Jackie Robinson Day Quotes

▪️1) “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” — Jackie Robinson

▪️2) “[Jackie] knew he had to do well. He knew that the future of blacks in baseball depended on it. The pressure was enormous, overwhelming, and unbearable at times. I don’t know how he held up. I know I never could have” — Duke Snider

▪️3) “Plenty of times I wanted to haul off when somebody insulted me for the color of my skin, but I had to hold to myself. I knew I was kind of an experiment. The whole thing was bigger than me.” — Jackie Robinson

▪️4) “If I were in Jackie Robinson’s shoes, I probably never would have made it.” — Bob Gibson

▪️5) “Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.” — Willie Mays

▪️6) “I don’t know any other ballplayer who could have done what [Robinson] did. To be able to hit with everybody yelling at him. He had to block all that out. . . . To do what he did has got to be the most tremendous thing I’ve ever seen.” — Pee Wee Reese

▪️7) “Jackie, we’ve got no army. There’s virtually nobody on our side. . . . And I’m afraid that many fans will be hostile. We’ll be in a tough position. We can win only if we can convince the world that . . . you’re a great ballplayer [and] a fine gentleman.” — Branch Rickey

▪️8) “I’m grateful for all the breaks and honors and opportunities I’ve had, but I always believe I won’t have it made until the humblest black kid in the most remote backwoods of America has it made.” — Jackie Robinson

▪️9) “He struck a mighty blow for equality, freedom and the American way of life. Jackie Robinson was a good citizen, a great man, and a true American champion.” — Ronald Reagan

▪️10) “Robinson did not merely play at center stage. He was center stage; and wherever he walked, center stage moved with him.” — Roger Kahn

▪️11) “Give me five players like Robinson and a pitcher and I’ll beat any nine-man team in baseball.” — Chuck Dressen

▪️12) “Jackie Robinson was the best athlete ever to play Major League Baseball.” — Ralph Kiner

▪️13) “No other player on this club . . . has done more to put the Dodgers up in the race than Robinson has. He is everything Branch Rickey said he was.” — Dixie Walker

▪️14) “He was the only player I ever saw in a rundown who could be safe more often than out.” — Bobby Bragan

▪️15) “He was the greatest competitor I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen him beat a team with his bat . . . his glove, his feet and, in a game in Chicago one time, with his mouth.” — Duke Snider

▪️16) “It kills me to lose. If I’m a troublemaker, and I don’t think that my temper makes me one, then it’s because I can’t stand losing. That’s the way I am about winning, all I ever wanted to do was finish first.” — Jackie Robinson

▪️17) “There was never a man in the game who could put mind and muscle together quicker and with better judgment than Robinson.” — Branch Rickey

▪️18) “Jackie Robinson came into our clubhouse and shook my hand. He said, ‘You’re a helluva ballplayer and you’ve got a great future.’ I thought that was a classy gesture. . . . And when I think of that [1952] World Series, his gesture is what comes to mind. Here was a player who had, without a doubt, suffered more abuse and more taunts and more hatred than any player in the history of the game. And he had made a special effort to compliment and encourage a young white kid from Oklahoma.” — Mickey Mantle

▪️19) “Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.” — Jackie Robinson

▪️20) “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.” — Jackie Robinson

▪️21) “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.” — Jackie Robinson

▪️22) “The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has is his personal dignity.” — Jackie Robinson

▪️23) “The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.” — Jackie Robinson

▪️24) “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” — Jackie Robinson

▪️25) “When things look dark, void, and altogether hopeless to the colored youth of America; when they need an inspiring thought that should urge them onward to the road of achievement despite forbidding obstacles, they will only need to read of and reflect upon the remarkable career of Jackie Robinson.” — Kansas City Call

📖 Sources: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ + https://everydaypowerblog.com/jackie-robinson-quotes/ + https://en.wikiquote.org/ + https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
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