Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball: 16 (Turning Points in History) - Tapa dura

As the cliche goes, if Jackie Robinson hadn't existed, someone would have had to invent him. In fact, much of this min-bio by National Public Radio's Simon serves to dismiss the oft-spoken argument that much of Robinson's legend (and that of his patron, the Brooklyn Dodgers' general manager Branch Rickey) can be attributed to the mythmakers who have made a career for themselves deifying the man who integrated baseball's National League in 1947. Simon revises the revisionists not by analyzing the rose-tinted image many have painted of Robinson and Rickey, but rather by allowing each man to be human and decidedly flawed. Not allowing his shortcomings (a brash temper, a noted rebelliousness and a not insignificant amount of baseball snobbery) to define his performance as a player was Robinson's greatest success, and Simon (Home and Away) illustrates that point ably. He doesn't tell readers anything they don't know about Robinson, Rickey, the Dodgers, Brooklyn and the state of race relations in the 1940s, but he does a slightly more thorough job than most of illuminating Jackie's one and only year playing for Brooklyn's farm club in Montreal, the place where Rickey's ""noble experiment"" actually began. This episode is often overlooked by everyone except Montrealers, who take no small amount of pride in their role as pioneers. (Simon notes that Robinson's earlier tryout with the Boston Red Sox was for naught, quite possibly because that team's farm team played in conservative segregated Kentucky rather than liberal, cosmopolitan Montreal.) While no new ground is covered, Simon's account of Robinson, Rickey and the integration of baseball is as thorough and accessible, as the reader is likely to find. (Sept.) (Publishers Weekly, June 24, 2000)

What does Simon, host of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, bring to the Robinson legacy? The Standard was set by Jules Tygiel's 1997 update of h is great 1983 book, Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy. For the casual reader who may not wish to slog through Tygiel's 432 pages of history and sociology, Simon's 176 pages may be just the ticket. This more modest book-part of Wiley's new ""Turning Points' series focusing on ""defining"" historical events-deals primarily with Robinson's life, from his service in the army during World War II through his first couple of season with Brooklyn Dodgers. In writing about Robinson, Simon also tells the story of segregated America. To a younger generation not familiar with Jim Crow society, the world rendered so vividly through Simon's writing will seem like another planet. The reader has to be reminded that this iniquitous period of American history was not all that long ago. Simon's book does not reveal anything new about Robinson, but for those not completely familiar with his story, this is an excellent place to start. Readers familiar with the story can still enjoy a wordsmith's craft. It is much the same quality as his work on National Public Radio. Enthusiastically recommended. (Library Journal, September 15, 2002)

""an extraordinary little book in an extraordinary new series intended to capture extraordinary moments in history."" (Chicago Tribune, September 29, 2002)

JACKIE ROBINSON and, his new bride, Rachel, were flying cross-country in early 1946 to spring training in Florida when, having been bumped for dubious reasons from their New Orleans-to-Pensacola connection, they went to the airport coffee shop for a sandwich. They were turned away. ""Whites Only"" signs sneered at them from atop restroom doors and drinking fountains, And when a flight finally opened for the Robinsons - after a night in one of the few wretched hotels that deigned to have them - they were told to relinquish their seats again, watching helplessl