49 pages • 1 hour read
Jackie RobinsonI Never Had It Made
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1, Chapters 1-4
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “A Dream Deferred”
Following a preface in which he describes the opening game of the 1947 World Series as the culmination of the historical racial barrier that he had begun to shatter that April, Robinson discusses his early life, amateur athletic career, military service, and brief career in the Negro leagues in his opening chapter. Growing up in California, Robinson had a close relationship with his four older siblings, but he especially came to respect his hard-working mother Mallie, who had moved the family from Georgia when her husband left home. However, it was the guidance and influence of Reverend Karl Downs that Robinson credits with keeping him away from criminal behavior. Downs clearly served as a positive role model and trusted friend for Robinson in his early life.
Following in the footsteps of his older brother, Mack, who would go on to win a silver medal in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Robinson became a sports star at Pasadena Junior College and then accepted an athletic scholarship to UCLA in order to stay close to home. At UCLA, Robinson lettered in baseball, football, basketball, and track. More importantly, he met his future wife, Rachel Isum, whom Robinson refers to as “the most important person in [his] life” (10). Seeing no real future in professional athletics and convinced that “no amount of education would help a black man get a job” (11), Robinson left UCLA prior to graduating and accepted an assistant athletic director job with the National Youth Administration (NYA). When the NYA and other New Deal programs ended, Robinson played semi-pro football in Honolulu, leaving at season’s end only days before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Following America’s entry into World War II, Robinson was drafted into the Army and sent to Fort Riley, Kansas. Although his time in the military was largely successful and signaled the future success that he would have in life, it also signaled that racial injustice was an issue that he would soon be forced to deal with again. In the second year of his service in the Army, Robinson faced a court martial charge stemming from a racist incident in which he refused to move to the back of a nearly empty and supposedly desegregated bus line operating on an Army base in Fort Hood, Texas. Robinson was acquitted on all charges in the court martial and received an honorable discharge from the Army in 1944.
Robinson agreed to play professional baseball with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro leagues the following year. While the pay was good for the now engaged-to-be-married man, Robinson found the travel grueling and the organization and management of the Negro leagues to be lacking, arguing that it “turned out to be a pretty miserable way to make a buck” (24). In concluding Chapter 1, Robinson discusses life in what he calls the “Jim Crow leagues,” through his own experience of constant bus travel from one town to the next, all the while being denied a decent meal or accommodations because of racial segregation and prejudice. Soon, however, a man by the name of Branch Rickey would change the course of Robinson’s life and the course of sports in America forever.
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “The Noble Experiment”
Robinson begins chapter 2, “The Noble Experiment,” with an anecdote about Rickey, as a coach at Ohio Wesleyan University in 1910, experiencing racial prejudice through the eyes of one of his players. During his time as a college coach, Rickey also played Major League Baseball and later served as manager and general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals before moving on to become president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943. By this time, Rickey was determined to bring racial equality to the game. After winning approval of the club’s directors to make the Dodgers the pioneer in bringing black players into the game, Rickey secretly set out to make it a reality by finding the ideal player—one who not only had major league talent, but also one who had the mental ability to handle it. As Robinson explains, “this player had to be one who could take the abuse, name-calling, rejection by fans and sportswriters and by fellow ballplayers not only on opposing teams but on his own” (28).
Rickey disguised the actual intentions of his talent search by claiming that he was starting a new Negro league and upon the recommendation of Pittsburgh Courier sports editor Wendell Smith, began a thorough investigation of Robinson’s background. Clyde Sukeforth, a scout for the Dodgers, approached Robinson in Chicago and asked him to travel to Brooklyn to meet with Rickey about the possibility of becoming a Brown Dodger, the supposed team name for the club in Rickey’s faux league. Upon their meeting, Rickey told Robinson the real reason that he was there, stating “I know you’re a good ballplayer. What I don’t know is whether you have the guts” (31). Their meeting continued with Rickey bluntly explaining some of the things that he knew Robinson would face in the major leagues.
Going through all of the things that might come out of his experiment, ranging from on-field goading, insults, and violence to even perhaps race riots in the ballpark, Rickey was trying to prepare Robinson mentally. He offered Robinson a spot with the Montreal Royals, the Dodger’s minor league club. Asking himself if he would be able to turn the other cheek, Robinson decided that he must do it, arguing “I had to do it for so many reasons. For black youth, for my mother, for [Rachel], for myself. I had already begun to feel I had to do it for Branch Rickey” (34).
When the news of Robinson’s signing broke, some sportswriters were encouraging but many others were not, and lots of former players, current players, and league officials all had opinions: Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby suggested that it would not work because players were forced to live close to one another on the road; future Hall of Famer Bob Feller suggested that Robinson lacked the talent and would not even be considered if he were white; and Minor League Commissioner W.G. Bramham even called Rickey a carpetbagger and accused him of trying to “retard the race” (36).
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “Breaking the Color Barrier”
Beginning Chapter 3, “Breaking the Color Barrier,” as he and Rachel are preparing to Marry, Robinson discusses Rachel’s personality and career aspirations in greater detail, showing not only his willingness to allow her to flourish as an individual in her own right, but also the strong bond that the two would share for years to come. In early 1946, Robinson married Rachel Isum, and a few weeks later, they were on their way to Daytona Beach, Florida, where he was to report for spring training with the Montreal Royals. The trip to Daytona Beach was filled with inconveniences and indignities, all of which were the result of Jim Crow segregation practices in the South in 1946, something that Robinson would still have to deal with even when the club began training. Despite the obvious tension and hardships created by the segregationist policies and attitudes in Florida, Robinson did have at least one teammate firmly in his corner during spring training: Lou Rochelli, who helped Robinson make the transition from his natural position of shortstop to his new position of second base.
Although spring training in the Southeastern United States proved trying, from segregated housing, meals, and bus rides to even local authorities attempting to not allow any games with Robinson in the lineup to take place, he was officially a Dodger farm hand when the Royals opened their International League season. Just as predicted, there were plenty of racist taunts and jeers from fans of the Jersey City and Baltimore clubs in road games, but Robinson became a beloved figure to the home fans in Montreal. One particular anecdote makes clear just how beloved Robinson had become to fans in Montreal: After winning the Junior World Series, held each year between pennant winners of the International League and the American Association, Robinson received such a hero’s ovation from jubilant fans that he could barely break away from the crowd to catch the flight that he had booked for Detroit. Sam Martin, a sportswriter, described the scene as “probably the only day in history that a black man ran from a white mob with love instead of lynching on its mind” (52). In his lone International League season, Robinson led the Royals to the International League championship and won the league’s batting title.
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary: “The Major Leagues”
Providing a brief respite from the story of his baseball career, Robinson begins chapter 4, “The Major Leagues,” with the birth of his first child, Jackie Jr., in November 1946. During this joyous time for Robinson, there was also a looming question concerning his baseball career: Based on his magnificent season with Montreal, would he be called up to the majors? The Royals, who now had three more black players, including future Hall of Famer catcher Roy Campanella and future All Star pitcher Don Newcombe, were training with the big league club in Havana, Cuba. Still unsure of where he would be playing in 1947, Robinson learned that because the Dodgers needed to shore up their first base position, he would need to make yet another positional transition.
With Robinson starting 1947 spring training just as hot as he had ended 1946, Rickey hoped that it would impress Dodgers players enough to request his call-up, and that “the stories that newspapermen send back to the Brooklyn and New York newspapers [would] help create demand on the part of the fans that [Robinson] be brought up to the majors” (56). Not only did the Dodgers players not clamor for Robinson’s call-up, but several players, including perennial All Star outfielder Dixie Walker, signed a petition declaring that they would not play if Robinson joins the Dodgers. Rickey stamped out this rebellion, according to Robinson, “with steamroller effectiveness” (55).
Less than a week before opening day, Robinson did get promoted to the Dodgers, but he started the season in a terrible 0-for-20 slump. One particular early-season series against the Philadelphia Phillies at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn was emblematic of both Robinson’s strength and a major prediction that Rickey had made about his experiment’s success if Robinson’s teammates got behind him. Orchestrated by manager Ben Chapman, the Phillies were far crueler and nastier in their taunts than any of the Dodgers' previous opponents had been. In fact, it was so bad that Robinson came very close to breaking his “turn the other cheek” vow, and Chapman drew criticism from sports columnists across the country. An even more important result of the Phillies’ behavior was that it truly united the Dodgers club, with numerous teammates coming to Robinson's defense. In later years, Rickey said that “Chapman did more than anybody to unite the Dodgers,” adding that “he solidified and united thirty men, not one of whom was willing to sit by and see someone kick a man who had his hands tied behind his back—Chapman made Jackie a real member of the Dodgers” (61).
Robinson also discusses the strong rapport and bond that he built with teammate Pee Wee Reese, a shortstop, team leader, and future Hall of Famer. At one point in the season, during a road game at Boston when fans were roundly heckling not only Robinson, but also the Southern-born Reese for playing alongside him, Reese left his position and walked to Robinson and began talking to him with his arm draped over his shoulder. According to Robinson, “his words weren’t important. I don’t even remember what he said. It was the gesture of comradeship and support that counted” (64). Throughout the season, Robinson received frequent hate mail and death threats, and his opponents continually harassed him, but he maintained his composure because he knew how important Rickey’s plan was. By the season’s end, Robinson had not only been named the Rookie of the Year and helped to lead the Dodgers to the pennant, but he had also been accepted by his teammates.
Part 1, Chapters 1-4 Analysis
The brief preface to I Never Had It Made, is subtitled “Today,” with Robinson reflecting back upon the 1947 World Series as one of the most important moments in his life. Robinson uses this short preface to do a number of things: highlight the historical importance of his breaking of baseball’s color barrier, recognize the fact that he also had legions of supporters amongst the loud detractors, and introduce Branch Rickey as the single most important figure in his story.
Although the policy of racial segregation in Major League Baseball existed only as an unwritten rule and was enforced only by each club refusing to employ black players, it was strictly followed until the Dodgers signed Robinson in 1946. Given that background of segregation, coupled with the enormous popularity that Major League Baseball enjoyed in the years following World War II, the opening game of the 1947 World Series constitutes an event of incredible historical significance. In regard to the importance of Rickey, Robinson makes this clear in closing his preface, telling readers, “I must tell you that it was Mr. Rickey’s drama and that I was only a principal actor” (xviv). Choosing the 1947 World Series as a reflecting point to open the book signals that, despite a full life with countless accomplishments, this moment in time is the central focus of Robinson’s life story.
In telling his life story, Robinson uniquely dedicates only his opening chapter to his first 28 years, more than half of his life. The brevity in discussing his early years indicates that Robinson is very clearly eager to get to his baseball career, later life, and his book’s primary theme of racial equality. Despite the truncated nature of Robinson’s early life in the opening chapter, he introduces readers to the three people who likely had the most profound effect on him in the years prior to baseball stardom: his mother, Mallie Robinson; a mentor and confidant in Reverend Karl Downs; and his future wife, Rachel Isum. In addition to introducing readers to these important figures in his life, Robinson also highlights the setting for his early life, Pasadena, California.
Robinson adheres to a strict chronology as he takes readers through his years as a sports star at UCLA and entry into the United States Army. The overarching theme of racial equality begins to take shape through Robinson’s storytelling of his years in the military. In what should have been the most democratic of all United States institutions, the Army during World War II, Robinson faced the same sort of racism that would come with his entry into Major League Baseball. Robinson makes great use of anecdotes throughout, but especially with the episode in which he was nearly court-martialed over a racist incident in Texas. Although Robinson was acquitted on all charges in the court martial, the way that he communicates this story to readers near the end of Chapter 1 provides keen insight to the man who would soon be forced to repeatedly turn the other cheek in the face of prejudice and injustice.
Robinson’s time playing baseball in the Negro leagues lasted only one season, but his brief account of that experience is important in his storytelling to set up the historical significance that would come from his career just a year later. Rather than one specific league or organization, the Negro leagues refers to several different professional black baseball leagues operating in the first half of the 20th century. Noting that the teams in these leagues were often poorly-financed and mismanaged, Robinson stresses that even the best black players in the days of segregated professional sports had little future to hope for: “in those days a white ballplayer could look forward to some streak of luck or some reward for hard work to carry him into prominence or even stardom. What had the black player hope for? What was his future?” (25).
In his opening chapter, Robinson rightfully has the tone of an embittered athlete unfairly prevented from playing, but that tone transforms into one that is cautiously optimistic in the following chapter, when Rickey becomes a central figure in his life. Although Rickey’s decency and fairmindedness is now legendary, Robinson uses an anecdote relaying the true extent of his need to fight racism to introduce him. This anecdote foreshadows what Rickey would do not only for Robinson, but also for baseball and for the cause of racial equality in America. The use of dialogue is a key feature in the introduction of Rickey. The conversation in Robinson’s first meeting with Rickey is a thorough back-and-forth with the feel of an interrogation, but this element stresses the importance of the subject matter.
One of the key stylistic elements of I Never Had It Made is Robinson’s tone and how it changes in how he responds to racial discrimination through the sequencing of events in his life story. Naturally, Rickey’s plan of integrating baseball required Robinson to remain reserved and hold his temper so that no excuse could be made for its failure and so that other black players could follow, but the transition in Robinson’s tone coinciding with the freedom that he eventually gained to be himself in responding to injustice is notable. A good example of this comes at Robinson’s first meeting with the press at his first spring training. A reporter asked him how he might respond if a pitcher threw at his head, and Robinson replied simply “I would duck” (42).
Setting plays an important role in Robinson’s early career in the majors, as does an understanding of Major League Baseball’s farm system. Robinson begins his professional career in Florida, where the Dodgers spring training takes place. Robinson had signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers, but would start out playing for its top minor league affiliated team, the Montreal Royals. Robinson uniquely juxtaposes the two locations for his early baseball career: Florida, where racial segregation created such problems that local authorities attempted to cancel games, and Montreal, where he became a truly beloved player. With his official entry into the majors in 1947, as the season is sequenced throughout Chapter 4, the theme of racial equality manifests in how fans, opposing players, and even teammates reacted to him.
