RetroSimba

(Updated April 7, 2020)

In his first season in the National League, Jackie Robinson was a force against the Cardinals, especially in a key September series that secured the Dodgers’ bid to win the 1947 pennant.

Robinson integrated major-league baseball when he batted second and played first base in the Dodgers’ 1947 season opener on April 15 against the Braves at Brooklyn. Boxscore

The 1947 Dodgers would finish in first by five games over the defending champion Cardinals and Robinson was a big factor. In 23 games against the 1947 Cardinals, Robinson hit .309 with three home runs, four steals, 11 walks and 10 RBI. His on-base percentage was .381.

Proposed protest

Robinson faced the Cardinals for the first time in the regular season on Tuesday afternoon, May 6, at Brooklyn in the opener of a three-game series. Batting second and playing first base, Robinson went 2-for-5 (a pair of singles) with a run scored in the Dodgers’ 7-6 victory. Boxscore

The New York Herald Tribune reported some Cardinals players tried to organize a strike in protest of Robinson’s presence in the major leagues. National League president Ford Frick confirmed to the Associated Press that Cardinals owner Sam Breadon had informed him there was “a movement among the Cardinals to strike in protest during their series if Robinson is in the lineup.”

“From what (Breadon) told me afterward, the trouble was smoothed over,” Frick said.

Breadon, manager Eddie Dyer and several Cardinals players denied knowledge of any strike plan.

“I brought the matter up with two of my leading players,” Breadon said to the Associated Press. “They never intimated that such a thing was even thought of.”

Said Dyer: “The report my club threatened a strike against Robinson is absurd. At no time, to my knowledge, did my players consider such a foolish action. They never discussed it. No one ever discussed it with them.”

Dodgers manager Burt Shotton told the United Press he didn’t believe the Cardinals had intended to strike. “I would have known about it had anything been done,” Shotton said.

Stanley Woodward, sports editor of the New York Herald Tribune, defended the accuracy of the report as “essentially right and factual.”

“The denial by Sam Breadon … is so spurious as to be beneath notice,” Woodward wrote.

in his 1948 book, “Jackie Robinson: My Own Story,” Robinson said, “We played our early May series with the Cards without any overt bad feeling. By and large, the Cardinals treated me as merely another ballplayer.”

Attracting a crowd

Robinson’s first game at St. Louis occurred on Wednesday afternoon, May 21, in a 4-3 Dodgers victory. Robinson helped to attract the largest weekday crowd of the season, 16,249. “About 6,000 were Negroes,” noted the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“Robinson was cheered each time he went to bat and the Dodgers as a team received more vocal encouragement than they usually get at Sportsman’s Park,” the Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore

Robinson was 0-for-4 with a walk and a run scored. Boxscore

Cardinals confrontation

A month later, on June 14, the Dodgers were back in St. Louis when Robinson lost his temper in an encounter with Cardinals pitcher Harry Brecheen in the second game of a Saturday doubleheader.

Brecheen “was having it easy, throwing up slow twisters and dinky curves that we could not hit for love nor money,” Robinson said in his book.

In the sixth inning, with the Cardinals ahead, 7-0, Robinson batted, “swung at one of those dinkies and topped the ball between the pitcher’s mound and first base,” he recalled. Brecheen fielded the ball, ran toward the base line and waited for Robinson to arrive rather than toss to first base.

“Brecheen knew as well as I did that any other player would have run over him and knocked him down in the hope that he’d drop the ball,” Robinson said. “Of course, that was the sort of thing I’d been told to avoid. I stopped dead on the base line. He tagged me.”

Robinson told Breechen, “You better play your position like you’re supposed to. Next time, I’m going to dump you on the back of your lap.” Boxscore

In his book, Robinson said, “That was the first time I had ever actually lost my temper on the field” since arriving in the big leagues. “It was also the first time I had ever said an angry word to an opposing player.”

Also in 1947, during one of Robinson’s plate appearances, Cardinals catcher Joe Garagiola “made a crack about my race,” Robinson said in his book.

“We had some words, and for a moment it looked as though we would come to blows,” Robinson said, “but the umpire stepped between us, and at the same moment (coach) Clyde Sukeforth came dashing out of the dugout” to intervene.

Battles in Brooklyn

As the season unfolded, Robinson’s impact grew in games against the Cardinals.

On July 18, Robinson had three RBI, including a two-run home run against Al Brazle, and two runs scored in the Dodgers’ 7-0 victory at Brooklyn. Dodgers starter Ralph Branca pitched seven perfect innings before Enos Slaughter led off the eighth with a single. Boxscore

The next day, Robinson had two hits and a steal of home, though the Cardinals won, 7-5. Boxscore

A month later, on Aug. 20, the Cardinals were back in Brooklyn and Branca was pitching another gem against them until the Cardinals rallied to tie the score with two runs in the ninth inning.

In the 11th, with Hugh Casey pitching for the Dodgers, Slaughter hit a ground ball toward first base. Robinson fielded it and headed to the bag. As Slaughter arrived, he stepped on Robinson’s right foot, spiking him.

Robinson suffered no cut, but, to the Dodgers and the Brooklyn crowd, it appeared Slaughter intentionally tried to injure Robinson. Slaughter said it was an accident, not deliberate.

Robinson told The Sporting News, “All I know is I had my foot on the inside of the bag. I gave Slaughter plenty of room.”

In his book, Robinson said, “I don’t think he did it intentionally … He said later I had taken too much of the bag. I didn’t think so, but in all fairness to him I should report there had been some talk around the league that I was taking too much room on first base when I tagged the bag.” Boxscore

Pennant race

Brooklyn held a 4.5-game lead over the second-place Cardinals heading into their final series against one another Sept. 11-13 at St. Louis. The Cardinals knew their best chance to overcome the Dodgers was to sweep.

Brooklyn won two of the three _ and the standout player was Robinson. He batted .462 in the series.

In the opener, won by Brooklyn, 4-3, Robinson hit a two-run home run against Brecheen.

“We got the crucial ballgame,” Robinson said to the Associated Press. Boxscore

After St. Louis won the second game, 8-7, the Dodgers came back to win the finale by the same score. Robinson had three hits and a walk, but his most important play came on defense. In the eighth inning, the Cardinals had runners on first and second with two outs when Nippy Jones, seeking his eighth hit of the series, hit a pop-up that drifted toward the Dodgers dugout. Robinson reached for the ball, caught it and spilled into the dugout. Boxscore

“As I grabbed that foul, I tried to break my fall,” Robinson told The Sporting News, “but I don’t know what would have happened if Ralph Branca hadn’t tackled me.”