The Trailblazer

Hank Aaron, a baseball Hall of Famer and the previous home-run king with 755 in the pocket, pays his tribute to Jackie Robinson in an article published in the Time Magazine in June 14, 1999.

Aaron discusses how Robinson lifted the black community by breaking the color line in professional baseball. Prior to Robinson's career with the Dodgers, Aaron did not event try to convince his parents that he would like to play ball professionally. "Before Jackie Robinson broke the color line, I wasn't permitted even to think about being a professional baseball player. I once mentioned something to my father about it, and he said, 'Ain't no colored ballplayers.' There were the Negro Leagues, of course, where the Dodgers discovered Jackie, but my mother, like most, would rather her son be a schoolteacher than a Negro Leaguer. All that changed when Jackie put on No. 42 and started stealing bases in a Brooklyn uniform." It is clear that the Negro League at the time does not have the respect from every demographic. Robinson not only play baseball for himself to prove that he is just as valuable and competitive as white counterparts, but also he plays for the black community. Aaron writes, "The circulation of the Pittsburgh Courier, the leading black newspaper, increased by 100,000 when it began reporting on him regularly. All over the country, black preachers would call together their congregations just to pray for Jackie and urge them to demonstrate the same forbearance that he did." Robinson's successful years with the Dodgers also inspire players like Henry Aaron and many others in generations to come. "I don't think it's a coincidence that the black players of the late '50 and '60 - me, Roy Campanella, Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson, Bob Gibson and others - dominated the National League. If we played as if we were on a mission, it was because Jackie Robinson had send us out on one." Robinson's impact also affects the baseball personnel employment in the management positions. Frank Robinson became the first black manager in 1975. Because he is the first, he takes the most heat. Without Robinson, baseball fans won't be able to watch the great players like Aaron and Mays who are in the Hall of Fame now. Without him, baseball fans won't be able to enjoy the current greats who will follow the foot steps of Robinson to be inducted into the Hall of Fame when they retire.