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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22 Reviews
| From: Amazon Posted: Jan 08, 2008 Type: User Review |
Very Well Done
I bought this large print edition as a Christmas present for my father. He is 90 years old, and remembers these events vividly. He felt that the Jackie Robinson Bio from 2007 was supplemented with this study of Jackie Robinson's 1st year in the...
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 5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Nov 17, 2007 Type: User Review |
Beautifully written
This is the first book I have read about Robinson. I had gleaned what I knew about him from the media, especially Ken Burns' "Baseball." The author combines a macrocosmic overview of 1947 American society and microcosmic vignettes to give...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Sep 08, 2007 Type: User Review |
An engaging and elegantly written account of Jackie Robinson's groundbreaking rookie season with the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers
By the time the middle of the 1940's rolled around Branch Rickey, President of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was already widely acknowledged as one of the smartest, most innovative executives in all of baseball. After all, it had been Rickey who had...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Aug 04, 2007 Type: User Review |
Walking in Jackie's shoes
Author Jonathan Eig does an excellent job of putting the reader in Jackie Robinson's shoes for the 1947 season. You get a good sense of what life was like for Robinson, on and off the field. He and his wife Rachael and young son, Jack Jr.,...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jul 18, 2007 Type: User Review |
The opening day of my memories...
indeed the book is about baseball, however it is about soooo much more.
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5.00/5 |
| 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 |
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