Opening day
Subtitle: the story of Jackie Robinson's first season
By: Jonathan Eig.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2007
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 323
ISBN-13: 9780743294607
Subjects: Robinson, Jackie, -- 1919-1972; Baseball players -- United States -- Biography; African American baseball players -- Biography; Baseball -- United States -- History; Discrimination in sports -- United States
Genres: Biography.
Description: World War II had just ended. Democracy had triumphed. Now Americans were beginning to press for justice on the home front--and Jackie Robinson had a chance to lead the way. He was an unlikely hero. He had little experience in organized baseball, his swing was far from graceful, and he was assigned to play a position he had never tried before. But the biggest concern was his temper--Robinson was an angry man who played aggressively. In order to succeed he would have to control himself in the face of what promised to be a brutal assault by opponents of integration. Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Jonathan Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil-rights era.--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Jack Roosevelt Robinson; title: Some good colored players; title: The uprising; title: Opening day; title: Up in Harlem; title: The Brown bomber; title: Cardinal sins; title: The great road trip; title: Tearing up the pea patch; title: Pee-wee's embrace; title: The glorious crusade; title: A smile of almost painful joy; title: Up and down Macdonough Avenue; title: A real gone guy; title: A good thing for everyone?; title: The poison pen; title: The unbeatable yanks; title: Dixie Walker's dilemma; title: The footsteps of enos 'country' slaughter; title: Shadow dancing; title: We aren't afraid?; title: Wait till next year.