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Jackie Robinson was born January 31, 1919

Never has one professional athlete been shoved down everyone's throat more than this chap.

I have Jackie Robinson fatigue.

We get it. First black guy. Got insulted a lot.

Cry me a river. There are a million kids in public schools who get treated worse every single day. Their number doesn't get retired. They don't have a number.

93henfan wrote:Never has one professional athlete been shoved down everyone's throat more than this chap.

I have Jackie Robinson fatigue.

We get it. First black guy. Got insulted a lot.

Cry me a river. There are a million kids in public schools who get treated worse every single day. Their number doesn't get retired. They don't have a number.

Doesn't sound like they ever had it made either.

93henfan wrote:Never has one professional athlete been shoved down everyone's throat more than this chap.

I have Jackie Robinson fatigue.

We get it. First black guy. Got insulted a lot.

Cry me a river. There are a million kids in public schools who get treated worse every single day. Their number doesn't get retired. They don't have a number.

Please tell me you heard of LeBron James on one of those days you were not at work............... The media shove him down throats over everything from knitting, xBox to the prophylactic sponge. Hes the 5th best player in the NBA and they act like everyone wants to know what he thinks about what place Danica Patick came in in the last race she crashed in.

ALPHAGRIZ1 wrote:

93henfan wrote:Never has one professional athlete been shoved down everyone's throat more than this chap.

I have Jackie Robinson fatigue.

We get it. First black guy. Got insulted a lot.

Cry me a river. There are a million kids in public schools who get treated worse every single day. Their number doesn't get retired. They don't have a number.

Please tell me you heard of LeBron James on one of those days you were not at work............... The media shove him down throats over everything from knitting, xBox to the prophylactic sponge. Hes the 5th best player in the NBA and they act like everyone wants to know what he thinks about what place Danica Patick came in in the last race she crashed in.

Lebron is the GOAT in everything from politics to DIY.

Hes barely a high school graduate.............so pardon me if I dont GAF what he thinks about anything, including basketball.

ALPHAGRIZ1 wrote:Hes barely a high school graduate.............so pardon me if I dont GAF what he thinks about anything, including basketball.

Thomas Edison did not graduate from high school.

Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were college drop outs.

I am not a fan of assuming that someone has nothing intellectual to offer because they did not receive some particular level of formal education.

93henfan wrote:Never has one professional athlete been shoved down everyone's throat more than this chap

I think Tiger Woods was shoved down society's throat more than Robinson or anybody else. I can remember when he first started to emerge. My impression was and is that people wanted SO badly to be able to say he was the greatest golfer of all time. And I sense that there has been major disappointment in the likelihood that he is not going to overtake Jack Nicklaus to get the highest number of major tournament titles.

For some reason there hasn't seemed to be as much concern over whether he catches Sam Snead for the most PGA tournament wins overall or the most PGA tournament wins in a year. It's possible he may catch Snead in overall tournament wins as he's only two behind (82 vs. 80). Very unlikely that at this point of his career he'll catch Snead in terms of most PGA tournament wins in one year (11 vs. 9).

JohnStOnge wrote:

93henfan wrote:Never has one professional athlete been shoved down everyone's throat more than this chap

I think Tiger Woods was shoved down society's throat more than Robinson or anybody else. I can remember when he first started to emerge. My impression was and is that people wanted SO badly to be able to say he was the greatest golfer of all time. And I sense that there has been major disappointment in the likelihood that he is not going to overtake Jack Nicklaus to get the highest number of major tournament titles.

For some reason there hasn't seemed to be as much concern over whether he catches Sam Snead for the most PGA tournament wins overall or the most PGA tournament wins in a year. It's possible he may catch Snead in overall tournament wins as he's only two behind (82 vs. 80). Very unlikely that at this point of his career he'll catch Snead in terms of most PGA tournament wins in one year (11 vs. 9).

Woods would have broken every record without the injuries.

Jackie Robinson was just black, first, and pretty good.

Does the PGA have a Tiger Woods Day every year where everyone has to wear a red shirt and black pants to honor his legend (they don't wear numbers in golf, so a 42 is out)?

Does the PGA basically coerce every course to put a Tiger Woods plaque on its wall?

Because that's basically what MLB has done.

Robinson was a 28 year old rookie, because he was banned from baseball because of the color of his skin. He was a great athlete and player. All baseball did was commemorate breaking the color barrier in baseball by honoring Jackie Robinson. He's not even close to being shoved down our throats like Tiger, like Lebron, like Brady, and Michael Jordan before them. Sports talk shows rarely talk about Jackie Robinson, unless of course, it's Jackie Robinson day in baseball.

We don't know if Tiger would have broken all the records, but maybe with is new game he might.

Two points:

1. Larry Doby, who broke the line in Cleveland the same year Robinson did with the Dodgers, is somehow reviled (or so I've heard) despite the fact that he endured the same trash Robinson did.

2. Two Los Angeles Rams (I believe they were Robinson's teammates at UCLA) broke the NFL barrier at least a year before Robinson was elevated to the majors, yet they're largely forgotten, as are Marion Motley and others who broke the barrier in the AAFC with the Browns at the same time. This just baffles the mind....

SuperHornet wrote:Two points:

1. Larry Doby, who broke the line in Cleveland the same year Robinson did with the Dodgers, is somehow reviled (or so I've heard) despite the fact that he endured the same trash Robinson did.

2. Two Los Angeles Rams (I believe they were Robinson's teammates at UCLA) broke the NFL barrier at least a year before Robinson was elevated to the majors, yet they're largely forgotten, as are Marion Motley and others who broke the barrier in the AAFC with the Browns at the same time. This just baffles the mind....

Bobby Marshall and Fritz Pollard were the first Black players in the NFL in 1920. The NFL was integrated until 1933. Washington owner urged the league to not use Black players. In 1946, Kenny Washington and Woody Strode (great actor), integrated the NFL again. Doby, Washington and Strode are all held in high esteem by sports historians.

Robinson’s strength and quickness made him an impressive all-around athlete, and during college at UCLA, he became the first student to letter in four different sports in a single season. In addition to baseball, he also shined in basketball as a guard and forward; in football as a quarterback, running back and safety; and in track and field as a long jumper. Robinson also moonlighted as a tennis player, and even captured a few amateur titles during his summer breaks from school. He later cashed his first checks as a pro athlete playing football for the Honolulu Bears and the Los Angeles Bulldogs, and continued to nurture his interest in other sports right up until the start of his Major League Baseball career. Only a few months before breaking baseball’s color barrier, he was playing pro basketball for the Los Angeles Red Devils.

In the summer of 1949, Robinson was unexpectedly called to speak before the House Un-American Activities Committee—the Congressional board that conducted inquiries into the activities of suspected communist sympathizers and subversives. The request came in the wake of a controversy surrounding the black singer and actor Paul Robeson, who had remarked that African Americans would be unlikely to support a war against the Soviet Union after receiving such dismal treatment in the United States. Asked to comment on black loyalty to the American way of life, Robinson responded with a nuanced speech denouncing communism and the evils of racism. He also gently noted that Robeson—whom he admired for his civil rights stances—had been “silly” in his suggestions about black patriotism. The speech was hailed as a success, but Robinson would later express regret about having been caught up in the Committee’s witch hunts.

Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Robinson was drafted into the Army and assigned to a cavalry unit at Fort Riley, Kansas. While in basic training, he struck up a warm friendship with fellow recruit and champion boxer Joe “the Brown Bomber” Louis, who had famously bested the German Max Schmeling during a politically charged bout in 1938. Robinson and Louis often played golf together in their off hours, and Louis later used his prestige to help Jackie and several other black soldiers win entrance into the Army’s Officer Candidate School after they were unfairly denied admission because of their race.

Like many great athletes of his era, Robinson had his prime baseball years interrupted by World War II. Occupied by his pro football career and his military service, he played no organized baseball between his last UCLA game in 1940 and his first game for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1945. Amazingly, Robinson spent only one season in the Negro leagues before Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey selected him to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier. After a successful spell at the minor league Montreal Royals in 1946, Robinson made his historic regular season debut for the Dodgers on April 15, 1947 at the age of 28.

JohnStOnge wrote:

93henfan wrote:Never has one professional athlete been shoved down everyone's throat more than this chap

I think Tiger Woods was shoved down society's throat more than Robinson or anybody else. I can remember when he first started to emerge. My impression was and is that people wanted SO badly to be able to say he was the greatest golfer of all time. And I sense that there has been major disappointment in the likelihood that he is not going to overtake Jack Nicklaus to get the highest number of major tournament titles.

For some reason there hasn't seemed to be as much concern over whether he catches Sam Snead for the most PGA tournament wins overall or the most PGA tournament wins in a year. It's possible he may catch Snead in overall tournament wins as he's only two behind (82 vs. 80). Very unlikely that at this point of his career he'll catch Snead in terms of most PGA tournament wins in one year (11 vs. 9).

Dude, Tiger was really, really good. That wasn't just made up stuff. Injuries and poor decisions in his personal life derailed him, but even with all of that he's still one of the most accomplished golfers of all time.

SuperHornet wrote:Two points:

1. Larry Doby, who broke the line in Cleveland the same year Robinson did with the Dodgers, is somehow reviled (or so I've heard) despite the fact that he endured the same trash Robinson did.

2. Two Los Angeles Rams (I believe they were Robinson's teammates at UCLA) broke the NFL barrier at least a year before Robinson was elevated to the majors, yet they're largely forgotten, as are Marion Motley and others who broke the barrier in the AAFC with the Browns at the same time. This just baffles the mind....

Baseball dwarfed football (pro football) in terms of national interest for a long time. It's only recently that pro football became the dominant sport in terms of popularity. Jackie played when baseball was king and pro football was something on the level of pro wrestling, that's why he's known and the other two guys are not.

GannonFan wrote:

SuperHornet wrote:Two points:

1. Larry Doby, who broke the line in Cleveland the same year Robinson did with the Dodgers, is somehow reviled (or so I've heard) despite the fact that he endured the same trash Robinson did.

2. Two Los Angeles Rams (I believe they were Robinson's teammates at UCLA) broke the NFL barrier at least a year before Robinson was elevated to the majors, yet they're largely forgotten, as are Marion Motley and others who broke the barrier in the AAFC with the Browns at the same time. This just baffles the mind....

Baseball dwarfed football (pro football) in terms of national interest for a long time. It's only recently that pro football became the dominant sport in terms of popularity. Jackie played when baseball was king and pro football was something on the level of pro wrestling, that's why he's known and the other two guys are not.

Kenny Washington was actually thought to be a better baseball player on the UCLA team, and the Dodgers tried to sign him in 1942? They wanted him to play in Puerto Rico first, and he refused.

Reparations!

Bryce Harper
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#42

Like he has a choice.