70 .Years Ago, April.15, 1947. Jackie Robinson --.Integrated,Baseball.. .Amazing. He Was Not. Assassinated --...He,Was  Involved Civil. Rights And Social .Issues -After,Playing Baseball. There Are Several .Books About Him...

 

Perhaps the characteristics that made Robinson an ideal candidate to integrate baseball, were the same ones that did not necessitate his assignation.

Robinson was a young man when he died, younger than I am now. I still think of myself as relatively young, perhaps I always will...

The Robinsons used to host a big concert in their backyard in CT, eventually if got so big it was moved. I attended a few times it was like a family reunion.  I spent most of the day drinking and playing spades.

The Jackie Robinson Foundation used to host an awards banquet for their scholarship fund at the Waldorf Astoria hotel (they still may do it I just have not been in a long time).  It was a big event.  For some reason, Goldman Sachs used to have me sit at one of their tables--which was unusual because everyone else at the table was a partner (read: very wealthy). I never did learn why they invited me, but I always enjoyed myself.  I met Bill Cosby one year.  This was long before the rape allegations Cosby presented as much more elderly than I expected and this was well over 10 years ago.

It is interesting to consider how the Black American presence in major league baseball is approaching our involvement in Ice Hockey.  

50 years later we need another Jackie Robinson, a great athlete, family man, advocate for Black rights, free of drugs and hormones, with a squeaky clean rep, to integrate baseball once again.

Then again they don't make men like Robinson anymore, do they?  May he rest in peace.