LASTING IMPRESSION
Watching a legend take the field
On game days during baseball season, my father, Benjamin Levin, and I sat in the living room listening to our home team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, on the radio. Sometimes we took the long bus ride to Ebbets Field, arriving early to watch batting practice from the outfield.
In 1947, when I was 13, we’d been hearing for weeks about a talented young Black player the Dodgers had signed. The team finally announced that Jackie Robinson would play his first major league game on Tuesday, April 15, against the Boston Braves.
My father and I were at Ebbets Field that day, along with more than 26,000 other fans. The crowd seemed tentative as Robinson took the field, but I sensed something special was happening. Though he went on to be the Dodgers’ second baseman, Robinson played first base that day. He didn’t get a hit, but he got on base on an error in the seventh inning, and scored the run that gave Brooklyn the lead on the way to a win.
I admired the inner strength Robinson showed during his career as he played his way through taunts and threats, and then went on to become active in the civil rights movement.
My beloved Dodgers went to California in 1958, and when my husband and I later moved to Florida, I adopted the Marlins as my team.
I even threw out the first pitch at one of their games.
One can’t always know momentous occasions as they occur, but something special did happen that Tuesday in 1947. Being there and getting to share that piece of history with my dad is something I’ll never forget.
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