illions of young people dream of one day playing professional baseball in the major leagues. The odds against making it are staggering. One in fifty thousand high school athletes succeeds in becoming a professional athlete. In professional baseball, only ten percent of those fortunate enough to sign a major league contract ever actually play in a major league game.

Jackie Robinson was one of those young people who thought he could beat the odds. Growing up a teenager in America in the 1930s, Robinson would flash his winning smile and baseball graces on diamonds around his neighborhood. To all onlookers, here was a young man who could clearly be one of the great baseball players.

But for Jackie Robinson, the odds of reaching the major leagues were not one in fifty thousand; they were essentially zero. "Ain't no colored players," the great Hank Aaron's father explained to his son. It was common wisdom among African-American families that their children would never make it to the major leagues. It was a time when people of color were not welcome at the table in a racially segregated society.

Against all odds, Jackie Robinson persevered. He made history by becoming the first African-American athlete to play major league baseball in the United States when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947....

 

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