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On this day in New York · April 15, 1947

Jackie Robinson Takes the Field at Ebbets

A 28-year-old rookie trotted out to first base in Brooklyn, and baseball's unwritten color line, unbroken since 1884, was gone before the ninth inning.

Jackie Robinson Takes the Field at Ebbets
Wikimedia Commons / Jackie Robinson

The facts

Date
April 15, 1947
Final score
Dodgers 5, Braves 3
Attendance
26,623, more than 14,000 of them Black
Starting pitchers
Joe Hatten for Brooklyn, Johnny Sain for Boston

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, becoming the first Black player in the major leagues since the 1880s. He went hitless against Boston Braves starter Johnny Sain, but a sacrifice bunt drew a throwing error, he came around to score, and the Dodgers beat the Braves 5 to 3. More than 14,000 of the 26,623 fans in the stands that day were Black, there to see a barrier fall in person. Robinson had signed with Brooklyn's organization the year before at Branch Rickey's urging, and by his own account the nerves of that first at bat didn't last past the opening play.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. I was nervous in the first play of my first game at Ebbets Field, but nothing has bothered me since.

    Jackie Robinson, quoted in the New York Times, April 16, 1947

    Source: Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)

  2. the single most important impact of Jack's presence was that it enabled white baseball fans to root for a black man

    Rachel Robinson

    Source: Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)

Why it still matters

That single game ended organized baseball's unwritten ban on Black players, a line that had held since 1884, and turned integration into something New Yorkers could watch happen inning by inning at their own ballpark.

Sources

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