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" When I look back at what I had to go through in black baseball, I can only marvel at the many black players who stuck it out for years in the Jim Crow leagues because they had nowhere else to go. "

Jackie Robinson

Black

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" If I had been white with the things I did, they never would have allowed me to get out of baseball. "

Jackie Robinson

Things

Never

" Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead. "

" Above anything else, I hate to lose. "

" It would make everything I worked for meaningless if baseball is integrated but political parties were segregated. "

" I felt unhappy and trapped. If I left baseball, where could I go, what could I do to earn enough money to help my mother and to marry Rachel? The solution to my problem was only days away in the hands of a tough, shrewd, courageous man called Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers. "

" Blacks have had to learn to protect themselves by being cynical but not cynical enough to slam the door on potential opportunities. We go through life walking a tightrope to prevent too much disillusionment. "

Jackie Robinson

Walking

Opportunities

" I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made. "

" The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it. "

" I had no future with the Dodgers, because I was too closely identified with Branch Rickey. After the club was taken over by Walter O'Malley, you couldn't even mention Mr. Rickey's name in front of him. I considered Mr. Rickey the greatest human being I had ever known. "

" Pop flies, in a sense, are just a diversion for a second baseman. Grounders are his stock trade. "

" During my life, I have had a few nightmares which happened to me while I was wide awake. One of them was the National Republican Convention in San Francisco, which produced the greatest disaster the Republican Party has ever known - Nominee Barry Goldwater. "

Jackie Robinson

My Life

Life

" Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life. "

" The old Dodgers were something special, but of my teammates overall, there was nobody like Pee Wee Reese for me. "

" The colonel replied that he didn't care how my men had got the job done. He was happy that it had been accomplished. He said that, obviously, no matter how much or how little I knew technically, I was able to get the best out of people I worked with. "

" In my opinion, baseball is as big a business as anything there is. It has to be a business, the way it is conducted. "

" My protest about the post exchange seating bore some results. More seats were allocated for blacks, but there were still separate sections for blacks and for whites. At least I had made my men realize that something could be accomplished by speaking out, and I hoped they would be less resigned to unjust conditions. "

Jackie Robinson

Results

Realize

" This ain't fun. But you watch me, I'll get it done. "

" I speak to you only as an American who happens to be an American Negro and one who is proud of that heritage. We ask for nothing special. We ask only that we be permitted to compete on an even basis, and if we are not worthy, then the competition shall, per se, eliminate us. "

" I think if we go back and check our record, the Negro has proven beyond a doubt that we have been more than patient in seeking our rights as American citizens. "

" I cannot possibly believe that I have it made while so many black brothers and sisters are hungry, inadequately housed, insufficiently clothed, denied their dignity as they live in slums or barely exist on welfare. "

" How you played in yesterday's game is all that counts. "

" In all my years of baseball, I have always expected to be traded. I never liked the idea. "

" The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity. "

" I guess you'd call me an independent, since I've never identified myself with one party or another in politics. I always decide my vote by taking as careful a look as I can at the actual candidates and issues themselves, no matter what the party label. "

Jackie Robinson

Independence

Myself

" I have always been grateful to Colonel Longley. He proved to me that when people in authority take a stand, good can come out of it. "

" There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free. "

Jackie Robinson

Country

Until

" I want everybody to understand that I am an American Negro first before I am a member of any political party. "

" My problem was my inability to spend much time at home. I thought my family was secure, so I went running around everyplace else. I guess I had more of an effect on other people's kids than I did my own. "

" After two years at UCLA, I decided to leave. I was convinced that no amount of education would help a black man get a job. "

" When I am playing baseball, I give it all that I have on the ball field. When the ball game is over, I certainly don't take it home. My little girl who is sitting out there wouldn't know the difference between a third strike and a foul ball. We don't talk about baseball at home. "