Jackie Robinson In Sports

Improved Essays
The veteran mounds man is seen intentionally throwing a pitch at Robinson’s head, hitting him with that pitch, and then attempting to insult him with a dismissive and racially tinged remark. This is just one of the plentiful occurrences where Mr. Robinson was attacked on a baseball field simple because of his skin color. Robinson grew up in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 as part of a family of five. Growing up he had always excelled in sports being the first athlete in UCLA history to get varsity letters in four sports (“Jackie Robinson”). However, Robinson would have to put sports off for a few years in order to enroll in the U.S. Army and help support his family financially. Jackie Robinson’s astonishing physical ability, paired with his mental toughness, …show more content…
While Robinson played a majority of the second half of his career at first, cleating stepping on someone’s leg with the spike of your cleat- was not uncommon. One cleating incident was so serious is was reported, “One Southern player, Enos "Country" Slaughter of the St. Louis Cardinals, spiked Robinson particularly brutally, causing a seven-inch gash” (PBS). Umpires were helpless to any injuries caused to Robinson as if they choose to defend Robinson against a white man it could mean dire consequences. Occurrences of intentional harm towards Robinson were unfortunately a normality and also were expected most of the time. Offense was also showed little mercy as Robinson was used more as a punching bag for pitchers as he was constantly thrown at or brushed off the …show more content…
Robinson was pushed to the edge and back with mental strain and emotional torture/abuse that is beyond belief for people today. For a decent part of his career, Jackie Robinson suffered numerous cleatings and concussions all form the malicious white players incapable of accepting Robinson. The spectrum of Robinson’s influence and inspiration was not exclusively on baseball, but he also helped change and raise money for Civil Rights. Robinson has affected many of us today even if we may not realize it which brings up the question of how different our lives would be if Robinson was never successful in integrating America’s favorite

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