Opening Day; The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season
New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. x, [2], 323, [2] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Interesting long gift inscription on fep--does not appear to be associated with the author. Jonathan Eig (born April 26, 1964) is an American journalist and the author of four books. Eig is a former staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, and he remains a contributing writer there. Eig has also written for The New York Times, Esquire, The New Republic, Men's Health, and other publications. Prior to working at the Wall Street Journal he worked as a feature writer for Chicago Magazine. Eig has taught writing at Columbia College Chicago and lectures at Northwestern. He has spoken to audiences on various topics in the United States, including as the keynote speaker at the 2005 Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Chappell Great Lives Lecture Series at Mary Washington University. He has also traveled the country speaking to organizations raising money for the fight against Lou Gehrig’s Disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), and was honored on the field at Yankee Stadium for his work in raising awareness of the disease. April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond that afternoon at Ebbets Field, he became the first black man to break into major-league baseball in the twentieth century. World War II had just ended. Democracy had triumphed. Now Americans were beginning to press for justice on the home front-and Robinson had a chance to lead the way. 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. Condition: Very good / very good.
Keywords: Red Barber, Jackie Robinson, Yogi Berra, Brooklyn Dodgers, Racism, African-Americans, Ebbets Field, Integration, MLB, Negro Leagues, Racial Discrimination, Pee Wee Reese, Branch Rickey, Rachel Robinson, Dixie Walker, Segregation, World Series, Dick Y
ISBN: 9780743294607
[Book #72522]
Price: $35.00