25 for 25. Jackie Robinson takes the field (1947)

For a sport that labeled itself the national pastime, American baseball in 1947 was remarkably provincial. The two major leagues were confined to the northeastern quadrant of the country. St. Louis was at once its southernmost and westernmost outpost.

There was a technological explanation for this. In a time when trains were the acme of transportation, and in a sport where teams played almost daily, a larger geographic footprint would have been unsupportable.

There was a demographic consequence. Potential audiences for major league baseball games were overwhelmingly white, as most black people in America lived in the South. Racial segregation was the law of much of the land, endorsed by the Supreme Court since the 1890s. That white crowds at baseball games preferred to see white players elicited little comment.

Yet it created an opportunity. Baseball talent wasn’t confined to the northeast, nor to white players. Baseball insiders, and some outsiders, knew of the Negro leagues, where black athletes played and some excelled. It was no secret that the best black players were better than the worst white players in the major leagues. If a major league team could manage to put a few of those top black players on the field, it would have an advantage over the competition.

Yet the major league teams, though competitors, were also part of a cartel. For the management of one team to break ranks with the others risked reprisal. The potential advantage to be gained from the break must be sufficient to justify the risk.

Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers was bolder than most of his counterparts. And he had his eye on just the player to break the ban on blacks and give the Dodgers a competitive edge.

Jackie Robinson was born in Georgia but raised in southern California. He played multiple sports, excelling sufficiently in football to play at the University of California at Los Angeles. Professional football in those days offered little promise for a livelihood. Baseball was better, and Robinson landed a position with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro league.

Rickey monitored Robinson's progress and offered him a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball when he took the field with the Dodgers in a game in April 1947.

Robinson’s talent was apparent from the start. It evoked mixed reactions. The Brooklyn fans tended to be enthusiastic, believing Robinson boosted the Dodgers’ chances of winning the pennant. Fans of other teams were less thrilled, for the same reason.

Robinson's on-field rivals had a more personal stake in his breakthrough. There was no players labor union at the time, and many of the players felt misused by the teams. More than a few interpreted Rickey's decision to hire Robinson as the sharp edge of an effort to suppress salaries by expanding the labor pool. The entry of black players into the major leagues would cost some white players their jobs.

Rookies regularly experienced hazing by the veterans whose jobs they were threatening. In Robinson's case the hazing included strong elements of racism. Branch Rickey had warned Robinson. For the most part Robinson let his performance on the field be his response.

That performance marked him as a coming star of the league. And it set a precedent that opened doors to other black players in major league baseball. Within a few years their presence on rosters around the leagues was taken for granted. Owners initially reluctant to hire black players feared losing out in the race for talent. Fans at first skeptical for racist or other reasons adjusted their views similarly. Competitive sports is at bottom a meritocracy of talent, and talent trumped racism.

Because baseball was America's premier sport, Robinson's breakthrough made it easier for other sports to integrate. Black players eventually constituted majorities on rosters in the National Basketball Association and the National Football League.

The integration of sports had spillover effects. Black musicians, actors and comics found new opportunities. By the late twentieth century it was unremarkable to see black men and women in the highest ranks of all those fields. Some had become multimillionaires.

Profound change seldom occurs without casualties. In the case of Robinson and baseball, the casualties included the Negro leagues, which didn’t survive the mainstreaming of its stars.