1952 World Series: The wind-blown popup

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (95-59) - 19th World Series (Won 14 previous times)
National League: Brooklyn Dodgers (96-57) - Sixth World Series

What Happened

The Dodgers entered the 1952 World Series battered and beaten, having lost the pennant on the final day of the season each of the previous two seasons. They finally avoided the late-season drama in 1952 and accepted the National League's annual invitation to play the Yankees in the World Series. The Yankees were there for the fourth straight year - or fifth time in six years, or 12th time in 16 years, or whatever crazy metric you want to use. The fact is that they were back and, for the fourth time, were playing the Dodgers.

The biggest story of the beginning of the series was Joe Black, the Dodgers' ace reliever who started Game 1 despite only starting two games all season. Black was brilliant, though, throwing a complete game to beat the Yankees. He was also brilliant in Game 4, but wasn't as good as Allie Reynolds, who shut out the Dodgers. The games on either side of Game 4 were among the best of the series - the Dodgers won Game 3 after Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson both scored on the same wild pitch in the ninth inning, and they won Game 5 on an 11th-inning double by Duke Snider.  

Snider's double gave the Dodgers a 3-2 series lead heading back to Ebbets Field, but late home runs by Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle erased that deficit. The only problem the Yankees had with Game 6 was that they had to use Reynolds in relief to finish off the win. But the Dodgers were pressing their luck by starting Black yet again, his third start in the series after spending the season as a reliever.

And despite pitching valiantly, Black seemed to tire in Game 7. After three scoreless innings, the Yankees got one run in each of the next four, while holding the Dodgers to just two - despite committing four errors. It was 4-2 in the seventh inning when the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out and Snider and Robinson due up. Snider didn't get the job done, popping out to third, so it came down to Robinson. And like his teammate, Robinson popped up.

Sometimes, the biggest play in a postseason series isn't a run-scoring hit or a clutch strikeout. Sometimes, it's something as simple as a popup, something that gets marked in the score book as simply "F-4." Normally, Robinson's popup would have been routine, a big out but more a sigh of relief than anything. But it went up, and it stayed up, and it started drifting. One runner crossed the plate, and the ball stayed in the air, drifting in the wind. Another runner crossed the plate, the potential tying run, and it still hadn't come down. Billy Martin, the second baseman, was tracking it, following it, hoping. He followed it all the way over to first, in front of the bag, before reaching down and catching it a foot off the ground. F-4.

The Dodgers had come so close to getting the big break they had always wanted in a World Series. Instead, they got more heartbreak. They went down meekly over the final two innings, and the Yankees celebrated their fourth straight championship.

MVP
Reynolds couldn't start Game 7, but he could come in as a reliever, and he threw three innings, getting the win. That was on top of his Game 4 win, and his Game 1 start, and his Game 6 save. Mickey Mantle was great in the series, hitting the ball all over the field, but Reynolds was the reason the Yankees won.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

New York	2	7	3	2	5	3	4
Brooklyn	4	1	5	0	6 (11)	2	2

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

16. 1952 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
17. 1997 - Florida (N) def. Cleveland (A) 4-3
18. 1993 - Toronto (A) def. Philadelphia (N) 4-2
19. 1956 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
Numbers 20-29
Numbers 30-39
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

5. 1997: Florida 3, Cleveland 2
7. 1946: St. Louis (N) 4, Boston (A) 3
9. 1925: Pittsburgh 9, Washington 7
12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
14. 1952: New York (A) 4, Brooklyn 2
15. 1971: Pittsburgh 2, Baltimore 1
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
23. 1973: Oakland 5, New York (N) 2
24. 2002: Anaheim 4, San Francisco 1
26. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
28. 1965: Los Angeles (A) 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5
30. 1957: Milwaukee 5, New York (A) 0
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0
34. 1934: St. Louis (N) 11, Detroit 0 
35. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0
36. 1956: New York (A) 9, Brooklyn 0

1956 World Series: Perfect

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (97-57) -  22nd World Series (Won 16 previous times)
National League: Brooklyn Dodgers (93-61) - Ninth World Series (Won in 1955)

What Happened
Don Larsen staggered into the Yankee Stadium clubhouse. He was hung over, possibly still drunk. He had been out drinking the night before Game 5, like he had been after every game of the 1956 World Series, like he had been most of the season. On this day, he showed up at the stadium working on only an hour and a half of sleep. When he sat down at his locker, he saw something puzzling; a baseball was in his glove. It was his turn.

See, if you were a pitcher for the Yankees in the 1950s, you never knew if you were going to pitch in that day's ballgame until you showed up to the ballpark. If there was a baseball in your glove, you were the guy, so you better head out to the bullpen. Larsen certainly didn't expect to be handed the ball after the mighty Dodgers had pounded him around Ebbets Field in Game 2. But there was the ball. Nothing he could do about it now. Larsen immediately got up, walked into the trainer's room, and took a nap.

He woke up at noon, an hour before first pitch, and went to warm up. To say his start was important was an understatement. The series was tied 2-2, with the home team winning all four games. In most years, the Yankees would just shrug their shoulders, grip the bat a little tighter, and start a killer rally to put the Dodgers away for good. But this year was different. For the first time ever, the Dodgers were the defending champions. They wouldn't go away easily this time. So the Yankees needed Larsen at his best.

What they got was better than they could have ever expected.

He got lucky a few times. In the second inning, Jackie Robinson ripped a liner that deflected off the glove of third baseman Andy Carey and bounced right to shortstop Gil McDougald, who threw out Robinson by a half step. Later, in the fifth, Gil Hodges got a hold of one, sending it deep to the gap in left center field. Mickey Mantle, that year's triple crown winner, tracked it down right in front of the monuments in deep center field.

But that was it. The Yankees got a run on a Mantle home run, another one on a Hank Bauer single, then held their breath to see if Larsen could do it. By the time they got to the ninth inning, nobody on the Yankees wanted the ball hit to them, afraid they'd screw up Larsen's date with history. The first two outs of the ninth were hit to fielders, though: a fly out to Bauer in right and a grounder to Billy Martin at second. The last batter was Dale Mitchell, pinch-hitting for Sal Maglie, who had thrown a great game himself. It would be Mitchell's final Major League plate appearance, but that's not why it's been replayed over and over again.

Mitchell checked his swing on a 1-2 pitch, but home plate umpire Babe Pinelli called it a strike anyway. Yogi Berra leaped from behind the plate, jumped up and down up the first base line, and leaped into Larsen's arms as he tried to walk off the field. Soon the rest of the Yankees joined in the celebration. It was the first, and so far only, no-hitter in World Series history, and it was a perfect game to boot. There have been many unlikely pitchers to throw perfect games, but Larsen's gem in the World Series, against the powerful Dodgers, might have been the most unlikely of all.

Well, powerful might be a bit of a stretch, because the Boys of Summer were getting long in the tooth. It was obvious in 1956 that they were wearing down. The fire in Robinson's belly was fading, catcher Roy Campanella was flat-out collapsing. They were running on fumes. This was their last shot at glory.

In many ways, Larsen's perfect game signaled the end of the Boys of Summer dynasty. Over the final three games of the series - including two in tiny Ebbets Field - the Dodgers only scored one run, coming on an RBI single by Jackie Robinson in the 10th inning of Game 6. That game may have technically kept the series alive for the Dodgers, but it was only delaying the inevitable. The last game was the fourth Game 7 played between Brooklyn and the Yankees, and it doubled as the worst Game 7 ever played. Berra's home run gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead before the Dodgers even came to the plate, and Brooklyn only managed three hits in a 9-0 humiliation. It was a sad end to one of the National League's best dynasties. And it all started with a baseball in a drunk man's glove.

MVP
Larsen threw a perfect game. Of course he was going to be named MVP. Who cares if he got knocked out of his other start in the second inning. Perfect game!

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

New York	3	8	5	6	2	0	9
Brooklyn	6	13	3	2	0	1 (10)	0

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

19. 1956 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
Numbers 20-29
Numbers 30-39
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

7. 1946: St. Louis (N) 4, Boston (A) 3
9. 1925: Pittsburgh 9, Washington 7
12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
15. 1971: Pittsburgh 2, Baltimore 1
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
23. 1973: Oakland 5, New York (N) 2
24. 2002: Anaheim 4, San Francisco 1
26. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
28. 1965: Los Angeles (A) 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5
30. 1957: Milwaukee 5, New York (A) 0
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0
34. 1934: St. Louis (N) 11, Detroit 0 
35. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0
36. 1956: New York (A) 9, Brooklyn 0

1955 World Series: Finally

The Teams
National League: Brooklyn Dodgers (98-55) - Ninth World Series
American League: New York Yankees (96-58) - 21st World Series (Won 16 previous times) 

What Happened
The story of the 1955 World Series started with the 1941 World Series. That was the first time the Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series. That year started a pattern. Six times, the Dodgers topped the National League, and six times, they lost to the Yankees in the World Series. No matter how good the Dodgers were, no matter how ho-hum the Yankees were, the Yankees were always better when it counted.

There were other losses, of course. Losing the pennant to Philadelphia on the final day of the 1950 season. Losing to the Giants in the 1951 playoff. But the narrative always came back to Dodgers vs. Yankees. And the story always ended the same.

There wasn't much reason to believe that 1955 would be the proverbial Next Year for Brooklyn. That was supposed to be 1953, when the Dodgers tore through the National League, putting together one of the best seasons in that league's history. And still, they lost. In 1955, they were a little bit older, a little less skilled than they had been. Time was running out.

Robinson steals home in Game 1,
perhaps the defining moment of his career.

The series didn't start well for Brooklyn. Five home runs were hit in Game 1 - three by the Yankees. Jackie Robinson, the aging pride of the Dodgers, stole home with two outs in the eighth Game 1 and the Dodgers down 2, but it wasn't enough, as the Dodgers fell by 1. In Game 2, the Yankees got 5 singles in the fourth inning, giving them all four runs they needed to take a 2-0 lead to Brooklyn.

In the friendly confines of Ebbets Field, the Dodgers' mighty bats woke up. The Dodgers scored 8 runs in both games 3 and 4, with Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, and Duke Snider all homering in Game 4. Snider hit two more bombs in Game 5, and Brooklyn took a 3-2 series lead back across the East River. They were one win away from finally breaking through. But the Dodgers were always one win away when it came to playing the Yankees. Whitey Ford made sure they had to wait, getting five first-inning runs to cruise to a complete-game Game 6 win.

So decades of frustration, six years of heartache against the Yankees, all came down to one game, played in historic Yankee Stadium, with a 22-year-old starter who had gone 9-10 during the regular season the man tasked with giving the Dodgers a championship. Here's the ball, Johnny Podres. Go win us a World Series.

And so he did.

Amoros makes the catch in Game 7.

Hodges got single runs batted in in the 4th and 6th innings, and Podres was cruising through five. In the sixth, the Dodgers started preparing for the end game, putting Sandy Amoros into the game for his defense, two batters later, there were two men on and nobody out when Yogi Berra sliced a ball deep to the left field corner. Amoros ran, and ran, and ran. And he caught it, the kind of catch that the Dodgers never used to make, the kind of catch that can win you a championship. Plus, he got the ball back in the infield in time to turn the double play.

The Yankees still had three more innings to try to catch up, and they mounted some threats, but the game was over after Amoros' catch. He had single-handedly saved Brooklyn. In the end, when the game was over and Brooklyn was finally World Champions, the heroes weren't one of the famous Boys of Summer, like Robinson or Snider or Hodges or Campanella or Reese. No, they were Amoros and Podres.

Defining Game
I have Game 7 ranked as the 13th best  Game 7 of all time. Try telling a Brooklyn fan it's anything but number 1. I've written about it before; see that post here. 

MVP
Snider could have been named MVP for his series-high four home runs and seven runs batted in. But the first official World Series MVP award was given to Podres, the 22-year-old kid who stared decades of disappointment in the face and laughed.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Brooklyn	5	2	8	8	5	1	2
New York	6	4	3	5	3	5	0

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

57. 1955 - Brooklyn (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
58. 1979 - Pittsburgh (N) def. Baltimore (A) 4-3
59. 1987 - Minnesota (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-3
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York 0
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis 4, Philadelphia 2
29. 1965: Los Angeles 2, Minnesota 0 
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0

1951 National League: The Shot

Pregame
What if Hank Thompson hadn't struggled in 1951? That was one of the biggest disappointments for the New York Giants in the early part of that season. After watching their third baseman Thompson struggle offensive early in the year, the Giants moved outfielder Bobby Thomson in to the hot corner for the first time since his rookie year, opening the door for the Giants to field youngsters Don Mueller and Willie Mays in the outfield along with veteran Monte Irvin. Things would have been so different if Thompson had just hit.

What if the Giants didn't have so many home games in a row in August and September? Really, it shouldn't have mattered. Entering play on August 12 with a 13-game lead over the second place Giants, the Dodgers should have been able to cruise to the National League pennant that year. And they did cruise down the stretch, ending the year with a 27-24 record that should have been good enough. But then there was the matter of the Giants stretch of home games. Starting with a double header on the 12th, the Giants ripped off a 16-game winning streak, with all but three of the wins coming at the Polo Grounds. Still, though, they had some work to do, entering play on September 22 down by 3 games. Unfazed, they won 7 games in a row to close out the season to put the pressure on the Dodgers.

What if the Giants hadn't put that pressure on the Dodgers? Then maybe Dodgers ace Don Newcombe wouldn't have had to throw a complete-game in his September 29 shutout of the Phillies that kept the Dodgers in a tie. Then maybe they wouldn't have needed to go to Newcombe again the next day, summoning him from the bullpen in the 8th inning in a tie game, a one-inning stint that turned into four as the Phillies and Dodgers played deep into the fading light.

What if Jackie Robinson hadn't been, well Jackie Robinson? After all, it was his overall brilliance that won that deciding game for the Dodgers. His triple in the fifth helped jump-start a rally from 6-1 down; his brilliant catch of a bases-loaded line drive saved Newcombe and the Dodgers in the bottom of the 12th; and his home run leading off the 14th won the game and set up the most famous three games in National League history.

Well, check that. The most famous single game. See, for all the excitement and fame of the pennant race and the ultimate final game, the first two games of the Giants-Dodgers playoff have become largely forgotten. In Game 1, New York's Jim Hearn outdueled Brooklyn's Ralph Branca and the Giants won 3-1 behind a home run by Thomson. The Dodger bats responded in Game 2, with Clem Labine throwing a shutout and the Dodgers winning 10-0.

Game 3 was back in the Polo Grounds because the Dodgers, despite winning the coin toss, chose to play two games on the road. Why? Who knows. But the Dodgers had Newcombe on the mound, and regardless of the stadium and his fatigue down the stretch, they felt like they could win with him. The Giants responded with 23-game winner Sal "The Barber" Maglie.

The Game
With their aces on the mound, both teams must have felt like one run would win the pennant. For the Dodgers, that one run came early, thanks to a first-inning single from Jackie Robinson - who else? - but Brooklyn also left two runners on base that inning. For all Newcombe's brilliance, they knew he was running on fumes after his late-season heroics, so they had to be wondering how safe that lead really was.

But for six innings, it was perfectly safe. Maglie was pitching brilliantly, but Newcombe was even better, and the Dodgers still had their 1-0 lead entering the bottom of the seventh. Finally, then, the Dodgers broke through, as Thomson hit a sacrifice fly to tie game. With the Giants still threatening, Newcombe got the rookie Mays to ground into a double play to end the threat.

Having been sitting on a 1-0 lead for so long, the Dodgers responded immediately to the newly tied game, backing up their ace with a three-run 8th inning. So it was 4-1 entering the bottom of the ninth, and then the questions came up again.

What if Newcombe hadn't been over used down the stretch? Then he wouldn't have told Robinson entering the ninth that he was dog tired. Of course, manager Chuck Dressen left in him anyway. Then Dark led off the ninth with a single. Mueller - who wouldn't have had an open spot in the lineup if Thomson hadn't been able to move so seamlessly into third base - followed with another single. After a pop out, Whitey Lockman singled home Dark, with Mueller going to third and spraining his ankle.

While the trainers were tending to Mueller, Dressen was calling down to the bullpen. Branka and Carl Erskine were both warmed up, but Erskine's final warm-up pitch, a curveball, bounced, so Dressen went with Branca. What if that ball hadn't bounced? What would Erskine have done in this clutch situation? As it was, it was a matchup between Branca and Thomson. And remember, Thomson had homered off Branca in Game 1 of the playoff.

Another question to be asked is what if Dressen had ordered Thomson walked to face the rookie Mays? In retrospect, it seems crazy that it was even a possibility that you would intentionally walk somebody ahead of Willie Mays, but it wasn't then. Thomson was the Giants' best hitter, and Mays was a rookie who had at times struggled with the transition to Major League play. But the old adage went that you don't put the winning run on base, and Thomson represented the winning run, so it was him that was facing Branca. But if it had been Mays? Hoo boy. He is already considered one of the top three players in baseball history. If it had been Mays getting the pennant-clinching hit in this game, maybe that would have been the clinching argument that pushed Mays ahead of Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb atop baseball's list of immortals.

But it was Thomson. And as the 1-0 pitch sunk into the left-field bleachers, he started leaping as he ran around the bases. The Dodgers slunk off the field - all of them except Robinson, that is, as he stayed to make sure Thomson touched every base.

Postgame
Thomson leaped onto home plate and got engulfed by his teammates, eventually being carried off the field. It was his moment, and his alone. All the things that had happened that summer, all the little plays or decisions that could have turned out differently had led to this. If anything had happened differently between August 12 and October 3, maybe we wouldn't remember Bobby Thomson at all. Maybe he'd just be a footnote in baseball history. As it is, he'll always be remembered as the author of the Shot Heard 'Round the World, the most famous home run in the greatest game in baseball history.

It's surprising how rarely it's mentioned that the Giants lost the subsequent World Series to the Yankees. It's like it doesn't matter, that the ultimate goal was simply the National League pennant. Maybe in this instance it was.

Mays, who missed his chance at immortality by one spot in the batting order, spent the next two seasons in the military, returning for the 1954 season. That year, he led the Giants to another World Series appearance, and he took advantage of his second chance at immortality that year, making The Catch to help jump-start a four-game sweep.

Thomson was with the Braves by 1954, a season in which instead of making history, he became a footnote to history. When Thomson broke his leg in spring training of 1954, it forced the Braves to call up a young outfield prospect by the name of Henry Aaron.

As for the Dodgers, the 1951 season became simply the most painful of their failures to win the World Series. They were even better in 1952 and 1953, but they couldn't get past the Yankees in the World Series. It took until 1955 for them to finally erase the demons of 1951 and win the World Series

The Rundown
What am I doing? Go here to find out. The list:

1. N.Y. Giants 5, Brooklyn 4 (1951 National League playoff)
2. Minnesota 6, Detroit 5 (2009 AL Central tiebreaker)
3. Seattle 6, N.Y. Yankees 5 (1995 ALDS)
4. Colorado 9, San Diego 8 (2007 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
5. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 4 (1978 AL East tiebreaker)
6. San Francisco 6, Los Angeles 4 (1962 National League playoff)
7. Chicago 1, Minnesota 0 (2008 AL Central tiebreaker)
8. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 3 (1949 American League)
9. Arizona 2, St. Louis 1 (2001 NLDS)
10. Chicago 4, New York 2 (1908 National League makeup game)
11. Boston 12, Cleveland 8 (1999 ALDS)
12. Boston 5, Minnesota 3 (1967 American League)
13. Minnesota 5, Oakland 4 (2002 ALDS)
14. Boston 4, Oakland 3 (2003 ALDS)
15. Cleveland 4, N.Y. Yankees 3 (1997 ALDS)
16. L.A. Angels 5, N.Y. Yankees 3 (2005 ALDS)
17. Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1 (2010 ALDS)
18. San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1 (2002 NLDS)
19. N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 3 (2001 ALDS)
20. Seattle 3, Cleveland 1 (2001 ALDS)
21. Chicago 5, San Francisco 3 (1998 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
22. N.Y. Yankees 7, Oakland 5 (2000 ALDS)
23. Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 (1981 NL West Division Series)
24. Montreal 3, Philadelphia 0 (1981 NL East Division Series)
25. N.Y. Yankees 7, Milwaukee 3 (1981 AL East Division Series)
26. Seattle 9, California 1 (1995 AL West tiebreaker)
27. Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 (2003 NLDS)
28. Houston 12, Atlanta 3 (2004 NLDS)
29. N.Y. Mets 5, Cincinnati 0 (1999 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
30. Cleveland 8, Boston 3 (1948 American League tiebreaker)
31. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)

April 15, 1947: The Content of his Character

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - He ran out from his dugout in his home white uniform, crossed the white chalk line, and entered a world that had formerly been for white men only. The box score shows he went 0-for-3, with a sacrifice bunt and a run scored. On the surface, it's nothing world-changing, but it changed the world for millions of men and women across the country.

On April 15, 1947, in Brooklyn's home opener against the Boston Braves, Jackie Robinson changed the baseball world by simply taking his position at first base. He was the first black man to play in a Major League Baseball game in nearly 60 years, since the ban on black players had been put in place.

Robinson was chosen for this honor not for his talent but because of his demeanor. Brooklyn general manager Branch Rickey wanted to integrate baseball, and he knew he needed a player who could take the verbal and sometimes physical abuse that would surely come his way and turn the other cheek. He wanted somebody, as he famously told Robinson, who had "guts enough not to fight back." Rickey knew that a player who resisted, who fought back, would do more harm than good to the cause of integration.

So Robinson bit his lip and took what was coming. In spring training, some Dodgers players threatened to strike if Robinson made the team. Their manager laughed and said he'd be happy to trade anybody who wasn't ready for the financial windfall of having Robinson on the team. Later in the season, several members of the St. Louis Cardinals threatened to strike if Robinson were allowed on the field against them. Commissioner Happy Chandler said any players following through on the strike would be suspended, and the Cardinals withdrew their protest.

The incidents continued on the field, as well. Fans, players, and even opposing managers shouted whatever racist insults they could think of. Players purposely spiked Robinson at first base, one time even opening up a 7-inch gash on his leg. Catchers' throws back to the pitcher came periously close to Robinson's head, not to mention the brush-back pitches he ducked.

And through it all, he kept quiet and played. He played exemplary defense at first base and led the league in stolen bases (with twice as many as the runner up), was second in runs scored, and finished in the top 10 in hits, doubles, at bats, and total bases. He won the inaugural Rookie of the Year award and led the Dodgers to the World Series.

Robinson kept getting better. Over the years, he would revolutionize the game with his daring baserunning and lethal combination of speed and power, in essence, bringing the style of the Negro Leagues to Major League Baseball. After a few years of biting his lip, he started seeking revenge for racial incidents, making him one of the most feared baserunners in baseball history. His career was short - only 10 years in the majors - but it ended with him in the Hall of Fame. In 1997, Major League Baseball made him the first player to have his number retired league-wide.

His talent, though, is only secondary to his story. He'd be in the Hall of Fame even if he hadn't been successful as a player. People who bust down barriers and open the door for countless others tend to get recognized that way.