What I Learned from Jackie Robinson

by Carl Erskine, Duke Snider, Burton Rocks

AN INTIMATE LOOK AT JACKIE ROBINSON'S FIGHT FOR EQUALITY, FROM FORMER TEAMMATE AND LONGTIME FRIEND CARL ERSKINE

"Jackie needed to quell his anger the first couple of years, a task which only someone of this inner strength and vision could have coped with at that moment. When I reflect and wonder what it must have been like for a man who should have been at the happiest of moments in his life, to still have to deal with racial indignities on a daily basis, it is mind-boggling. Most mortal men would have cracked."--Carl Erskine, from the book

Jackie Robinson changed the game of baseball forever when he paved the way for equality in sports. In What I Learned from Jackie Robinson, former teammate and friend Carl Erskine shares his memories of Jackie's crusade in a loving social memoir.

Written with New York Times bestselling coauthor Burton Rocks and filled with personal photos, this moving portrait of friendship takes readers for the first time inside the locker room, inside the soul of Jackie, and inside the hearts of his friends, teammates, and oppressors. As a former Dodger, with access to the important people from Jackie's life, Erskine talks with Robinson's widow and also shares memories about:

Yogi Berra

Whitey Ford

Sandy Koufax

Stan Musial

Pee Wee Reese

Roy Campanella

Don Drysdale

Billy Martin

and many other players, coaches, sportswriters, and entertainers who remembered Jackie on and off the field. A retrospective on a man who fought for his cause until death, this memoir is a testament to the man and the game that brought the world together when it was falling apart.

Genres: Baseball, Sports

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 31, 2005

Reviews

[Chris Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than I expected. Nice to read how the lessons learned in the title have very little to do with baseball, but about tolerance, patience, at times confrontation, but mostly love. Pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was written by Carl Erskine, who was one the most respected of the Brooklyn Dodgers who had the honour of being a teammate of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to break baseball’s color barrier in 1947. Robinson’s perseverance and strength of character under immense challenge and pressure is legendary and has serves as an inspiration for many. Being a huge Robinson fan and having read many books about him, when I heard that one of his teammates had written a book by this title I was intrigued and looked forward to digging into it. I was expecting a format where Erskine would devote each chapter to something he learned from doing life with Robinson, then would share illustrations from his life that would emphasize each point, and explain how each lesson impacted Erskine’s life. But that’s not what this book is. This book is Carl Erskine’s memoir. It travels chronologically through his life and career. But that is not to say that the title is a misnomer. Stories about Robinson interject at various points in the narrative, and Erskine is generous in his admiration of his teammate and in explaining how various incidents and events involving Robinson positively impacted his life. There are a number of points in the book where Robinson takes center stage. But for the most part this is a book about Erskine, his family, and the Dodgers in general. It is an interesting and inspirational read and a good addition to my Robinson library. But it isn’t what I thought it would be, and as such was a bit disappointing.

[Michael Charton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up on my parents stories about the Brooklyn Dodgers. I agree with one reviewer; I would like to have read more about what Carl Erskine saw as Jackie Robinson's effect on him and society at large. You learn a lot about what the country was like, though. Mr. Erskine's explanation of his upbringing in Anderson, Indiana also helped explain what he saw with integration of baseball and he explains what was involved in getting Major League Baseball teams to integrate. He explained the political problems Dodger owner Walter O'Malley had with planner Robert Moses in New York City and how Moses built expressways across the outer boroughs (like the BQE, Brooklyn Queens Expressway), which I grew up above in Brooklyn Heights. I learned more than just baseball, which I enjoy in itself, but politics in Brooklyn, the dawn of the Jet Age, making possible the move to California and what happened when the sport was integrated and how the country tried to move on. Yes, more about Jackie would have been nice, especially as it influenced Mr. Erskine with another Civil Rights struggle, that of his Down Syndrome Child.

[Allen Price · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm related to the author, so I bought it immediately. Carl Erskine was on the famous '55 Dodgers team that beat the infernal Yankees. I learned that he was impressed with Jackie Robinson from the beginning and soon found Jackie taking him under his wing. You have to be a baseball fan to read this kind of book. It does reveal that baseball superstars live on the same Earth - they just make a lot more money than we do.

[Leonora · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book for older children, but a nice read for anyone. Carl Erskine recounts much of his time playing with Jackie Robinson and also spends a bit of time talking about his son with Down's Snydrome. Very touching.

[Sharonh · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting baseball story memoir... but there wasn't much about Jackie Robinson... or not enough... which is why I was reading the book in the first place, lol