Ravaged by the complications of diabetes, Jackie Robinson, the man who desegregated major league baseball in 1947, died within
two weeks of his appearance at the 1972 World Series. Not quite fifteen years later, a young African-American outfielder, Vince Coleman, said, "I don’t know nothing about no Jackie Robinson." From this point on, Maury Allen’s
Jackie Robinson: A Life Remembered follows a chronological format as he informs Coleman and the many others about what made Robinson an admirable human being and a Hall-of-Fame ballplayer.
Allen’s work, however, is
biography with a difference. The author, who grew up in New York City and was a baseball fan before he became a sportswriter and an author of many books on sports personalities, uses illustrations and narrative to weave together excerpts from dozens of interviews. Together, these interviews cover every important phase of Robinson’s life: his youth in Pasadena, California; his early recognition as an all-round athlete at Pasadena Junior College and the University of California at Los Angeles; his Army service during World War II; his few months with the Kansas City Monarchs, a team in the Negro Leagues; his year of minor league baseball in Montreal; his decade with the Brooklyn Dodgers; and his
involvement in business, politics, and civil rights from the time of his retirement in 1956 to his death in 1972.
Robinson faced pressures that no other rookie ballplayer has ever endured. Nearly a decade before the Supreme Court case that would order the desegregation of American schools, Robinson had the task of desegregating major league baseball. Aside from the common challenges that a rookie must face, he also had to deal with resentment among some of his own teammates, unmatched verbal abuse from fans and opponents, and death threats. He suffered numerous indignities, such as not being able to eat with his teammates in segregated restaurants or to stay with them in segregated hotels—even the refusal of trainers to rub down his aching legs. Throughout his first season Robinson bore himself with dignity. He realized that he was playing not only for himself but also for countless other African Americans, whose lives and opportunities might come closer to the American Dream if he showed that an African-American athlete could excel not only at bat, on the bases, and in the field but in his bearing as well.
After devoting more than half of his book to Robinson’s youth, early athletic endeavors, and his initial year with the Dodgers, Allen moves quickly through the remainder of Robinson’s major league career. The final segment of the work is given over to Robinson’s involvement in business, politics, and civil rights and to an evaluation of his impact on baseball and on the status of African Americans in the United States.