Jackie's Hall of Fame Character

"After the game, Jackie Robinson came into our clubhouse and shook my hand. He said, 'You're a helluva ballplayer and you've got a great future.' I thought that was a classy gesture, one I wasn't then capable of making. I was a bad loser. What meant even more was what Jackie told the press, '(Mickey) Mantle beat us. He was the difference between the two teams. They didn't miss (Joe) DiMaggio.' I have to admit, I became a Jackie Robinson fan on the spot. And when I think of that world Series, his gesture is what comes to mind. Here was a player who had without doubt suffered more abuse and more taunts and more hatred than any player in the history of the game. And he had made a special effort to compliment and encourage a young white kid from Oklahoma." (Mantle, n.d.)

Mickey Mantle, the voice behind the quote above and my personal favorite player, is a Hall of Fame center fielder that played his first rookie season in 1952. This is important because he was from the southern state of Oklahoma which is notorious for its racist behavior and he began his career after Robinson but before he had really established himself as a Hall of Fame worthy athlete. I think the impact that this occurance had on Mickey Mantle, a white southern athlete, shows just what kind of character and influence Jackie had not only on other black athletes and young kids but also on his peers that at one point in their lives probably had some sort of prejudice enstilled in them. It shows that Robinson had a class act and the kind of character that others can easily look up to and try to emulate.