Review of "Jackie & Campy: The Untold Story of Their Rocky Relationship and the Breaking of Baseball’s Color Line," by William C. Kashatus
Review of
Jackie & Campy: The Untold Story of
Their Rocky Relationship and the Breaking of Baseball’s Color Line,
by William C. Kashatus ISBN 9780803246331
Five out of five stars
History of two key figures in the civil rights
movement
Jackie Robinson
and Roy Campanella were the first and second black players on the Brooklyn
Dodgers, with Jackie of course the first black player in the major leagues
after the color line was established. It would seem that they would naturally
be friends off the field, but that was not the case. At first, they were
friends, but major personality differences turned them away from each other.
Once the vow of
silence was lifted from Jackie, he became very combative, even to the point of
extremism. Jackie did not hesitate to bait and antagonize opposing players,
managers and umpires. It reached the point where he began to lose the off-field
support of his teammates, Dodger management and sportswriters. Jackie believed
that the movement towards civil rights should be a militant one, where the
activists must always be aggressive.
Conversely, Roy
Campanella was much more relaxed and was not inclined to engage in activism. His
low-key approach won him the respect of all around him, to the detriment of his
relationship with Jackie. To the credit of both men, neither let their feelings
for the other affect the Brooklyn Dodgers team chemistry. They kept everything
between them professional on the field and in the clubhouse. The animosity was
partially fueled by the fact that Jackie went to college while Campy was a high
school dropout.
This personal
animosity is very well laid out in this book. In many ways the two men
reflected the two main approaches within the civil rights movement. Jackie
represented the side where whites would be forced to accept black rights while
Campy followed the plan of showing his skills and letting the whites reach
positive conclusions about the rights of blacks.
Three very
significant points were made that cannot be overstated. The first is that when Branch
Rickey announced his plan to have Jackie Robinson play for the Dodgers there
was a secret vote among the 16 team owners. The vote was 15 to 1 against
allowing Robinson to play with Rickey’s being the only dissenting vote.
Baseball commissioner Happy Chandler overruled the owners and allowed Robinson
to play. Chandler was removed shortly afterward, and he was adamant that the removal
was retaliation for going against the owners.
The second is
that had Campanella not been in an auto accident that led to his paralysis, it
is very possible that he would have been the first black manager in the major
leagues. Since he would likely have done so in the middle sixties, the first
black manager would have been appointed ten years before it happened when Frank
Robinson was named the player/manager of the Cleveland Indians. The third is
that when the Jewish Sandy Koufax joined the Dodgers in the late fifties, he
faced ferocious antisemitism from the Dodger players.
This is an
important book in the history of baseball and the civil rights movement. There
is no question that the integration of baseball by Branch Rickey and Jackie
Robinson was a game changing event for race relations in the country. It paved
the way for the lifting of many other aspects of segregation. Learning some of
the unpleasant details of the major players is an eye opening experience.
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