A lot of people think that racism doesn’t invade your body on a physiological level but they would also argue that racism ended when JACKIE ROBINSON entered the ranks of major league baseball. What did end would be the published statement that African Americans were not intelligent athletes. All the while racism wittled away at the man’s bone marrow. It acted like AIDS as it attacked this world class athlete on the level of JIM THORPE
I can’t even begin to tell you how hardbody JACK ROOSEVELT ROBINSON was. He defies description. Please read his Wikipedia page. All I knew was that my dad had the utmost respect for JACKIE ROBINSON that bordered on cultish worship. Okay, maybe cult worship isn’t the truth either, but my dad gave me a book to read about JACKIE called ‘The Great Experiment’ and he made me read it before he sent me to this summer baseball camp at Queens College. My dad always told me that I was as good as anyone that I played with. I thought that he meant skills wise, but what he really meant was that my humanity was the most important skill that I owned. The truth is that I kind of sucked compared to most of the kids at the camp. As usual, fat boys always have to play catcher. Nullus.
I still can’t fully imagine how hardbody JACKIE ROBINSON was to champion social causes all throughout his career while posting all-star Hall of Fame statistics. After his retirement from baseball he politic’ed for Black coaches and managers. Major League baseball finally gave him his wish. Too bad he wasn’t around to see his dream fulfilled. JACKIE died in 1972 at the age of 53 years young. The cancer called racism transformed itself into diabetes and ravaged his body. I can’t imagine any athlete in today’s world speaking out against social injustice and racism. These men have athlete bodies and coward’s hearts.
Long live DP Dot Com Hardbody Hero JACK ROOSEVELT ROBINSON.
The Wikipedia entry doesn’t come nearly as close as you did in alluding to his all-around athletic greatness. But he would’ve been a great, great man had he never played any sport.
BTW, you know his older brother won silver in the 200 meters behind Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics?
his wife rachel on the espn broadcast of the civil rights game, padres at dodgers (dodgers all wearing #42, real impressive statesman ship by kid griffey) gave a fantastic interview and spoke about him more candidly than i’ve ever heard.
their foundation gave away $1.8m and 260+ scholarships this year, that is a sterling, all-time legacy.
nice post dallas. dude was amazing:
here’s my addition to the blogosphere:
http://biochemicalslang.blogspot.com/2007/04/respect-architect.html
i also posted up the count basie jackie robinson tribute song.
for extra food for thought, peep this article: where have we gone, mr. robinson?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1609796,00.html
respect due to jackie robinson
on a random note – eff this weather!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQjGzL4vcLU
“All I knew was that my dad had the utmost respect for JACKIE ROBINSON that bordered on cultish worship.”
Amen Dallas… One of the great father/son bonding moments me anf the OG have is when “The Jackie Robinson Story” comes on. Time stops and we’re both kids all over again. My old man got to see Jackie play and hear Malcolm speak, the closest I’ve come to such greatness was the highly humbling (and yeah I got real verklempt) moment when I got to meet Rachel Robinson. I was floored.
On a side note I would have real appreciated if some of the members of the Negroe Billionaires Association would have donned some 42’s for Jackie. Yeah its a different sport, but would David Stern even have to worry about the dress code if Jackie never cracked the Majors? Someone wake these spooks up and let them know what it is!!!!
Jerry Stackhouse tried to petition the league but was shut down. So he worte Jackie Robinson on his shoes yesterday.
hi all.