Up on the blog today, we add the great Jackie Robinson to me 1950 Drakes "extension set", which was produced and released in deluxe packaging a couple of years ago:
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A
really fun set to create, I went and added ten stars of the game at
that time to the fantastic oddball set that has had my attention since I
first laid eyes on it decades ago as a kid.
As for the man himself, what needs to be stated at this point regarding his Hall of Fame career?
He
broke the color-line, which I cannot even begin to imagine the
difficulty in that alone, yet still managed to put in 10 great years as a
Major League all-star second baseman, winning Rookie of the Year in
1947, league MVP in 1949, six all-star nods, and a batting title in 1949
when he hit .342.
Before he made
baseball history in 1947, he suited up with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues in 1945 while he was
still in college.
He played in only 47 games, but excelled,
hitting .387 with 5 home runs and 13 stolen bases, even appearing in the
East-West All Star Game.
At this point talking about statistics seems trivial in relation to the sheer impact he had to the sport and American culture.
It still crushes me when I
remember that the man was still only 53 years of age when he passed
away, imagining if he would have lived another 20, 30 years and gracing
us into the 21st Century.
