Baseball, Louisville Slugger, March at Frankfort

On February 5, 2025By Littum

Baseball Legend Jackie RobinsonThere, the sport’s color barrier broke in 1947, made several important stops in Louisville and Kentucky.

Before he wore No. 42 with Brooklyn Dodgers, Robinson was shown in a smaller league championship series against a Louisville club. Then, when he joined Dodgers, Robinson played with Star ShortStop and Dupont Manual Alum Pee Wee Reese. After his baseball career, Robinson returned to Kentucky to participate in the thousands who spoke for civil rights in March 1964 at Frankfort.

Here’s what you need to know about Robinson’s connections to Louisville.

Robinson Jered by Louisville Baseball Fans in 1946

A member of Montreal Royals, Brooklyn Dodgers’ Triple-A-affiliated company, Robinson was “high booed” by a majority-white audience under his five bats against Louisville-Oberst on Parkway Field, according to a Courier Journal article from 1997. Royals And the colonels dueled in the “Little Word series” that was played between the winners of the American Association and the International League.

At a time when Jim Crow -Love threw restrictions on public events, only two sections of Parkway Field were open to black, the Courier Journal reported. With only 1,200 allowed to participate, hundreds of African Americans went angrily away from ticket windows when they were denied access. “

Robinson became hitless in his first two matches, but was “treated better” in the other.

“In the third game, many of the 13,656 fans welcome him for his first hit and strong defensive games,” the Courier Journal reported.

Royals win the series in six matches, with Robinson collected five hits in the last two. His base -loaded single in the fourth game propelled Royals to victory.

Friendship with Louisville Native Pee Wee Reese

A day after Robinson died of a decades long battle with diabetesThe Courier Journal told his relationship with one of his most supportive teammates, Pee Wee Reese.

“But I admired Jackie Robinson’s skills, his competitive character and his personality so much that after a while I wasn’t even aware that he was different from me,” Reese was quoted as saying in a 25th of October 1972, Courier Journal Article. “He was such a big hitter and a big base stealing. I don’t even think I was thinking of Jackie as being black or white.”

Participation in March 1964 at Frankfort

Robinson joined Martin Luther King Jr. And more than 10,000 others to a march to the state’s capital in 1964 and demanded legislators adopt a bill to end separation in companies across the country.

The marches listened to Robinson, King Jr. And others talk about the steps of Capitol.

“With an umbrella that was held over his head to avert a thin rain mixed with a little hail, he told the protesters that they were here to challenge the ‘immoral social system that allows separation,” King Jr. said. According to a March 6, 1964, report in the Courier Journal.

Although the Kentucky General Assembly did not adopt a civil rights bill in 1964, the march led to the adoption of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act in 1966.

Did Jackie Robinson use a Louisville -Slugger -Bats?

Yes, Robinson used Louisville -slugger -Bats throughout his professional career. His bat contracts were later exhibited at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory.

The museum hosts a daily show known as “Jackie Robinson: Game Changer” in which an actor who plays Robinson describes his one season in Montreal and his breakthrough in Major League Baseball.

Well Reporter Leo Bertucci at [email protected] or @Leober2chee on X, formerly known as Twitter