Jackie Robinson from a Teammates Perspective

After watching the movie 42 I kept thinking about what it was like to be one of Jackie’s teammates. Whether it was at UCLA, with the Kansas City Monarchs, or when he was with the Dodgers.  You see in the movie many of his teammates not only feeling sympathy for what Jackie was going through but you also begin to see the respect that they have for him both as a player and as a person.

After watching part of the Ken Burn’s baseball documentary that discusses the time of Jackie joining major league baseball, you can see that each person that talks about Jackie who knew him, talks about him almost with a little grin on their face. You can see the love and respect that so many people had for Jackie.

One former teammate of Jackie’s actually did two interviews with Norm a few months ago and talked about what he saw in Jackie.  Here are some excerpts from the two interviews about Jackie. You can click on the links to see more of what Carl Erskine had to say about the Dodgers move to LA, the effect TV had on baseball and Sandy Koufax.

From Carl Erskine Interview Part 1

They are releasing “42″ in April of this year. What can you tell us about Jackie Robinson? 

I played with Jackie Robinson nine seasons starting in 1948. He was an intelligent, polished, articulate and a driven individual. It’s hard to imagine anyone else breaking the color barrier. Great talent, smart, educated and he had Rachel, also a class person, as his wife. When Mr. Rickey met Rachel he must have said, ‘He’s got the whole package’.

From Carl Erskine Interview Part 2

With the release of 42 coming up in April, what do you remember about Jackie Robinson?

First of all Jackie was hand-picked by Mr. Rickey. Naturally he had to be a good player and Jackie was a super athlete. He had been a four letter man at UCLA, and there has only been one other before or sense I believe.  Jackie was an intelligent man, he had been to college.  He was articulate. His mother had raised him to respect other people.

The main reason why I think Mr. Rickey finally chose Jackie above all the other great athletes in the Negro League was because he met Rachel his wife. She was a college graduate, a very dignified gal, and a very beautiful lady. I knew that Mr. Rickey was a wise person and he knew that Jackie would have more time off the field to deal with the segregation and bigotry, which was there in the 40’s, than he would on the field.  And so when he met Rachel, Mr. Rickey must have said this is a complete package. Jackie had a lot of qualities other than his playing ability to make it work at that time in our history.

Do you have any memorable stories about Mr. Robinson that you could share with us?

Well I’ve got a lot of memories of Jackie. I was in the minors in ’47 and then in the spring of ’48 the big team (Dodgers) came to play Fort Worth Texas, one of their affiliates, a Double-A team. I was with the Fort Worth team and I pitched against the big club.  I didn’t know anybody on the real Dodgers, but Jackie was in the lineup.

When the game was over Jackie came across the field and came to the dugout and asked ‘Where’s Erskine?’  So my teammates yelled for me to come here becasue Jackie Robinson had come over to see me.  I stepped out of the dugout and shook his hand and he said ‘Young man I hit against you twice today. You’re not going to be in this league very long.’ Oh boy what a boost that for a young kid in the minors.  That is how I met Jackie.

So I had won 15 games by July in Double-A and they called me to the Dodgers and I joined them in Pittsburg.  Jackie was the first guy to my locker and he said ‘I told you, you couldn’t miss.’ So that started a great friendship.

The off-season I did a lot of things with Jackie in the schools and with youth groups. So we became very good friends.