5 Things You Should Know About Jackie Robinson

Baseball has always been a game of numbers, and on April 15, 2011, no number will be more important than 42. That’s the jersey number of Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, and it will be worn by all 780 Major League Baseball players and managers as they honor the legacy of the first black player to break major-league baseball’s color line.

Born in Cairo, Georgia and raised in Pasadena, California, Robinson began his career in the Negro leagues before leading the Brooklyn Dodgers to six pennants and one World Championship over a memorable 10-year span.

His competitive nature made him one of the finest Major League Baseball players of his day and led Dodgers manager Leo Durocher to quip, “This guy didn't just come to play. He come to beat ya. He come to stuff the goddamn bat right up your ass."

Learn more about Jackie Robinson by clicking here.

Question of the Week

Doug, Idaho Falls, ID
Subj: Hammerin’ Hank
A buddy of mine told me that Hank Aaron got cut from the Brooklyn Dodgers. Is that actually true or is he just making it up?

Your friend was giving you the straight dope. Aaron attended a Dodgers tryout camp in 1949 when he was just 15-years-old. Unfortunately he was unable to overcome his nerves and inexperience and the club passed him over in favor of several more mature prospects. Undeterred by the incident, Aaron kept persisting and he was signed two years later to a local semi-pro team called the Mobile Black Bears. The club was made up of grown men who worked during the week and Aaron earned between three and five dollars a game depending upon the quality of his performance. It wasn’t much, but it allowed him to perfect his game and he soon signed with the Indianapolis Clowns who in turn sold him to the Boston Braves, hence beginning his Major League career.

Question of the Week

Charles, Oklahoma City, OK
Subj: Going the distance
Who holds the Major League record for most innings pitched in a game?

That honor is shared by Leon Cadore and Joe Oeschger, a pair of rubber-armed hurlers who logged 26 innings each in a 1920 marathon match between Brooklyn and Boston. The epic game featured 168 at-bats, nine walks and six sacrifices and lasted for three hours and fifty minutes before being declared a 1-1 tie on account of darkness. Despite the length of the game, Cadore later insisted that he could have kept on pitching. "I remember saying, ‘Sure, but I can go one more,' figuring something just had to happen one way or the other, but that was the way it went through the 26th,” he told the press. “True, maybe a couple more innings could have been played. But as you can see what a crime it would have been to have a loss marked up against either pitcher.” Interestingly, Cadore and Oeschger also went the distance just one week before their epic duel with Cadore coming out ahead 1-0 after 11 grueling innings.