Newspaper Article

Heavy hitters ; A half-dozen new books offer literary as well as historical takes on the national pastime

Mark Luce Mark Luce is a freelance book critic and writer

2002

Overview

Central to that maturation is Jackie Robinson's shattering of the color barrier that had tarnished major-league baseball for nearly 70 years. [Roger Kahn] shows that it wasn't only the sense of justice of Brooklyn Dodger General Manager Branch Rickey that got Robinson into the majors. \"Baseball integration,\" he writes, \"proceeds from the passion of a white Methodist Republican, the foresight of a conservative governor, and a Jewish counterstrike at anti- Semitism.\" Kahn explains that a quota that limited the number of Jewish students in New York medical schools led to the drafting of the Fair Employment Practice law. New York Gov. Thomas Dewey signed the bill into law March 12, 1945, making job discrimination illegal in the state. The door was suddenly, if not only technically, open for blacks to play in the majors. Kahn quotes Rickey, \" 'Having the law on my side when I signed Robinson was a comfort, during some dark days. A comfort like religion. You can understand what I mean. I'm an institutional kind of man.' \"

• Publisher: Tribune Publishing Company, LLC
• Subject: Alexander, Charles C / Baseball / Books-titles / Buckley, James Jr / Dawidoff, Nicholas / Kahn, Roger / Lester, Larry / Multiple review / Nonfiction / Rossi, John P