Jackie Robinson Day

This week saw Major League Baseball celebrate the legacy of Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play the game - or at least, the first black man to play with such notoriety. Little-known fact: at least two or three African-American men played the game in its very early days in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  But certainly Robinson gets credit for the modern era. 

Either way, Topps baseball card company had a little contest on Facebook to describe what I was doing on Jackie Robinson Day. They read through the responses and picked their favorites. The prize? The card on the right. Suffice it to say that because I'm writing all this about it, they picked me. I watched the movie "42" that day about Robinson's beginnings in white baseball. 

"42" was actually a pretty great movie. It was obviously toned down a lot - the vitriol against Robinson was likely much worse than a few n-word shouts at the stadium and one old man making a threat outside his house. But the tone of the movie was sufficient to portray Robinson as a great man, and I really enjoyed Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey - owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Next movie on my list is "Oblivion" with Tom Cruise. I'll let you know how it turns out.

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