OPINION:
Today marks the 74th anniversary of Jackie Robinson playing his first Major League Baseball game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was a milestone for integrating the sport. It was a time when working- and middle-class men and women of all ages, classes, races and religions commingled in the stands, rooting for Robinson and his teammates, regardless of their ethnic origin, game after game.
Ordinary Brooklyn natives could ride the bus, trolley or subway to Ebbets Field to see their beloved Dodgers. Everyone could afford a bleacher, general admission, reserve or box seat. Hot dogs, beer, other refreshments and souvenirs were reasonably priced.
Just as Jackie Robinson fought racism in the 1950s, Detroit Tigers’ Hank Greenberg had to do the same with anti-Semitism in his time. Robinson and Greenberg document the long-lasting relationship between African-Americans and Jewish sports fans standing together for decades in support of each other.
LARRY PENNER
Great Neck, N.Y.
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