The day Montreal embraced Jackie Robinson

National Post ^ | May 9, 2015 | Dave Bidini

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

It was your original assertion that catcher’s interference was not applicable to a steal of home, and now you decide that Robinson was out. Stick to one story.

I think the issue of which item the foot hit first, the glove or the plate is too close to call, and there is no indisputable visual evidence that I’ve seen.

Besides in special relativity, the sequence of events depends on the reference frame of the observer. Clearly, Robinson approaches the plate at relativistic speed, so a runner who is safe in a reference frame attached to the umpire may be out in a reference frame attached to the catcher.

[Vaquero]

No. You brought up interference first. Have been following that play since I can remember, and never heard that was an issue till you made the assumption.

[driftless2]

Major league players regularly played against all-black teams before WWII in post-season exhibitions. I'm sure many of those white ML players weren't paragons of racial understanding. Most of them were semi-educated kids from poor city neighborhoods or off the farm. They just liked playing ball against good competition.

Even the great Walter Johnson remarked about a number of black players (Josh Gibson) he faced in exhibitions that it was too bad they were black because they'd be excellent players.

It's just a shame that blacks weren't allowed many years earlier. If Jack Johnson and Joe Louis were fighting white boxers many years earlier, I'm sure blacks playing in the majors would have been accepted by the great majority of white baseball fans at an earlier date.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

You have a point. I had never heard the issue raised before, either, but it certainly looks like it to me. Regardless, it’s an iconic moment in sports history that all true sports fans can appreciate just for the drama, involving iconic players: Ford, Berra, Robinson.

I didn’t know that Robinson had tripled off Ford, who was subsequently relieved. (Or was he? Not sure.)

BTW, if you google it, others have commented on the apparent interference. It certainly looks that way to me, but we can agree to disagree.

[driftless2]

When I was growing up my sports idol was Hank Aaron. I used to keep his game by game stats. Aaron and other black superstars were heroes to many white kids.

I will admit to liking the older, less showoffy black players from previous generations than a lot of the younger tattooed players of today many of whom scream, shout, and boast about what they did after every play. I don't much like overly tattooed, boastful players of whatever color.

[GOPJ]

The city was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ minor league, AAA team. It was also a wildly open place. In 1946, it jitterbugged with gangsters, cabaret singers, burlesque performers, restaurateurs, impresarios, poets, hockey stars and thousands of Jews, Blacks, Arabs, Italians, Irish, Frenchmen and Englishwomen; all of them kneeling at the altar of possibility...

I'm surprised a movie hasn't been made about Montreal in the late 40's...

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Jackie Robinson was a darn fine American and that’s what matters. He had grit, character, and loyalty; heroes should be looked up to for who they are not what color they are.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Robinson’s color is only relevant to the extent it imposed hurdles he had to overcome. That parasites like Al Sharpton try to attach themselves to his achievements is disgusting.