Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season
He was an unlikely hero. He had little experience in organized baseball. His swing was far from graceful. And he was assigned to play first base, a position he had never tried before that season. But the biggest concern was his temper. Robinson was an angry man who played an aggressive style of ball. In order to succeed he would have to control himself in the face of what promised to be a brutal assault by opponents of integration.
In Opening Day, Jonathan Eig tells the true story behind the national pastime's most sacred myth. Along the way he offers new insights into events of sixty years ago and punctures some familiar legends. Was it true that the St. Louis Cardinals plotted to boycott their first home game against the Brooklyn Dodgers? Was Pee Wee Reese really Robinson's closest ally on the team? Was Dixie Walker his greatest foe? How did Robinson handle the extraordinary stress of being the only black man in baseball and still manage to perform so well on the field? Opening Day is also the story of a team of underdogs that came together against tremendous odds to capture the pennant. Facing the powerful New York Yankees, Robinson and the Dodgers battled to the seventh game in one of the most thrilling World Series competitions of all time.
Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Jonathan Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil-rights era. Full of new details and thrilling action, Opening Day brings to life baseball's ultimate story.
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Additional Product Information
- ISBN: 9780743294607
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27 Reviews
| From: Amazon Posted: Jun 18, 2007 Type: User Review |
a Must read
Jackie Robinson was a true Ambassador of the game of Baseball. it's well known about Branch Rickey signing Jackie to the Dodgers and the Historic Impact of Jackie Robinson being the first Black Baseball Player to break the Color Barrier in Major...
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 5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jun 12, 2007 Type: User Review |
RICK SHAQ GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "I LOVE JACKIE ROBINSON!"
I am a born and raised Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodger fan. In fact my family moved from New York to Los Angeles the same year as the Dodgers. Before my brothers and I were born, my parents went to Ebbets field every weekend. I still have a box full...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jun 08, 2007 Type: User Review |
This book is so accurate it seems Eig was there. I was.
My father,Harold Parrott,was the Traveling Secretary for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and took me with him to spring training and the road trips out west for Jackie`s first trip around the league.I had my own Dodger uniform and was an " assistant"...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jun 02, 2007 Type: User Review |
A true personification of grace under pressure!
Before entering into Branch Rickey's radical experiment in integration, Jack Robinson was already a proven winner and fiery competitor. This is driven home in Eig's accounting of Robinson's youth in Pasadena, his athletic experiences at UCLA, and...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: May 20, 2007 Type: User Review |
Excellent Gift
After reading reviews of this book, I ordered it for my niece's birthday
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: May 16, 2007 Type: User Review |
Jackie Robinson Story
Read this book in two days - sent it to my son - wonderful story well writen
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: May 12, 2007 Type: User Review |
The Best Out There
Of all the books I've read about Jackie Robinson, I liked this the best.
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: May 10, 2007 Type: User Review |
Plodding Review of the Historic Season
After being enthralled by "Luckiest Man" by Mr. Eig, I was excited to find that he had another book coming out. The problem with this book is that it cannot decide what it wants to be. It is a quality account of Jackie Robinson's tumultuous...
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 3.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Apr 30, 2007 Type: User Review |
Eig faithfully captures Robinson's courage in stirring, persuasive and inspiring history
Seven years before the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, which illegalized segregation in the United States, one man's actions spoke much more loudly than nine men's words. With extraordinary courage, discipline and...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Apr 22, 2007 Type: User Review |
Good book, but "Luckiest Man " was Better
This was a very good book. But I wonder why the author wrote a much longer, detailed story about Lou Gehrig (Luckiest Man; his previous baseball book). There were fewer people to interview about Gehrig, because most of those who could tell his...
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 4.00/5 |
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