Robinson program July 12 at Missouri History Museum
After 43 years, on July 14 Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game will return to St. Louis. The last time the game was in St. Louis was 1966. The city was celebrating a new stadium, and the day was as hot as blazes. It was so hot that longtime New York Yankee manager Casey Stengel, when asked for his opinion of the new pillar-free structure, said, “Well, it sure holds the heat well.”
Now, more than four decades later, there again is a new stadium and it too “holds the heat well.” Heat or not, watching All-Star baseball on a hot summer day is a once-a-year treat.
Lots of things have changed about these classics. In the old days, this game was the only opportunity for fans to see the big stars from both leagues perform. There was no inter-league play and television coverage was pretty limited. Unlike today, when cable systems deliver not only the home team’s games but many other games from both the National and American leagues, and the MLB network is baseball 24/7.
If you lived in St. Louis during the late 1950s and early 1960s, you could only dream of seeing Mickey Mantel, Ted Williams, Lary Doby, Satchel Paige, Roy Servers, Whitey Ford or Elston Howard on television during the All-Star Game or in October if their team reached the World Series. And during that stretch, it was often the Yankees and a National League team playing in the Series.
For many black fans, there was only one baseball player to follow – Jackie Robinson. I can remember many times going into a barber shop with my dad during the baseball season and seeing old men hunched around the radio, listening to the Cardinals and Dodgers playing.
Inevitably, a latecomer wouldn’t ask, “What’s the score?” He’d ask, “What did Jackie do?” Jackie Robinson meant so much to black America. He was the icon by which many black people measured themselves and their friends.
They all knew his story and they all knew that if he failed, equality for African Americans in this society would be set back indefinitely. But blacks were not the only people pulling for Jackie.
In the shadow of Ebbetts Field lived a Jewish lad named Dan Rosen. Rosen was a Brooklyn Dodger fan to the bone. Jackie Robinson was his idol.
“I don’t know why I became so attached to Jackie,” Dan told me. “I guess it’s because he played the game so hard and was a fighter. All I know is that I was a fan from day one.”
Since that fateful day of Jackie’s Major League debut, April 15, 1947, Dan Rosen has been collecting Robinson souvenirs and memorabilia. His collection has grown so large that he now keeps it under lock and key – and he’s still collecting.
“I go to auctions and baseball shows and I look for anything connected to Jackie or the Brooklyn Dodgers.” (He doesn’t count the Los Angeles Dodgers.)
Dan learned everything he could about Robinson. A couple of years ago he met Robinson’s widow, Rachel, and his daughter, Sharon. They continue to correspond and Sharon encourages Dan to keep collecting.
On July 12 at 2:30 p.m. in the Des Lee Auditorium of your Missouri History Museum, you can share in Dan’s joy and enthusiasm about Jackie Robinson. Dan and I will present a program about the life and times of Jackie Robinson. We will discuss the difficulties of his early days in major league baseball and the extreme difficulties he ran into while playing here in St. Louis.
There will also be discussions about Jackie Robinson’s incredible contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.
“He was a true civil rights pioneer,” said Rosen. “He quietly took on the bigots in baseball and by the 1960s was openly challenging the Jim Crow laws across the nation. He was some man.”
There will be an added treat. Dan will bring in some rare artifacts and memorabilia from his collection, giving you a chance to see what an icon Jackie Robinson was and is.
The program precedes another baseball program about the 1942 World Champion Cardinals. Author Jerome Mileur will discuss and sign his book High-Flying Birds at 1 p.m., also in the Des Lee Auditorium.
Why not make it a baseball afternoon and see both programs?
July 12 is Baseball Sunday at your Missouri History Museum, and it’s all free!
Last Take
While taking in the two baseball programs, you also can visit our All-Star memorabilia display located in the Whitaker Loggia, courtesy of the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame. It’s a tribute to the great Cardinals’ All-Stars who played in games hosted here in St. Louis.