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I am not a huge baseball fan. Despite loving watching most sporting events and being a bit fanatical at times (K's statement to me during the final rounds of the recent NCAA tournament was, "It's probably a good thing we don't usually watch sports with lots of people because you're acting kinda craaazy!"), I have a hard time getting into low-scoring or slow-moving-at-times sports, including golf, hockey (perhaps it's more fun in person?), soccer (ugh; all-time worst-- please see past World Cup post) and even baseball. I had a period in my late elementary-school years where I thought that life and death depended on the success of the Minnesota Twins and spent summers on my grandparents' farm watching or listening to (and mostly mourning) Twins' baseball. However, in the present day, I probably couldn't match most baseball teams with their respective cities (how can they move around so much?!) or name more than three active players. I did not watch (gasp!) any of last year's World Series games, when the relative "home team" SF Giants took home the trophy (do they call it that? Or is it a pennant?).
On my suggestion, however, we did go see 42 this weekend, which is a film which chronicles Jackie Robinson's entry to the lily-white world of baseball when he broke the color barrier and was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Being partial to tearjerkers as well as (per Netflix) "social or historical dramas," I knew I'd find appealing the social/racial injustice part which really gets me riled up (did this really happen in our country, this recently?), mixed in with the "underdog" and sports theme. I have to say that it was a great film.
Not having read many sports autobiographies or biographies (or much about baseball history), I learned a lot from the movie. I also learned more from some online reading done after we came home from the theater. Apparently today, April 15th, (obviously a date around which the film's release was timed) is actually recognized as "Jackie Robinson Day," a day which commemorates his debut in the major leagues in 1947 at first base. His number, 42, was the first number to be retired in American sports in 1997 and each year, on April 15th, all major league players wear #42 in his honor. If I watched any baseball, I probably would have noticed this.
However, now I am motivated to do some more reading about this amazing man. Jackie Robinson: A Biography (by ) and I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson are atop my Amazon "Books to Read" wishlist (a.k.a. my library queue).... which means I will try to read them soon! If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it!
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