Book Review

Opening Day: The story of Jackie Robinson's first season
Jonathan Eig

This book is about the first season of Jackie Robinson (in 1947), the first black man to play in a major league baseball game. It was an interesting story I had never heard before. The owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers decided that integration needed to happen in the game, and did all that was necessary to make it happen.

Baseball at the time had only 16 teams. Many players were Southerners, and many of those weren't very excited about Jackie Robinson playing the game with them. The author explains plenty of time showing how Jackie Robinson was one of the leaders in the eventual civil rights movement which eventually came, just by playing the game the way he played. This was all very interesting.

The author also described a number of the games played that year. He did a very good job describing the games and its events. It was all very interesting. I've never seen footage of Jackie Robinson running the basepaths (I still need to make that pilgramage to Cooperstown sometime), but it sounds like it was fun to watch.

The author also wrote a book called Lucky Man, about the life of Lou Gehrig, that I think I will pick up sometime to read.