Jackie Robinson A Role Model

Jackie Robinson was a very inspirational athlete, known world wide and his name will go down in history. He was a role model, a leader, and made it easier for African American ballplayers everywhere. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was the first African American professional baseball player in todays day in age of baseball. Jackie is credited and rightfully so, with breaking the “color line” in baseball. While he was a great baseball player, that was not even close to the most important thing in Jackie’s career. His, courage, integrity and passion for the game made him the iconic figure he is for baseball and non-baseball fans alike today.
Jackie Robinson grew up with about as humble of a beginning as one possibly could. He was the youngest of five …show more content…
After all, he was now on the biggest stage, in front of the most fans, with all eyes on him. According to an article about Jackie titled, “The Bravest Man in Baseball” it speaks of how Jackie was treated during the beginning of his Big League career. The article says that players on his own team tried to make a petition to get Jackie off the team and that fans went so far as to write threatening letters to Jackie as well as his wife Rachel (Damio 2016). They threw things at Jackie from the stands and called him every terrible word in the book. None of this however could seem to faze Jackie. Jackie Robinson would go on to win the Rookie of the Year award for the entire league. The entire voting committee for the Rookie of the Year were white. However, Jackie’s numbers were so much higher than the rest of the rookies that season that they had no choice but to give Jackie the award. Jackie of course did all this while off the field issues were higher than ever. Jackie and his wife Rachel and his daughter Sharon would have rocks thrown their bedroom windows at night. They had to move houses on more than one occasion for their own protection. Even when Jackie would be with his team he still could not get away from the prejudice. When the team would go on the road and stop to eat, many times the owner of the restaurant would not allow the team to eat there because of Jackie’s color. Jackie could never get away from the hatred many felt towards him. No matter if he was on the field, at home, or walking around town he was always the go to target for racial slurs and hatred. Despite all this Jackie never quit. Major league baseball is extremely difficult to perform well in even without everything Jackie went through. Given everything he had to endure, it would be nearly impossible to perform at a sustained high level in the Major Leagues. Jackie did it though again and again. This is why