The color barrier in the Major League Baseball (MLB), at the time officially known as the white man 's game, was changed in 1947 when Jack (Jackie) Roosevelt Robinson would sign with the Dodgers. He would become the first person to ever do so. Many people would not describe him only as an athlete, but a social activist and a hero. In the book Opening Day author, Jonathan Eig describes Jackie’s life prior to signing with the Dodgers, through his early career in 1947. Also, throughout the book, stories of other baseball players in the time period are used, as well as, Americans who were greatly influenced by Jackie 's ambition to end segregation in professional sports. Many whites saw a social revolution, when they realized that Jackie was just
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Jonathan Eig was born in Brooklyn, New York, but raised in the city of Monsey, New York. His passion for writing would take him all the way through Northwestern University 's Medill School of Journalism, where he would graduate in 1986. He worked for numerous publication firms, one being The Wall Street Journal. He would continue his career of writing by teaching at Columbia College Chicago and lecturing at Northwestern. Throughout his life he traveled the country to speak to organizations in the effort to raise money for the fight against Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Not only has he written Opening Day, he has also produced three other novels. One being, Luckiest Man, won the 2005 CASEY award for best baseball book of the year. At the end of the Opening Day, Eig describes how he directly stayed with primary sources. He relied completely on interviews, newspaper articles, oral historians, and for few games, movie reel footages. Usually, with a story full of primary courses, it becomes uneventful and dull, but this book was very captivating. You do not want to know the author’s opinion on the biographer they are writing about. Instead, like in Opening Day, you want to know exactly what happened in the fourth-inning, or how did the nation truly feel about an African- American playing in the majors for the first time. Jonathan Eig in this story did just that, portrayed Jackie 's first …show more content…
In contrast, several genres of people would enjoy Opening Day. People such as, baseball and/or sports fanatics, or just merely people interested in the integration of professional sports. The book would be considered new, due to the fact that the book is not just about Jackie. It involves stories of people who watched him play and his influence on African-American way of living. Also, of other baseball players during the time of Jackie and their thought of him and the idea of integration of what was known as the “the white man 's sport”. Eig goes to great lengths to make the book completely factual, strictly using primary sources, one being a personal scrapbook Rachel Robinson kept while Jackie played for the Dodgers. Jonathan Eig wanted to write a story not completely focused on Jackie 's baseball career, but his effect on America’s struggle with integration, his personal life at home, and his influence on the minds of people who hated the thought of an African-American in a national pastime (some of which included his own teammates). Opening Day was not bias whatsoever. The title might have Jackie’s name in it, but the books not just about his life and career. Eig incorporated other stories from African-Americans in the United States who had been influenced by Jackie’s (push to defend himself against lashing out from fans and
Jonathan Eig was born in Brooklyn, New York, but raised in the city of Monsey, New York. His passion for writing would take him all the way through Northwestern University 's Medill School of Journalism, where he would graduate in 1986. He worked for numerous publication firms, one being The Wall Street Journal. He would continue his career of writing by teaching at Columbia College Chicago and lecturing at Northwestern. Throughout his life he traveled the country to speak to organizations in the effort to raise money for the fight against Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Not only has he written Opening Day, he has also produced three other novels. One being, Luckiest Man, won the 2005 CASEY award for best baseball book of the year. At the end of the Opening Day, Eig describes how he directly stayed with primary sources. He relied completely on interviews, newspaper articles, oral historians, and for few games, movie reel footages. Usually, with a story full of primary courses, it becomes uneventful and dull, but this book was very captivating. You do not want to know the author’s opinion on the biographer they are writing about. Instead, like in Opening Day, you want to know exactly what happened in the fourth-inning, or how did the nation truly feel about an African- American playing in the majors for the first time. Jonathan Eig in this story did just that, portrayed Jackie 's first …show more content…
In contrast, several genres of people would enjoy Opening Day. People such as, baseball and/or sports fanatics, or just merely people interested in the integration of professional sports. The book would be considered new, due to the fact that the book is not just about Jackie. It involves stories of people who watched him play and his influence on African-American way of living. Also, of other baseball players during the time of Jackie and their thought of him and the idea of integration of what was known as the “the white man 's sport”. Eig goes to great lengths to make the book completely factual, strictly using primary sources, one being a personal scrapbook Rachel Robinson kept while Jackie played for the Dodgers. Jonathan Eig wanted to write a story not completely focused on Jackie 's baseball career, but his effect on America’s struggle with integration, his personal life at home, and his influence on the minds of people who hated the thought of an African-American in a national pastime (some of which included his own teammates). Opening Day was not bias whatsoever. The title might have Jackie’s name in it, but the books not just about his life and career. Eig incorporated other stories from African-Americans in the United States who had been influenced by Jackie’s (push to defend himself against lashing out from fans and