Arizona sun., 1962-02-01
'w'ef
Robinson Made II!
Reprinted by Courtesy of
Arizona Republic)
BylJim Murray

Los angeles = 1t took baseball
over so years to admit Negroes
to our national" pastime--a fact
OF life that should make it always
hang its head in shame-but / was
amused and gratified, both. to note
the alacrity with which they adj
mitted Jackie Robinson to the Hal
of Fame.
They fell all over themselves be-
cause nobody wants to mess with
Jackie. If they slammed the door
of the Hall of Fame on HIM, he'd
kick it in. He'd make it if he had
to come in a spike-high slide ano
some of .baseball's most hallowed
custodians would have spike
wounds from ankle to ear.
And if I were Sid Keener, direct
or at Cooperstown, I'd be very
careful where put the Robinson
ementoS. Jackie is very SenSi-
tive about back seats anywhere.
| have always considered that
Jackie Robinson was very probably
the greatest athlete Of my day.
He was a great broad jumper. He
was the finest running halfback
in college football. He was a great
baseball player. And basketball
may have been his best sport.
1 Brit LAT I admired Robinson
l1loss for, was ,lat ,,lc vas a win
ner. The object is baseball-as il
is in any other SPORTS to- win.
But figure-happy baseball fire.
quently forgets this. The player
of the year is not always on the
winner of the year. The rolls OF
the sport are barnacled with the
names of athletes who quite clear
ly put individual achievement a.
head of team achievement.
~ Leader Turns Star
Ty Cobb led his team to pen
nant when he was rookie and
near-rookie. Then he became Ty
Cobb-the. super star of baseball
-and he fought his own team
mates as enthusiastically as he
did the others. Cobb got his hits,
batting championships, stolen bas-
es. But the guy playing alongside
him, he didn't even speak to.
That may have had more to do
with the fact his teams never
again got in World Series than
what Cobb did at the plate.
There are many others of the
same persuasion. But not Jack
Roosevelt Robinson.
Before he came to them, the
Dodgers had won only. two pen
nantS in 46 years. After he got
there, they won six pennants in
10 years. lost another in a post
season playoff, and still another
on the last game of the season.
They never finished lower than
second. Since he left, they have
won one pennant in five years.
Held One Grudge
Jackie fought his enemies, not
his. teammates. He never held
grudges - except against that
persistent foe, Jim Grow, who is
in traction and whose throat is
today because of the num-
ber of times he got in Jackie Rob-
inson's way on the base-paths of
life.
Jackie has had to battle since
he was old enough to cry. Six
after he was born in a
Georgia sharecropper's cabin, his
father showed off for parts
unknown with another woman.
Jackie'S mother, in one of the
sagas of courage that should put
her in whatever Hall of Fame
they have for mothers, took her
whole brood across country to
Pasadena, a strange city in a
strange state where they were
about as welcome as the smog.
Jackie got into the kind o f
scrapes every little kid gets into
swimming in the reservoir, swip-
ng golf balls in the rough at the
country club, dumping tar on the
avn of cranky landlord. But he
wasn't every. little kid. He was
,elored. But he couldn't go bad be-
,ause Mallie Robinson wouldn't
et him. She hadn't struggled all
he way west from aitarpaper cab
see her children 60 to an in
ioor prison instead of a Georgia
,hain gang.
Peace Hard Won.
$ Jackie got into one famous