with an agreement. He simply asked him to try to control his temper for the first few years and he even called him bad names in which he knew would be yelled Jackasss way in order for him understand the kind of abuse he would be facing.With that, Jackie Robinson agreed and this was the beginning of a very big change in baseball history. The movie 42 begins in 1946. Jackie played his first game on April 15, 1 947 playing first base. He played first base for his entire rookie year but most of his career was spent playing second base. There were many games where he also played third base and outfield. Jackie so far had kept his agreement with Rickety until during a game the umpire said to him, go back to the jungle you little Niger! When this caused him to punch the umpire in the face. After this incident many of the Dodger players felt uncomfortable playing with Jackie and told Dodger management that they would rather strike then play with a black man like Jackie. This madness ended once management told the players that if they truly felt that way they were more than welcome to look for jobs elsewhere. Jackie became close friends with fellow teammate Pee Wee Reese. In a game with Cincinnati the players started yelling things to Jackie and then to Pee Wee. Pee Wee heard one of the players yell, How can you play with this Niger? so Pee Wee walked over to Jackie who was standing at first base, smiled and put his arm around him. The two then became known as a defensive team but of course the harassment did not stop there. Both players and fans continued to verbally harass him. Some pitchers threw balls at him Sometimes even at his head. Base runners attempted to cut him with their elate. One team in particular; the Philadelphia Phillips were extremely abusive with the support of their manager who was Ben Chapman.When the Dodgers played the Phillips on April 22nd the Phillips players continuously yelled at Jackie making upsetting remarks at him. It was not long after that Baseball Commissioner A. B. Happy Chandler admonished the Phillips and asked Jackie to pose for a picture with Chapman. He thought it would make good publicity. Although neither Jackie nor Chapman refused it was something neither of the two truly wanted to do. Jackie made the Major League Baseball minimum salary of 55,000 his rookie year. It is to be said that he played 151 games hit . 97, was the league leader of stolen bases with a total of 29 and nine times stealing home base. He was awarded Rookie of the Year and in 1 949 was awarded by the National League as Most Valuable Player and batting leader with a . 342. In 1955 Jackie was on the downside of his career but it was during his prime that he had finally became respected as a player. He had led the Dodgers to their first World Series in 1 947 with 5 following short after. His Major League career was very short considering he entered the Major League at age 27.This was difficult because as he aged he became easily injured. After the 1 956 season, Jackie was sold to the New York Giants which not long after became the Los Angels Giants. Unfortunately Jackie felt that it was time for him to retire so on January 5 1 957 at the age of 37 he did. He wanted to either manage or coach a team but he didnt receive any offers so instead he became a businessman and the Vice- President of the Chock Full Of Nuts Corporation. In the 1960 election he undistributed to the presidential campaign for Herbert Humphrey.