Amidst the polar vortex news and all the Super Bowl hype, a noteworthy birthday was only barely noted: Jackie Robinson would have been 100 years old last Thursday, January 31, 2019.
The great Jackie Robinson.
With the Super Bowl and football behind us, baseball is just around the corner. And Major League Baseball will be honoring Robinson’s 100th birthday.
He earned it.
I wish I’d been able to see him play. Robinson’s birthday and the imminent opening of baseball spring training made me think of a column by someone who did get to see Robinson play: Mike Royko.
I came to read Royko’s columns regularly once I’d acquired my appetite for news and newspapers in my teens. I still have not read any columnist that I like better—political, humor, sports, local, or national. Royko had an austere style, a little rugged like Chicago, but also elegant in its own way, and economical. He had finely tuned detectors for hypocrisy and dishonesty, and I really can’t do him justice.
Here’s a taste of Royko’s account from his boyhood when he and a pal walked five miles to Wrigley Field to see Robinson play:
Robinson came up in the first inning. I remember the sound. It wasn’t the shrill, teenage cry you now hear, or an excited gut roar. They applauded, long, rolling applause. A tall, middle-aged black man stood next to me, a smile of almost painful joy on his face, beating his palms together so hard they must have hurt.
When Robinson stepped into the batter’s box, it was as if someone had flicked a switch. The place went silent.
You can read the entire column at the University of Chicago Press web site. In fact, you can read three columns, excerpted from a collection called “One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko,” published by the UC Press.
Note: The Robinson piece is the second of three, you’ll have to scroll down a bit to reach it, it’s called “Jackie’s Debut a Unique Day.” Royko wrote it on the occasion of Robinson’s death.
I hope you’ll give it a read.
I Loved Royko
Mike Royko is an amazing writer. Thanks.
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