Quotes & Sayings About Jackie Robinson In Baseball

I was being thrown to the wolves. Even though I did something great, nobody wanted to be a part of it. I was so isolated. I couldn't share it. For many years, even after Jackie Robinson, baseball was so segregated, really. You just didn't expect us to have a chance to do anything. Baseball was meant for the lily-white. — Hank Aaron

Baseball, like some other sports, poses as a sacred institution dedicated to the public good, but it is actually a big, selfish business with a ruthlessness that many big businesses would never think of displaying. — Jackie Robinson

The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it. — Jackie Robinson

In baseball, there is something electrifying about the big leagues. I had read so much about (Stan) Musial, (Ted) Williams and (Jackie) Robinson. I had put those guys on a pedestal. They were something special. I really thought they put their pants on different, rather than one leg at a time. — Hank Aaron

Some day I'm going to have to stand before God, and if He asks me why I didn't let that [Jackie] Robinson fellow play ball, I don't think saying 'because of the color of his skin' would be a good enough answer. — Branch Rickey

I ought to break this trophy into 32 pieces — Jackie Robinson

If I had to choose between baseball's Hall of Fame and first class citizenship for all of my people. I would say first-class citizenship. — Jackie Robinson

Josh wanted to be the one to break the color barrier. When the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson he knew it was over for him. He wasn't going to make the big leagues, and he also knew that because of his health and his bad knees his career with the Grays was about over. He didn't know what to do with himself. They say a man can't die of a broken heart, and I guess that's true. But I'll tell you this, all of this sure lessened Josh's will to keep going, to keep fighting to stay alive. — Ted Page

He (Jackie Robinson) knew he had to do well. He knew that the future of blacks in baseball depended on it. The pressure was enormous, overwhelming, and unbearable at times. I don't know how he held up. I know I never could have. — Duke Snider

You're going to be a great player, kid. — Jackie Robinson

Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead. — Jackie Robinson

I am not concerned with being liked or disliked. I am concerned with being respected — Jackie Robinson

When I were a young man, I used to play baseball and steal bases just like Jackie Robinson. If the empire would rule me out, I would get mad and hit the empire. — Langston Hughes

Sometimes, sitting in the park with my boys, I imagine myself back at Ebbets Field, a young girl once more in the presence of my father, watching the players of my youth on the grassy fields below - Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges. There is magic in these moments, for when I open my eyes and see my sons in the place where my father once sat, I feel an invisible bond among our three generations, an anchor of loyalty and love linking my sons to the grandfather whose face they have never seen but whose person they have come to know through this most timeless of sports. — Doris Kearns Goodwin

Major League Baseball should retire Roberto Clemente's number, just like they did Jackie Robinson's. — Carlos Beltran

I cannot but feel that the one man, above all others, who deserves the eternal thanks of his own race, and all thinking people, for bringing about baseball's greatest reform, is Jackie Robinson himself ... Certainly baseball people should be eternally grateful for the contribution he made to his own people, and to the game. — Ford Frick

After Jackie Robinson the most important black in baseball history is Reggie Jackson, I really mean that. — Reggie Jackson

Every year we discuss Jackie Robinson Day, which is April 15. We talk about it throughout baseball, promote it throughout baseball. — Curtis Granderson

Whether your name is (Lou) Gehrig or (Cal) Ripken, (Joe) DiMaggio or (Jackie) Robinson, or that of some youngster who picks up his bat or puts on his glove, you are challenged by the game of baseball to do your very best day in and day out. That's all I've ever tried to do. — Cal Ripken Jr.

All the courage and competitiveness of Jackie Robinson affects me to this day. If I patterned my life after anyone it was him, not because he was the first black baseball player in the majors but because he was a hero. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar