{"id":86154,"date":"2022-04-15T02:47:03","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T02:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/?p=86154"},"modified":"2023-02-17T22:32:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T22:32:12","slug":"jackie-robinson-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/jackie-robinson-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackie Robinson Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this week\u2019s edition of \u201cThe Showplace<\/a><\/strong>,\u201d guest blogger Artie Freeman focuses on the man whose courage and inspiration sparked a day now named in his honor \u2013 Jackie Robinson<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

****<\/span><\/p>\n

Jackie Robinson\u00a0was born on January 31, 1919. He\u2019s most famous for breaking baseball\u2019s color line<\/a><\/strong>, which excluded Black players from Major League Baseball. MLB had relegated\u00a0Black players\u00a0to the\u00a0Negro leagues<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0since the 1880s.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1950 Jackie Robinson portrayed himself in the biopic, <\/span>The Jackie Robinson Story<\/i><\/a><\/strong>. The film focused on Robinson’s journey breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball.\u00a0 This film was particularly difficult for Robinson; for starters he wasn\u2019t an actor.\u00a0 Even for the most experienced actor the most difficult role to play is yourself. In addition, Jackie also had to relive the abuse and bigotry he experienced from teammates, opposing teams, and fans to film this movie. This film is not a cinematic masterpiece, but it\u2019s historically significant and more importantly, we have it in our movie vault for <\/span>you<\/span> to enjoy!<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1942, Robinson was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in\u00a0Fort Riley,\u00a0Kansas. Having the requisite qualifications, Robinson and several other Black soldiers applied for admission to an\u00a0Officer Candidate School<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0the (OCS).\u00a0 The Army’s initial guidelines for OCS were supposedly race neutral. However, very few Black applicants were admitted into OCS.\u00a0As a result, the applications of Robinson and his colleagues were delayed for several months.\u00a0 Joe Louis<\/a><\/strong>, the heavyweight boxing champion,\u00a0was stationed at Fort Riley\u00a0at the time. When Lewis heard about this, he protested these actions and the men were accepted into OCS.\u00a0That act of defiance led to a friendship between Robinson and Louis, two men who dominated their sports.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Robinson started playing\u00a0first base\u00a0for the\u00a0Brooklyn Dodgers<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on April 15, 1947.\u00a0When the Dodgers signed Robinson, he was not the best Black player from the Negro League.\u00a0 He was, however, the best Black player who wouldn\u2019t retaliate when confronted by bigotry and racial attacks. Branch Rickey<\/a><\/strong>, the General Manager of the Dodgers who spearheaded this project, made it clear that Robinson must never retaliate.<\/span><\/p>\n

During his 10-year MLB career, Robinson won the inaugural\u00a0Rookie of the Year Award<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in 1947. He was an\u00a0All-Star\u00a0for six consecutive seasons and won the\u00a0National League\u00a0MVP Award<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in 1949, becoming the first Black player to be honored.\u00a0Robinson played in six\u00a0World Series and took home the championship\u00a0in 1955.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1956 at the age of 37, he retired from baseball to become the first Black Vice-President of a corporation; he worked at Chock Full o’Nuts<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1962, Jackie Robinson was\u00a0inducted\u00a0into the Baseball Hall of Fame<\/a><\/strong> during his first year of eligibility, becoming the first Black man to receive that honor.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1964, he co-founded the\u00a0Freedom National Bank, a Black-owned bank in\u00a0Harlem, New York.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1965 Robinson became the first Black MLB television analyst.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ruby Dee<\/a><\/strong> (Robinson\u2019s co-star in <\/span>The Jackie Robinson Story<\/span><\/i>) and her husband, Ossie Davis<\/a><\/strong>, were <\/span>fri<\/span>ends with Jackie and Rachel Robinson. They were also friends of both\u00a0<\/span>Martin Luther King, Jr.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Malcolm X.<\/a><\/strong> Dee <\/span>spoke at both of their funerals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jackie Robinson became friends with <\/span>Martin Luther King, Jr.<\/span>\u00a0during the Civil Rights Movement<\/a><\/strong>. However, during that period, he was at odds with Malcolm X. They had a very public feud due to their differing philosophies regarding the civil rights movement. Their feud simmered when Malcom X started to feel less hatred towards all white people. When he was assassinated, Jackie was truly saddened by his death.\u00a0 They both had the same destination, racial equality – they just couldn\u2019t agree on the path.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jackie Robinson died on October 24, 1972 at the young age of 53 of a heart attack.\u00a0 Although I say the young age of 53, Robinson looked like a man in his late 70s, having a full head of grey hair since his early 40s.\u00a0 The years of enduring racial abuse both physically and emotionally had taken their toll on him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1997, MLB\u00a0retired\u00a0his uniform #42 across all major league teams; he was the first professional athlete in any sport to be so honored. MLB also adopted a new annual tradition, “Jackie Robinson Day”, which began on April 15, 2004. Each year on this date every MLB player across the league wears the #42.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>****<\/span><\/p>\n

Artie Freeman provides great introductions to many of the classic movies airing weekly on ATVN\u2019s \u201cMovie Vault\u201d and also hosts \u201cTake 5\u201d interviews featuring unique people and community leaders in our viewing area.\u00a0 Be on the lookout for more of Artie\u2019s insights on this legendary figure, the next time <\/span>The Jackie Robinson Story<\/span><\/i> airs on ATVN.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, be sure to check out our new spring programming lineup on ATVN that will kick off this Sunday.\u00a0 We will be bringing back some popular classic shows to our lineup, plus featuring nostalgic films and TV programs that are new to our network that we think you all will enjoy!<\/span><\/p>\n

The views expressed in this blog are<\/span><\/i> those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this week\u2019s edition of \u201cThe Showplace,\u201d guest blogger Artie Freeman focuses on the man whose courage and inspiration sparked a day now named in his honor \u2013 Jackie Robinson. **** Jackie Robinson\u00a0was born on January 31, 1919. He\u2019s most famous for breaking baseball\u2019s color line, which excluded Black players from Major League Baseball. MLB…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classic-video-showplace"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJackie Robinson Day - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jackie Robinson Day - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this week\u2019s edition of \u201cThe Showplace,\u201d guest blogger Artie Freeman focuses on the man whose courage and inspiration sparked a day now named in his honor \u2013 Jackie Robinson. **** Jackie Robinson\u00a0was born on January 31, 1919. 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