This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way.
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And this robot is rolling in negative 88 degrees Fahrenheit. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. Up next, a sports and baseball story. for the ages. Jackie Robinson in 1947 became the first of his race to play in the major leagues.
Branch Ricky broke down the color barrier when he signed Robbie for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Yeah! I'll certainly do my very best on the field. I'm very sure you will.
Okay, the game. Jackie Robinson hit that ball. It went zooming across the left field wall. Yeah, boy. Yes, yes, Jackie hit that ball.
For the 26,000-plus Brooklyn Dodger diehards gathered at their home opener, On April 15th, 1947, What they saw was not merely a solid wind, but The Dodgers beat the Braves five to three. What they witnessed was sports history, as Jackie Robinson took to Ebbetts Field to become the first black player to play for a Major League Baseball team. in the twentieth century. We correctly celebrate Robinson's story. But what compelled the man who hired Robinson, Branch Rickey, to integrate the game he loved.
Uh When he accepted the job as general manager and president of a major league baseball team in the most populated borough in America's biggest city, There wasn't a black player in any professional sport. The NFL was not nearly the national franchise it is today. And the NBA? Even less so. Baseball wasn't just the biggest national sport.
It was the only national sport. The denizens of Brooklyn, well, they weren't crying out for integration. Indeed, Fierce racism and tension existed between and among the many ethnic groups crammed into those Brooklyn neighborhoods surrounding Ebbets Field when Ricky landed that job in 1942. He arrived in Brooklyn after assembling a team that had won six pennants in St. Louis.
but he considered his tenure there a failure. because he couldn't get the Cardinal owners to integrate the stands, let alone. the baseball field. But if the right man and ability on the field and with control of himself. Off the field.
If I could find that kind of a man, the American public would accept him. I felt that there was that kind of sportsmanship in America that would not turn thumbs down on a Negro of high intelligence. a fine character and of great physical skill. Why did Branch Rickey risk his new high profile job? To do what he did?
I quote author Eric Metexis. For starters, He was a Bible-thumping Methodist who refused to attend games on Sundays. He sincerely believed it was God's will that he integrate baseball. And it was an opportunity to intervene in the moral history of the nation. as Lincoln had done.
That sentiment was echoed In sports writer Jimmy Breslin's 2011 biography of Ricky. He carries with him a Midwestern Christian religious fervor as strong as a wheat crop. and the political faith Anything Republican. The ambitious Dodgers executive had an inauspicious beginning. He was born on a farm in southern Ohio.
in 1881 to parents known for their religious piety. He played baseball and football at Ohio Wesleyan University. A college? with Methodist roots. but it was in his role as baseball team captain and coach that he encountered racism in a visceral and personal way.
When his black teammate, Charles Thomas, was refused entry to a hotel in South Bend, Indiana. Ricky convinced the manager to allow Thomas to stay in his room is an unregistered guest. but not without a serious shouting match. The Jew crowd. Ricky's memory of his friend Thomas lying on the hotel bed crying out.
It's my skin. If I could just tear it off. I'd be like everybody else. Those words haunted Ricky. When he first interviewed Jackie Robinson for the job, He pulled out a book.
by Giovanni Papini. called Life of Christ. He read from Matthew 5, 39. Whoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turned to him the other also. No player in the history of baseball, I think, was ever subjected to the vile baiting for opposing benches.
The basely unkind criticisms in print He'd played admirably in spite of it all. He really turned the other cheek. He is a credit to baseball. and to America. Ricky then read from Matthew 5, 44.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Ricky believed in the power of those words. He hired Robinson. because he believed in the power of those words too. When I walked in the door, I had no idea why I was being brought into the office.
And then to have him sit and tell me exactly why, and then to go through all of the kinds of things that he envisioned. The prospects of violence and everything, and how I have to control myself, and uh It was a meeting that I shall never forget, and a meeting that started me thinking that this was perhaps one of the truly great Americans of our time. Robinson's faith was cultivated by his mother, whom his wife Mallie described as a courageous, determined woman who told her children God would always take care of them. Prayer sustained Robinson. His habit of kneeling at his bedside each night to pray was quote The best way to get closer to God.
and he'd often add, with a wry smile, And a hard-hit ball. Robinson hit many hard-hit balls, once batting 342 to win a league title. He led Brooklyn to six pennants and a World Series. and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962. Brandricke followed.
in nineteen sixty seven. Without God, the story of Robinson and Ricky wouldn't just be incomplete. It would be. incoherent. Leaving Jesus out of their story would be like leaving hamburgers out of Ray Crocs.
or race cars out of Mario and Tredis.
Well, Mr. Rickey, I just want to say that I think you know how I feel. I sincerely want to say that I hope that God gives you many, many more years of successful effort here in this country of ours. Thank you, Robert. Your kind words must be somewhat extravagant because of our long and pleasant personal relationship.
Robinson and Ricky's obedience to God's call on their lives was the source of great personal suffering. This was not a case, as theologian Dietrich Banoff recalled it, of quote cheap grace it came at great personal cost. Robinson said these words not long before he died. A life is not important except in the impact it has on others. I work for a great guy.
I don't think anybody could have done the job had it not been for Mr. Rickey. He was constantly advising and guiding and I had so much confidence in him, I would have jumped off the bridge if he told me to do it. That's how much I believed in him. And he was a man that was sincere and dedicated and willing to lend that helping hand that's so needed today in terms of the problems that we face in everyday life.
One life impacted by Robinson's was the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s. Who said about Robinson? Without him I would never have been able to do what I did. Robinson and Ricky, through their love of Jesus, affected millions of lives, forever-changing baseball. and America.
It's an honorable profession. Many a boy can be properly advised to elect it as a career.
Some should not. But it it it is in our country it has been to me A way of life. A charming challenge that comes from from a little object. A little round ball made up of rubber inside and the yarn about it and poreside cover with 162 stitches. Or what have you?
What is it that would challenge the interest of a man for 58 years? I tell you. It has blessed me. I bless it. It has blessed our country.
And our country must bless it as it must all of its recreations. We need it badly. The story of Jackie Robinson and the man who hired him, Branch Ricky. Here. on our American stories.
Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage.
Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. The United States is about to mark its 250th anniversary. And so, on the Global Story podcast from the BBC, we're telling surprising tales of American influence on the world stage and in ordinary people's lives all across the globe.
We have this ability to export our story, and a lot of people have bought it. I feel like the American Dream is alive, but not well. From the BBC, it's the United States at 250. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or find us on YouTube. Big transfer news today.
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