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"An extraordinary book . . . invitingly written and brisk."
--Chicago Tribune

"Perhaps no one has ever told the tale [of Robinson's arrival in the major leagues] so well as [Simon] does in this extended essay."
--The Washington Post Book World

"Scott Simon tells a compelling story of risk and sacrifice, profound ugliness and profound grace, defiance and almost unimaginable courage. This is a meticulously researched, insightful, beautifully written book, one that should be read, reread, and remembered."
--Laura Hillenbrand, author of the New York Times bestseller Seabiscuit

The integration of baseball in 1947 had undeniable significance for the civil rights movement and American history. Thanks to Jackie Robinson, a barrier that had once been believed to be permanent was shattered--paving the way for scores of African Americans who wanted nothing more than to be granted the same rights as any other human being.

In this book, renowned broadcaster Scott Simon reveals how Robinson's heroism brought the country face-to-face with the question of racial equality. From his days in the army to his ascent to the major leagues, Robinson battled bigotry at every turn. Simon deftly traces the journey of the rookie who became Rookie of the Year, recalling the taunts and threats, the stolen bases and the slides to home plate, the trials and triumphs. Robinson's number, 42, has been retired by every club in major league baseball--in homage to the man who had to hang his first Brooklyn Dodgers uniform on a hook rather than in a locker. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Lest we forget--a hero of some years ago
I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the agony, perseverance, anguish and simple raw courage of Jackie Robinson and his wife as he followed his star to the Dodgers dugout.It is a book that belongs in every library for children because it is a tale of heroism and overcoming eveil with good.

An uplifting story of the most significant year in the history of American sports, Jackie Robinson's first year with the Dodgers
There is no question that Jackie Robinson is a genuine American hero; his stoic acceptance of the abuse he endured in his first year with the Dodgers was fierce. The significance of the integration of major league baseball cannot be overstated in the overall move towards the overthrow of all racial barriers. As Simon so aptly points out, Robinson's life was truly in danger; America had an internal terrorist cell operating for decades with the tacit support of large segments of the population and law enforcement. The purpose of that cell was to keep people of color in their place and they never hesitated to kill when it served their purposes. Black people and their white supporters were still being murdered two decades after Robinson first took the field for the Dodgers.
Independent of the reasons that motivated them; you also have to be proud of the actions of the other people on the Dodgers. It all starts with Branch Rickey, who despite his faults; was a visionary who did this because he wanted to win and it was the right thing to do. There was manager Leo Durocher, hardly a saint, who was emphatic with the Dodger players in telling them Robinson was going to play because he would help them win and that was the only thing that mattered. There was southerner Eddie Stanky, who screamed at the Phillie players who were issuing racial taunts at Robinson, calling them cowards for picking on someone who could not fight back. Finally, there was Pee Wee Reese, who called time at one of the most brutal moments, to walk over to Robinson and comfort him.
The primary message from this book is that Jackie Robinson succeeded because he was a great player and he brought out the best in the game of baseball. After his Dodger teammates and the Dodger fans realized his worth, they accepted him because he helped them win and in sports, that is all that should matter.

Alibis for the Red Sox
Mr. Simon is an esteemed radio journalist, but this book hardly qualifies for even the low standards of sports journalism. Many factual errors, and Mr. Simon spends almost as much time coming up with excuses for why the Red Sox were the last team to integrate, as he does celebrating Jackie Robinson and those who spurred the re-integration of "Organized Baseball." This dashed-off effort completely overlooks that Blacks WERE previously in Organized Baseball, but were booted out.

Don't Miss This LIttle Gem!
This little book--small in dimensions and hardly over 100 pages in length--should be on everyone's bookshelf.Whether you remember watching Jackie Robinson play (as I do), or whether he's just a name from the distant past; whether you're white (as I am), or black, or any other race, creed or color; whether you're a baseball fan (like me) or someone who couldn't care less about the National Pastime, Jackie Robinson's story is for everyone.

The only reason I didn't give this book a 5-star rating is that there's really nothing new in it; if you already know the saga of Robinson's integration of baseball you aren't likely to learn a lot of news things about it here.But Scott Simon writes beautifully and movingly and retells this great American story with verve and directness.

I've read that there are professional baseball players today (even black players!) who barely have any idea who Robinson was or what he endured.His story should never be forgotten and this wonderful book will help assure that Robinson's memory endures.

Derivative and amateurish book
This book offers nothing in the way of original research or new conclusions about the integration of organized baseball; it is full of errors, special pleading, and misplaced nostalgia.It also fails to acknowlege its debt to the superior work of others, especially Jules Tygiel (*Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and his Legacy*) and John C. Chalberg (*Rickey and Robinson: The Preacher, the Player and America's Game*). Purchase either of the latter books (or both) and give this misconceived vanity effort a pass. ... Read more

Product Description
A biography telling the personal life and baseball career of the legendary player, Jackie Robinson. Written in graphic-novel format. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent school text
This is one of the best texts I have used in class. Nothing important of his life is left out. The graphics and the dialogue is excellent for this story. Jackie Robinson's childhood, his adolescence and his serive in the army are retold along with his years in the Major Leagues. The text shows that Robinson was not willing to tolerate injustices as he protagonizes his own nonviolent demonstration in a U.S. Army bus. He gets arrested, but exonerated at trial. Jackie wanted to fight back, but when he went to Major Leagues he had to make the sacrifice of not doing so. This is the kind of text that can be used for reading skills and teach content at the same time. ... Read more

Product Description
Jackie Robinson's extraordinary courage, his unflappable dignity, and his astonishing feats on the field as the first African-American to play on a major league team made him not only a great sports legend but a genuine American hero. In this comprehensive, moving portrait, David Falkner explores in detail the lifelong influences on Robinson, the pressures he had to bear, and the contributions he made to the cause of integration.

From Robinson's famous battle with the army over segregation to his rigidly maintained restraint in the face of ugly prejudice and life-threatening hostility from baseball fans and players alike, to his post-baseball efforts to help African-Americans establish an economic base within mainstream America, Falkner illuminates Robinson's inner strengths and his determination to make a lasting difference in American society. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good biography, warts and all
I enjoyed this book greatly and learned a lot about this complex man.

Growing up in Brooklyn, I heard many stories about Jackie Robinson.All of them praised his courage and admired what he went through.But nobody ever thought of him as a saint, he was a complex character with many rough edges.

Most of what has been written about him has deified him incorrectly.The author makes it very clear early in the book that he wanted to show Robinson as "warts and all".And he succeeds, Robinson comes across as a complex human being.

Two things to note regarding the research done on this book.The author refers often to other biographies, especially when they disagree on various points.He then gives his account of the given point, a very good procedure.

The author also notes that he was not given any access to the "official" Jackie Robinson archives and that Jackie's widow and her minions refused to cooperate in any way shape or form with this book as well as trying to discourage others.All I can say about that is how petty those actions are.

I especially liked the depth in which the author discussed Robinson's post-baseball life, especially in the political arena.Robinson supported several prominent Republican politicians, such as Rockefeller and Nixon and took a lot of heat for his views.The author did a wonderful job in this area.

Great job by the author is separating man and myth.

Robinson Fans, This Is A Must!
I'm a big Jackie Robinson fan and this book taught me things I never understood or knew! Great reading.Great insights into the life of a true pioneer! BUY IT! ... Read more

Product Description
Before Jackie Robinson integrated major league baseball in 1947, black and white ballplayers had been playing against one another for decades—even, on rare occasions, playing with each other. Interracial contests took place during the off-season, when major leaguers and Negro Leaguers alike fattened their wallets by playing exhibitions in cities and towns across America. These barnstorming tours reached new heights, however, when Satchel Paige and other African- American stars took on white teams headlined by the irrepressible Dizzy Dean. Lippy and funny, a born showman, the native Arkansan saw no reason why he shouldn’t pitch against Negro Leaguers. Paige, who feared no one and chased a buck harder than any player alive, instantly recognized the box-office appeal of competing against Dizzy Dean’s "All-Stars." Paige and Dean both featured soaring leg kicks and loved to mimic each other’s style to amuse fans. Skin color aside, the dirt-poor Southern pitchers had much in common.

Historian Timothy M. Gay has unearthed long-forgotten exhibitions where Paige and Dean dueled, and he tells the story of their pioneering escapades in this engaging book. Long before they ever heard of Robinson or Larry Doby, baseball fans from Brooklyn to Enid, Oklahoma, watched black and white players battle on the same diamond. With such Hall of Fame teammates as Josh Gibson, Turkey Stearnes, Mule Suttles, Oscar Charleston, Cool Papa Bell, and Bullet Joe Rogan, Paige often had the upper hand against Diz. After arm troubles sidelined Dean, a new pitching phenom, Bob Feller—Rapid Robert—assembled his own teams to face Paige and other blackballers. By the time Paige became Feller’s teammate on the Cleveland Indians in 1948, a rookie at age forty-two, Satch and Feller had barnstormed against each other for more than a decade.

These often obscure contests helped hasten the end of Jim Crow baseball, paving the way for the game’s integration. Satchel Paige, Dizzy Dean, and Bob Feller never set out to make social history—but that’s precisely what happened. Tim Gay has brought this era to vivid and colorful life in a book that every baseball fan will embrace. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, but always interesting!
The sub-title is somewhat misleading as I did not find the book to be very wild. Nevertheless I believe most readers would consider this book a good introduction into the lives of Satchel Paige, Dizzy Dean, and Bob Feller, and to interracial baseball in the 1930s and 1940s. I was already pretty familiar with Satchel Paige and Dizzy Dean, but I knew very little about Bob Feller. After reading this book, I am going to do some more reading about Bob Feller.

If you are unfamiliar with one or more of these men you will certainly be tempted to read more about them. You should at least read the last paragraph of page 277 and the first three paragraphs of page 278. I was laughing out loud after I did. And readers should also appreciate Satchel's rules for staying young found on page 280. I thought there were too many stories about individual games. (It was like reading 50 pages of box scores at times. Interesting at first, but after a while it just seems too repetitive.) But if you read the book a few pages at a time you will get a lot out of it.

A Big Disappointment
I was really disappointed with this book. I was hoping to learn more about Paige, Dean, and Feller than this book tells. About 90 percent of the book is just dreary accounts of games played, who played in them, and runs scored. I'm sure this sort of thing could be made exciting, but page after page of it grows tiresome.

He got all of that....
Summoning the same engrossing prose with which he penned his seminal 2007 biography of Tris Speaker, Tim Gay once again fills in an otherwise headshaking gap in the literary history of baseball. SATCH, DIZZY AND RAPID ROBERT is a captivating study of an era which most of us either never knew existed, or pretended as if we did. For this reader, SATCH, DIZZY AND RAPID ROBERT was vividly tranformative to the 1930s and 40s in the same way SEABISCUIT and CRAZY GOOD were -- but using human beings rather than horses. And what human beings. The book rests comfortably on the broad shoulders of its three title characters, singular personalities who were both larger-than-life and bigger than society's racial taboos.You cannot call yourself a knowledgable baseball fan if you don't read this book. Everything else is just conversation.

Important period in baseball history
Tim Gay's second book is a detailed, entertaining account of an under-reported period in baseball history: the integrated barnstorming tours between major league and Negro League stars that took place during the Great Depression and World War II. The author presents a well-balanced look at two unlikely racial pioneers: Hall of Fame pitchers Dizzy Dean, the gregarious son of the South with a language all his own, and Bob Feller, the fireballing phenom who grew up to be a shrewd businessman. While their not-quite-enlightened attitudes on integration were a product of their times, their actions spoke much louder -- on the baseball field, they gave a fair opportunity to Cool Papa Bell, Hilton Smith and many other stars, providing an opportunity for fans of all ethnic backgrounds to learn about them and, more important, to see them play. Satchel Paige, of course, was already the biggest draw in black baseball -- and he lived up to his reputation in these exhibition games against major league stars. Gay provides compelling recaps of Paige's most dominant performances, including an extra-innings "Lost Classic" against Dizzy Dean in November 1934. These games, which proved without a doubt that black players could keep up with (and often beat) white players, set the stage for Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier a decade later. It behooves any baseball fan to read this book and learn more about this fascinating period in American history.

Gay takes reader on a delightful barnstorming trip
Any subject is in good hands with author Tim Gay, a splendid writer and meticulous researcher.In Satch, Dizzy and Rapid Robert, Gay does an excellent job of chronicling the interracial baseball exhibitions before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947.

Satchel Paige, Dizzy Dean and Bob Feller are the main characters in these barnstorming exhibition games which started in 1934 and continued through 1947.Barnstorming was a way for entrepreneurial baseball players to try to earn some extra money.These interracial exhibition games "combing back roads, were part of the last gasp before television, mass marketing and interstate highways forever dulled our culture."

Gay writes that the interracial exhibition games "helped puncture baseball apartheid.They went a long way toward making the game the national pastime."

Satch and Dizzy first battled each other in 1934 at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles in front of 17,000.They both pitched 13 innings and Dizzy struck out 13 and gave up one run, while Satch struck out 17 and hurled a shutout.While the fabled match up has been recounted by Bill Veeck and others, no record of the game has been found.

Feller first met Satch in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1936 as a 17-year-old. The last time they faced each other was Nov. 2, 1947, in Los Angeles.By 1947, baseball integration had taken away the novelty of interracial barnstorming and the days of baseball's two fastest pitchers matching skills against each other were virtually over.

Feller's 1946 barnstorming tour was called "the most successful in baseball history."His teams played 22 games, including 19 against the Satchel Paige Negro All-Stars.Feller's squad went 17-5 and drew 250,000 fans.On that historic tour, Feller introduced plane travel to the majors, brought big-time baseball to the West Coast and gave sorely needed exposure to black stars.To Feller, barnstorming was strictly a commercial, money-maker.He didn't see it as a societal undertaking.

In all, Satch, who Joe DiMaggio and Dizzy Dean both called "the greatest pitcher I ever saw," faced Dean in two dozen exhibitions and twice that many against Feller.

Satch made his major league debut on July 9, 1948, at age 42 with the Cleveland Indians. Satch drew 210,000 fans in the first three games in pitched in the majors. The veteran hurler won six games for the Indians, helping to get them to the World Series.

Gay paints interesting portraits of Satch, Dizzy and Rapid Robert while giving you a real sense of what barnstorming was like.He also covers the feud between Feller and Jackie Robinson.

This book is well-written, thoroughly researched and well documented.It brings together all the elements that make an exceptional book. ... Read more

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Relates the life story of the first black man to play baseball in the major leagues. ... Read more

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A biography of the Hall of Fame baseball player who stood up to prejudice and threats on his life to prove his ability and become the first black to play in the major leagues. ... Read more

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Brief biography of the baseball star who was the first black player to be accepted by a major league team. ... Read more

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A biography of the black athlete who broke the color barrier in major league baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. ... Read more

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Explores the life and career of Jackie Robinson, from his childhood in Pasadena, California, through his struggles with prejudice and discrimination, to his success as a major league baseball player. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Jackie Robinson is a great person to learn about!
I found this book easy to understand. Since I'm only a young adult things written in this way are easier to understand,and a lot funner to read. ... Read more

Product Description
As an African-American, Jackie Robinson had to fight for his rights again and again until he broke the Major League's color line. "First in the Field" explores the early years of this baseball legend, as he paved the way for other African Americans in professional sports, and made a place for himself in American history. Dozens of color photos . ... Read more

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For major league baseball, the decade following Jackie Robinson’s 1947 debut was one of slow yet persistent change. Four other black players made their first, brief big-league appearances that year, followed by only two in 1948 and four in 1949. But by the end of 1959, 122 black ballplayers had made it to the big leagues. Like Robinson, their lives were made difficult off the field, and on it they dodged beanballs and spikes. This book brings attention to the accomplishments of this transitional generation of African American players--made up of men like Luscious Luke Easter, Sam “The Jet” Jethroe, and Sad Sam Jones--many of whom spent years in the minors, the Negro leagues, or both before getting their shot. Chapters on each season from 1947 to 1959 incorporate biographical and career profiles for 25 players who stood out during baseball’s integration. A final chapter covers the outstanding minor league players who for various reasons never got a real chance to play major league ball. Appendices include a roster of black major leaguers from 1947 through 1959, a list of black-player firsts and statistics on the year-by-year population of black players in the majors. ... Read more

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A biography of the first black player in modern American major league baseball, emphasizing the prejudice he had to overcome by sheer courage. ... Read more

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NOTABLE BLACK AMERICAN ACHIEVERS ... Read more