Rickey and Robinson: The Men Who Broke Baseball's Color Barrier

by Harvey Frommer sports historian journalist and author of Remembering Yankee Stadium, Monte Irvin (Foreword)

Blending exclusive rare interviews with Rachel Robinson (Jackie’s widow), Mack Robinson (Jackie’s brother), Hall of Famers Monte Irvin, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Ralph Kiner, and others, celebrated author Harvey Frommer evokes the lives of general manager Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson by describing how they worked together to shatter baseball's color line. Rickey and Robinson is a dual biography tracing the convergence of the lives of two of baseball's most influential individuals in a marker moment in sports and cultural history.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, History, Biography

253 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Ken Heard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Roger Kahn's coda, his last book, he says, and its purpose is to set the record straight about Branch Rickey and his integration of baseball in 1947. It also sets the record straight that Kahn thinks he's the greatest baseball writer of all time and, since he covered the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1952 to 1957, he has the credentials to at least claim he knows his stuff.

Kahn takes an unflinching look at bigotry and racism in the 1940s and 1950s, during Jackie Robinson's tenure in baseball. He does not take sides, often repeating what other writers said about Branch Rickey and his tight-fisted way of running his team. He also does not paint a totally shining portrait of Robinson, even to the point of suggesting why Robinson was not wanted on the Dodgers' team when it planned to move to Los Angeles because of his accused frequent patronizing of white women.

I found the book repetitive at times. There are at least three references to how Clyde Sukeforth was telegrammed to "Not say a word" and come to Brooklyn immediately after manager Leo Durocher was suspended for gambling in 1947 — the year Robinson broke into the majors. He also includes himself a lot, just as he did with "The Boys of Summer," his tome about covering the 1950s Dodgers' team.

But that aside, Kahn does present a unique look at an historical time in the game. He goes heavily into the planned walkout by the St. Louis Cardinals' team which did not want to play on the same field as a black man. He also wrote of the hatred and the anger and the fear whites had toward Robinson. And, as in "Boys," Kahn goes back to his subjects years later to get their perspectives. Dixie Walker, for one, was an interesting addition. Walker led the charge to boycott the game with the Cardinals. Fifty years later, he admits he was an "Alabama redneck."

I am not a true fan of Kahn's work. Despite it being claimed the greatest sports book of all time, I didn't enjoy reading "Boys" much at all, and I like that era of baseball.

This book, however, will be my favorite of Kahn's work, if only because I've read a lot of Robinson and his travails over the years and this was written by someone who was there - albeit a few years after that first game in 1947 when Robinson strode out onto the field.

[Longfellow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven’t double-checked, but I suspect this is the book on which the movie 42 is based. Many of the events described here played out almost identically in the Hollywood script.

I’m sure Frommer’s recounting only scratches the surface of the story, but his journalistic experience moves the story along at a nice pace, and the important themes come through well: the unique significance of the Rickey Branch/Jackie Robinson relationship, the crucial and historical importance of Branch Rickey’s involvement in baseball, and the difficult and ugly transition of race-relations in baseball and in the country in general.

The faults of Rickey and Robinson lie in its organization; though the chapter divisions and overall structure are clear, there are a number of spots where chronology is confusing and additional detail or transition for the sake of context would be helpful to readers. I couldn’t keep the timeline of Rickey’s accomplishments straight, for example, but I at least received the impression that he accomplished more by the time he was in his mid-thirties than I’ve ever dreamed could be accomplished in a lifetime: teacher and coach at multiple levels of education, multiple degrees, lawyer, baseball manager and executive.

And Jackie Robinson was equally gifted and determined. As an athlete, he was perhaps the Bo Jackson of his era, excelling in football, baseball, and track. I think his skills as a tennis player were mentioned as well. And as the Hollywood version made clear in 42, Robinson's character was also of note: loyalty, passion tempered by self-discipline, and a competitiveness that gave an edge to his talent and made him Branch Rickey's choice for breaking the color barrier in baseball. Rickey and Robinson is a fairly quick read that is worth the investment for its historical education and its inspirational quality.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

After finally watching the movie "42," I was intrigued enough to want more information about Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson (what an amazing story!) I enjoyed parts of the book more than others (I was hoping for more personal stories and less baseball stats) but felt there were some holes. And I didn't really learned anything I hadn't seen in the movie.

[Richard Lehingrat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kahn's book of the same title is much better.