Despite Robinson's regular-season heroics, the Dodgers lost the pennant on Bobby Thomson's famous home run, known as the Shot Heard 'Round the World, on October 3, 1951. Overcoming his dejection, Robinson dutifully observed Thomson's feet to ensure he touched all the bases. Dodgers sportscaster Vin Scully later noted that the incident showed "how much of a competitor Robinson was." He finished the season with 106 runs scored, a batting average of .335, and 25 stolen bases.
Robinson had what was an average year for him in 1952. He finished the year with 104 runs, a .308 batting average, and 24 stolen bases. He did, however, record a career-high on-base percentage of .436. The Dodgers improved on their performance from the year before, winning the National League pennant before losing the 1952 World Series to the New York Yankees in seven games. That year, on the television show "Youth Wants to Know," Robinson challenged the Yankees' general manager, George Weiss, on the racial record of his team. The Yankees had yet to sign a black player. Sportswriter Dick Young, whom Robinson called a "bigot", said, "If there was one flaw in Jackie, it was the common one. He believed that everything unpleasant that happened to him happened because of his blackness." The 1952 season was the last year Robinson was an everyday starter at second base. Afterward, Robinson played at first, second, and third bases, shortstop, and in the outfield, with Jim Gilliam, another black player, taking over everyday second base duties. Robinson's interests began to shift toward the prospect of coaching a major league team. He had hoped to gain experience by coaching in the Puerto Rican Winter League. But, according to the "New York Post", Commissioner Happy Chandler did not allow the request.
In 1953, Robinson had 109 runs, a .329 batting average, and 17 steals. He led the Dodgers to another National League pennant (and another World Series loss to the Yankees, this time in six games). Robinson's continued success led to a string of death threats. He was not stopped, however, from talking about racial issues publicly. That year, he served as editor for "Our Sports" magazine. This was a magazine that focused on Negro sports issues. Contributions to the magazine included an article on golf course segregation by Robinson's old friend Joe Louis. Robinson also openly criticized segregated hotels and restaurants that served the Dodger organization. A number of these places integrated as a result, including the five-star Chase Park Hotel in St. Louis.
In 1954, Robinson had 62 runs, a .311 batting average, and 7 steals. His best day at the plate was on June 17, when he hit two home runs and two doubles. The following autumn, Robinson won his only championship when the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series. Although the team enjoyed success, 1955 was the worst year of Robinson's individual career. He hit .256 and stole only 12 bases. The Dodgers tried Robinson in the outfield and as a third baseman. They did this because of his diminishing abilities and because Gilliam was established at second base. Robinson, then 37 years old, missed 49 games and did not play in Game 7 of the World Series. Robinson missed the game because manager Walter Alston decided to play Gilliam at second and Don Hoak at third base. That season, the Dodgers' Don Newcombe became the first black major league pitcher to win twenty games in a year.
In 1956, Robinson had 61 runs, a .275 batting average, and 12 steals. By then, he had begun to show the effects of diabetes. He also lost interest in playing or managing professional baseball. After the season, Robinson was traded by the Dodgers to the arch-rival New York Giants for Dick Littlefield and $35,000 cash. The trade, however, was never completed. Unbeknownst to the Dodgers, Robinson had already agreed with the president of Chock full o'Nuts to quit baseball and become an executive with the company. Since Robinson had sold exclusive rights to any retirement story to "Look" magazine two years before. His retirement decision was revealed through the magazine, instead of through the Dodgers organization.
Robinson's major league debut brought an end to almost sixty years of segregation in professional baseball, known as the baseball color line. After World War II, several other forces were also leading the country toward increased equality for blacks. This included more African-Americans moving to the North, where their political influence grew. President Harry Truman's desegregation of the military occurred in 1948. Robinson's breaking of the baseball color line and his professional success symbolized these bigger changes and showed that the fight for equality was more than simply a political matter. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that he was "a legend and a symbol in his own time", and that he "challenged the dark skies of intolerance and frustration." According to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Robinson's "efforts were a monumental step in the civil-rights revolution in America ... [His] accomplishments allowed black and white Americans to be more respectful and open to one another and more appreciative of everyone's abilities."
Beginning his major league career at the somewhat older age of twenty-eight, he played only ten seasons. All of his career was for the Brooklyn Dodgers. During his career, the Dodgers played in six World Series, and Robinson himself played in six All-Star Games. In 1999, he was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team after his death.
Robinson's career is generally considered to mark the beginning of the post–"long ball" era in baseball, in which a need for power-hitting was replaced with balanced offensive strategies that used footspeed to create runs through baserunning. Robinson showed both hitting ability and speed which was part of the new era. He scored more than 100 runs in six of his ten seasons (averaging more than 110 runs from 1947 to 1953), had a .311 career batting average, a .409 career on-base percentage, a .474 slugging percentage, and had more walks than strikeouts (740 to 291). Robinson was one of only two players during the span of 1947–56 to have at least 125 steals while having a slugging percentage over .425 (Minnie Miñoso was the other). He had 197 stolen bases in total, including 19 steals of home. None of the steals of home were double steals (in which a player stealing home is helped by a player stealing another base at the same time). Robinson has been referred to by author David Falkner as "the father of modern base-stealing."
Historical statistical analysis indicates Robinson was an outstanding fielder throughout his ten years in the major leagues and at almost every position he played. After playing his rookie season at first base, Robinson spent most of his career as a second baseman. He led the league in fielding among second basemen in 1950 and 1951. Toward the end of his career, he played about 2,000 innings at third base and about 1,175 innings in the outfield and did well at both.
Robinson said about himself, "I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me ... all I ask is that you respect me as a human being." Regarding Robinson's qualities on the field, Leo Durocher said, "Ya want a guy that comes to play. This guy didn't just come to play. He come to beat ya. He come to stuff the goddamn bat right up your ass."
Robinson retired from baseball on January 5, 1957. Later that year, after he complained about a lot of physical problems, his doctors diagnosed Robinson with diabetes. This disease had also affected his brothers. Robinson started an insulin injection schedule. However, the quality of medicine at the time could not stop his body from falling apart because of the disease.