On April 15, 1947, Clyde Sukeforth put Jack Roosevelt Robinson number two in the batting order playing first base as the Brooklyn Dodgers would begin Opening Day facing off against the Boston Braves. Sukeforth was the man who scouted Robinson on behalf of Dodgers' President Branch Rickey nearly two years earlier and was now being pressed into service as the team's manager following the suspension of Leo Durocher by MLB Commissioner "Happy" Chandler. He would happily hand over the reins to Burt Shotton three days later. However, I suspect he rather enjoyed penciling in Robinson's name in the lineup.
Robinson and the Dodgers had a tough task ahead of them as they would face Johnny Sain who had a breakthrough season in 1946 with his first of three consecutive 20-plus win campaigns after missing three years due to military service. The following year, it would be "Spahn & Sain and pray for rain" as the Braves would win their first NL pennant 34 years.
Sain would get Robinson to ground out to third base in his very first at bat in the bottom of first. Playing third base that day was Bob Elliott. Acquired by the Braves from the Pittsburgh Pirates in the off-season, Elliott would win that year's NL MVP. Robinson was no more successful in the bottom of the third when Sain got him to fly out to left field. When Robinson came up against Sain in the bottom of the fifth, the game was tied 1-1. Robinson had a RBI opportunity with runners on first and third with one out. However, Robinson would hit into an inning ending double play and was now 0 for 3.
The Braves took a 3-1 lead in the top of the sixth on a single by Braves second baseman Connie Ryan off Dodgers' starter Joel Hatten, but the Dodgers would get a run back in the bottom of the inning on a RBI groundout by Brooklyn third baseman Spider Jorgensen.
The bottom of the seventh began with Sain issuing a lead off walk to Dodgers' second baseman Eddie Stanky. Robinson's plan was to sacrifice himself to advance Stanky to second despite the fact that Stanky had told him the night before, “You’re on this ballclub and as far as I’m concerned that makes you one of 25 players on my team. But before I play with you, I want you to know how I feel about it. I want you to know I don’t like it. I want you to know I don’t like you.” This notwithstanding, Robinson bunted Stanky over to second, but Robinson reached first when Braves' first baseman Earl Torgeson dropped the ball. For this, Robinson was awarded second while Stanky strode onto third. The injury prone Pete Reiser, who was among the few Dodgers who refused to sign a petition calling for Robinson's removal from the team, doubled home both Stanky and Robinson giving number 42 his first career run scored. More importantly, it gave the Dodgers a 4-3 lead. This would finish off Sain who bowed out in favor of Mort Cooper. The Dodgers added another run on a Gene Hermanski sacrifice fly which scored Reiser. That is how things stood in the middle of the 9th inning with the Dodgers winning 5-3. It was the first of 94 wins for the Dodgers who would win their first NL pennant in six years, but would fall in seven games to the New York Yankees in the World Series. As for Robinson, he would win the inaugural NL Rookie of the Year while finishing fifth in NL MVP balloting.
If one looks at the box score of the Braves-Dodgers game on April 15, 1947 one sees that Jackie Robinson went 0 for 3 in four plate appearances with one run scored. But the box score does not show the hell he had to go through to get there and the hell he would endure after. Being a pioneer for racial justice came with a price. Robinson would die in the fall of 1972 at the age of 53. Yet if not for that box score 72 years ago today baseball would not have become better and nor would the country. All because a black man got to cross the white lines.
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