Media underreported Jackie Robinson’s historic day

Like returning home from college

Good morning all, on Jackie Robinson Day. I hope your week is off to a terrific start and never forget what Robinson did to save the game.

Seventy-eight years ago today Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier. If you rewind the time clock, you would never know it. The media either downplayed the story or did not report on the story at all. Amazing!

Robinson played his first, official MLB game on April 15, 1947. I do not know how the other New York media reported on the story, but here is how the NY Daily News covered it. Check out the back page and Dick Young’s game story:

On the back page of the iconic NY Daily News sports pages on April 16, 1947, no mention of Robinson. Young does not write Robinson’s name, until the fifth paragraph of his story and nothing about the game’s historical significance. The game was not even a sellout at Ebbets Field, whose capacity was 31,902. Just 26,623 turned out. And they want to know why the Dodgers left Brooklyn?

So I thought maybe I was missing something and went back to the April 15, 1947 Daily News, the day of the game. Perhaps there was a preview story of this historic moment. Wrong again!

The big story was Branch Rickey, the Dodgers GM, looking for a manager, because Leo Durocher had been suspended by commissioner Happy Chandler for allegedly consorting with gamblers in Cuba. The Sporting News, billed as baseball’s bible, also downplayed the story. Always printed a week ahead, the publication mentioned Robinson but had the Dodgers promoting him as a pinch runner. Really?

An ad in the paper, promoting the game’s radio broadcast on WHN with Red Barber and Connie Desmond, made no mention of its significance.

May be the April 14 Daily News had something about Robinson. Almost, but wrong again! The Yankees and Dodgers had finished up a three-game exhibition series at Ebbets Field the day before. (Back in the day, before interleague play, the Yankees and Dodgers would play a three-game series in New York, before the start of the season.) The result of that series dominated the back page of the News. Only at the end of the story was there a mention of Robinson and it was about his impact on the attendance.

Nothing about the historic significance, nothing about baseball, sports and a nation’s turning point was reported. And it was significant. Barber would eventually write a book: 1947: When All Hell Broke Loose In Baseball.

In 1947, as Jackie Robinson was about to unleash a seismic and long overdue momentum shift in our country’s history, he was not even relegated to a footnote by the media of the day. We can never make up for baseball’s shortcomings, but at least the sport has recognized April 15 as Jackie Robinson Day.

Like returning home from college

Speaking of the Yankees, they are returning to their spring training home later this week to serve as the visiting team against the Tampa Bay Rays. Because Hurricane Milton tore the roof off the Rays stadium in St. Petersburg last fall, they are playing their home games at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

The ballpark has undergone a massive rebranding to make it feel as if it’s the Rays home, but it will be strange for the Yankees using the visiting team’s clubhouse, particularly since the home clubhouse underwent a multimillion dollar remake that some argue is better than most MLB ballpark locker rooms.

The best description of how the Yankees might feel was provided by Rays reliever Pete Fairchild to the Tampa Bay Times:

I liken it to when I went to college and my sister immediately took my room at home. So then I’m at home, but I’m not at home.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Rory’s payday

Here is something on which to chew, courtesy of Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico, as Rory McIlroy collected his $4.2M first place prize money for winning the Masters. McIlroy has now won $4.34M total in 16 Masters tournaments, good for eighth place.

In case you are wondering, number one on the list is Phil Mickelson with $9.85M in 31 Masters tournaments. Tiger Woods has competed in 26 Masters and won $9.64M, good for second.

Jack Nicklaus, who has won more green jackets than them all, six, is not in the top ten for obvious reasons, but I’ll write it anyway. Prize money was much less in the Golden Bear’s heyday.

That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. Look for more content throughout the week. Thank you for subscribing.

DAN