My wife Rhonda and I went to see “42” today, an
excellent retelling of the important story of Jackie Robinson’s rookie year
with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It is
gratifying to know that this film will serve, from now on, to educate people of
all ages about the how Jackie Robinson caused a sea-change in American
culture.
Over 20 years ago, after years of hearing about
Jackie Robinson’s story, Rhonda and I felt that it was our responsibility to be
sure that our son Adam (now 27), a sports fan from early on, would know this
story as well. Peter Golenbock’s
book, Teammates, effectively
portrayed for children an incident that offered one of the most poignant
moments in “42.” The
Brooklyn Dodgers were playing the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field early in
1947, Robinson’s rookie year. As
the crowd (which reportedly included some of Reese’s family from Kentucky)
yelled hateful epithets at Robinson, Pee Wee Reese ran across the infield to
put his arm around Robinson’s shoulder, to show solidarity in a way that
silenced the crowd’s hatred.
In November of 2005, a statue of this scene was unveiled outside
MCU Park in Brooklyn, home of the
New York Mets’ minor league affiliate, the Brooklyn Cyclones.
This image of Reese and Robinson standing
together captures the spirit of “42.” In the film, Branch Rickey, played so well by Harrison
Ford, noted that the Bible says that we should “love our neighbors as
ourselves” and that it was time for that rule to apply to baseball (and other
arenas of life, by extension). As we saw the movie today, I was mindful of the
fact that the Torah reading in synagogues and Temple throughout the world for
this coming week includes Leviticus Chapter 19, the source of the commandment
cited by Rickey. The film made its
debut in theaters just several days after Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance
Day, observed this past Sunday night/Monday. One reference to anti-Semitism in the film related to the
treatment of Hank Greenberg. Ben
Chapman, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1947, inaccurately claimed
that Greenberg took the name-calling in stride in order to justify his verbal
abuse of Robinson from the opposing dugout. In fact, Greenberg approached the prejudice he faced in the
same way that Robinson did, having the courage not to react or respond.
It is ironic that, several days before
“42” was released this weekend, it was reported in local news that the first base umpire
serving at a high school baseball game between Gadsden High School and Alamogordo
High School here in New Mexico threatened to eject any player who spoke Spanish
during the game. The players were doing nothing wrong, and the home-plate
umpire did tell his colleague that he had no authority to carry out his
threat. However, some of the comments from readers of an online
story about this incident were hateful, disrespectful and narrow-minded,
including expressions that bore an uncanny resemblance to the prejudice that
Jackie Robinson, Hank Greenberg, and others in other walks of life had to
endure by holding their head high and not stooping to the level of the
name-calling being thrust upon them.
“42” reminds us how far we have come in
treating all people with dignity and respect and in acknowledging the strength
of our diversity. It also illustrates
that we still have a distance to go when echoes of the racism and hatred
portrayed in the movie are all too easy to find in some corners of our
society. The film portrayed
Branch Rickey, in several instances, declaring that God would accept no excuses
for our prejudice. The
commandments in Leviticus 19 that direct us to love our all people as ourselves
can still guide us today as we seek to strengthen the moral foundation of our
nation and as we continue to engender mutual understanding – and peace - throughout
the world.
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