The Cardinal Virtue of Forty-two
From the moment, his cleats crossed over the foul line on April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson was verbally assaulted and targeted maliciously by fastballs. Racist managers taunted him, his teammates shunned him and opposing players regularly attempted to injure him. Although he was belittled, bruised and I’m sure close to the breaking point countless times throughout his historic baseball career; he not only managed to have a career batting average of .311, win a Rookie of the Year Award, a MVP award and a World Series (stats courtesy of www.baseballreference.com ) but he opened the door for men of all colors and from all corners of the earth to play in the Major Leagues. Jackie accomplished all this because he was courageously meek. He fought racism, bigotry and hatred with a bat and glove; not words or fists. Jackie robbed his critics and opponents of their perceived supremacy over him by stealing bases, not by slandering them in return. The results were not instantaneous and it certai