Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson is one of baseball's all-time great players who is underrated by some of today's fans.

Robinson was a belligerent competitor who despised losing even more than he despised the New York Giants.

The general consensus today is the rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and New York's other team, the New York Yankees, is the fiercest rivalry in sports. It is difficult for many of today's fans to imagine that a more intense rivalry existed, but it did.

Was what Jackie Robinson endured and accomplished as significant as what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did?  If so, then why doesn’t Jackie have a national holiday like Dr. King has in his honor?

Perhaps no holiday because the world hasn’t seen any vivid images of Jackie being sprayed down with water hoses or being hauled off to jail.  I’ll deal with the first question later here.

This essay won the Society for American Baseball Research Negro Leagues Committee Scholarship contest in April 2010.

On April 14, 1947, Major League Baseball was a whites-only sport. Not since the expulsion of black players in 1888 had a non-Caucasian man swung a bat or thrown a pitch in the Big Show.

That changed on April 15, 1947—64 years ago today—when Jackie Robinson suited up for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.

Power often is correlated with arrogance.

You want controversy? I'll give you controversy. Jackie Robinson was better than Derek Jeter.

Every American knows why Robinson played in the major leagues for only 10 years. Meanwhile, Jeter is starting his 17th season with the New York Yankees.

The modern media have supported the notion that the greatest rivalry in sports' history is between the New York Yankees and the beloved Boston Red Sox.

As spring training gets underway, wide-eyed rookies share time with wily veterans, battling for a spot on the big club. 

If the young men do earn a place on the team, they have to fight for a starting position and even then, only the best get nationwide recognition. In the end, only two win the Rookie of the Year award.

In gearing up for another season, let’s look back at the 15 greatest rookie campaigns in the history of the award.

Even non-sports fans know parts of the story.

In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first black player in the most popular sport in America, and helped change the way the country thought about racial integration. And Robinson’s legacy goes far beyond the already-amazing feat of breaking the color barrier. Herein, ten ways in which #42’s impact can still be seen.

Begin Slideshow

When Jack Roosevelt Robinson made his major league debut on April 15, 1947 in front of 26,623 spectators at Ebbets Field, including more than 14,000 black patrons, he became the first African-American player to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier, which segregated the sport for more than 55 years.

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, and to honor African American players in the major leagues, I have compiled a nine player lineup of the greatest African American players in baseball history.

There were a number of tough decisions in naming the team, and the likes of Ken Griffey Jr, Joe Morgan, and Frank Thomas, among many others didn't make the cut.

So here it is, the starting nine African American players in honor of Martin Luther King Day.