, US, Major League Star

April 15. Jackie Robinson. Jackie was playing in an all-Black league, when someone was man enough to ask the uber-star-athlete Jackie Robinson to come in for an interview with the Dodgers. The agent Clyde Sukeforth was sent to see Jackie play. Unfortunately, Jackie was recovering from a shoulder injury and didn’t play.

Sukeforth brought Jackie back to New York anyway, and people commented that they were scouting a man’s character more than baseball skills. To get Jackie to the meeting, Sukeforth had to pay $2 to an operator to allow Jackie to use the whites-only elevator. They took a train overnight, and the fact that the two men—one Black and one white—shared the Pullman car turned heads. It was the start of change that was long over-due.

On this date in 1947, at significant personal risk, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play . It was the Dodgers against the Boston Braves, and Jackie played first base. More than 25,000 spectators at watched 28-year-old Jackie make his Major League Baseball debut.

Opportunity and trouble can have a common denominator: Risk.

In America, in 1945, we had the Jim Crow laws—a collection of state and local laws that made racial segregation legal. While many Americans wanted to end the shameful practice of segregation, others fought to keep things the same. And baseball was one of the most segregated sports. Talented black athletes didn’t even dream of playing in the majors.

But when Dodgers’ scout Clyde Sukeforth leaned over the dugout, introduced himself to Jackie, and said he represented the Dodgers, Jackie had to risk dreaming.

At first Jackie, who played in the professional Negro league, blew-off Sukeforth. He told his teammates about the encounter, and they all had a good laugh.

After the game, Jackie dressed with one thought in mind: dinner. But Sukeforth waited outside the dressing room. Jackie tried to ignore him, but the man was so respectful that Jackie had to listen to him.

“Sukeforth … was ready to take me on the most important journey I’d ever taken,” Jackie later wrote. “ … to [] … who could grant me an opportunity in a field never before opened to my people.” But the decision was shrouded in risk. Jackie would have to walk away from his present success— and steady paycheck. If he went with Sukeforth and failed, he’d be the laughing stock of baseball. The guy dumb enough to believe a Negro might get a chance to play in the Majors.

But what if he could?

In the night sky, a brilliant star drew his gaze. “Maybe that star is especially bright for you tonight,” thought Jackie. “Maybe Someone is trying to lead you. Maybe He is up there trying to tell you to go see Mr. Rickey.” Jackie risked a new dream, and the sparkling star seemed to shine right on him.

Branch Rickey, Dodger’s President, offered Jackie a straight path to the majors. But first he was brutally candid about Jackie’s future, acting out scenarios of racial hatred with such fervor that Jackie found himself chain-gripping his fingers behind his back.

Rickey asked Jackie if he was man enough to turn the other check. “We can only win if we can convince the world … you’re a great ballplayer and a fine gentleman. You will symbolize a crucial cause. One incident, just one incident, can set it back twenty years.”

Robinson risked another life-altering decision, “If you want to take this gamble, I will promise you there will be no incident.” And there wasn’t.

God saw beyond society’s limitations to the future He’d planned for Jackie. God sees more for you than your circumstances dictate, too.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end,” (Jeremiah 29: 11, ASV).

How can you cooperate with God’s plans for your future? Opportunity and trouble can have a common denominator: Risk.

Jackie Robinson: My Own Story. http://www.historynet.com/jackie-robinson

Story read by Peter R Warren, https://www.peterwarrenministries.com/ Story written by Paula Moldenhauer, http://paulamoldenhauer.com/