“Under Jackie’s Shadow:
Voices of Black Minor Leaguers Baseball Left Behind”
The author:
Mitchell Nathanson
The publishing info:
University of Nebraska Press; 224 pages, $32.95; released April 1, 2024
The links:
The publishers website; the authors website; at Bookshop.org; at {pages}; at Powells.com; at Vromans.com; at TheLastBookStoreLA; at BarnesAndNoble.com; at Amazon.com
The review in 90 feet or less
Once upon a time, a preferred method to go about “honoring Jackie Robinson” was to buy “useful and attractive trophies and sculptured reproductions.”
This company in New York could facilitate.
A star-struck kid had no real choice if he spent nickle after nickel trying to get a Robinson Topps card. With a couple extra quarters taped to a piece of cardboard, stick it in the mail and there would be mementos aplenty. In fact, the word “useful” is mentioned a few times in this advertisement above.
These days, it might be more useful (is that still not the right word?) to commit $135 for a replica Dodgers jersey – Brooklyn or Los Angeles – from the MLBShop, via the Nike branding. Pick a style and color that better fits the statement you want to convey.
Or go bigger — a $250 model set aside for those inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame produced by, of all names, Ebbets Field Flannels.
In 2022, the Dodgers had a Robinson giveaway gray flannel jersey that was nifty looking retro thing, available now on eBay (especially size Medium, which few can actually wear) and was “licensed by the estate of Jackie Robinson and Mrs. Rachel Robinson” with the website www.JackieRobinson.com attached to the front tail.
For today’s Jackie Robinson day, the trinket will be … a blue Brooklyn cap with a large “42” on the side.
There are other quality items out there as well from our favorite Baseballism.com — shirts that proclaim 42 is “more than a number” and “bigger than a game” these days. Robinson’s name isn’t even incorporated into the branding here. His family likely likes that approach.
Still, if only we can get out of the corporate shadow of what Jack(ie) Robinson Day has become.
Editor’s note: I’ve decided that as much as possible, we should refer to the man as Jack Robinson. That was his name. That’s his Hall of Fame plaque. The media added the “ie” to the end to try to soften his image way back. Last year, I reviewed the book “Call Him Jack: The Story of Jackie Robinson, Black Freedom Fighter” and make a conscious effort to stick by that.
In Mitch Nathanson’s new book, “Under Jackie’s Shadow,” he writes in the introduction about that October day in 1972 – 25 years after Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier – when Major League Baseball decided to give him a cursory recognition in Cincinnati. Red Barber did the introductions. Pee Wee Reese, Peter O’Malley, Joe Black and Larry Doby were also there.
It turned out to be Robinson’s last public appearance – he died nine days later.
Continue reading “Day 18 of 2024 baseball books: Jack(ie) Robinson’s Day”
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