YouTube Gold: Jackie Robinson Steals Home

A brilliant and iconic play from 69 seasons ago

The Jackie Robinson story is of course well known. Branch Rickey, GM of the Brooklyn Dodgers, had gotten some idea of the pain racism inflicts from a college teammate and determined to break the color line in Major League Baseball to do what he could to lessen it. Robinson, a fiery man, was asked to not respond to racist behavior during his rookie season and he did not.

He died quite young, in 1952, just 53 years old, and one wonders if the stress of the whole situation ate him up inside and contributed to his early death.

Remarkably, his widow, Rachel Robinson, is still alive. If she makes it to July 19th, she’ll be 102 years old.

She has been a widow for 52 years, nearly as long as Robinson lived, which is a strange but remarkable thing.

One of Robinson’s most iconic plays was stealing home in Game 1 of the 1955 World Series against the Yankees.

The catcher for the Yankees was Yogi Berra who was irate that Robinson was ruled safe. The men were close friends and great competitors and while they remained close, Berra never accepted that Robinson was safe on that iconic play.

This became a running thing with Rachel Robinson, also a dear friend of Berra’s, and when they would meet, Berra would always say “out,” while Robinson would always reply “safe.”

It’s really a sweet commentary on so many things.