“I was just trying to make the world a little bit better. That’s what you are supposed to do with your life, isn’t it?”              Pee Wee Reese

July 23, 1918 – Louisville, Kentucky: Harold Peter Henry “Pee Wee” Reese was born on a muggy summer afternoon. He was so small at 5’6” 120 pounds that he didn’t make his Dupont Manual High School team until his senior year. He played six games at second base. Two years later, he was working for a phone company and playing in a church baseball league when Cap Neal, the owner of the local minor league baseball team, the Louisville Colonels, offered him $200 to sign a contract.

Two years later, to the surprise of almost everyone, Pee Wee made it to the Major Leagues at shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1942, he played his first all-star game and made 10 straight all-star teams. In 1984, Pee Wee Reese was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In January 1919, six months after Pee Wee Reese’s birth, Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia_, to a family of sharecroppers. Although close in age, their worlds were miles apart. When Jackie was six months old his father left home, and Jackie’s mother moved the family to California to be near relatives. A gifted, all-around athlete, Jackie became the first student at UCLA to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, football, basketball, and track.

In 1945, white professional sports were not available to Black athletes. So, after a two-year stint in the Army, Jackie signed to play for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Baseball League. After his first season, he was shocked to get a phone call from Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers manager, offering him a contract.

Rickey believed the time had come to break baseball’s color barrier. He advised Jackie, “There’s virtually nobody on our side – no owners, no umpires, and few newspaper reporters. I’m afraid that some fans may be hostile. Jackie, I chose you not just for your baseball talent but also for your character and ability to handle adversity. I was looking for someone who had guts enough not to fight back when facing racist crowds and players. We’ll be in a tough position, but we can do this.”

On April 14, 1947, at Washington Park in Brooklyn, New York, the opening day of the Major League Baseball season, Jackie made his debut at first base for the Dodgers, making him the first African American to ever play in a big-league game. Breaking in had been more challenging than Jackie anticipated. Several teammates quit during spring training rather than play on the same team. He took the field to the sound of boos and racial catcalls from the hometown crowd. Off the field, Jackie and his wife, Rachel, received death threats.

On May 13, 1947, the Cincinnati Reds hosted the Dodgers at Crosley Field. Early in the game, Jackie made two errors, and the opposing fans were booing and taunting him unmercifully when Pee Wee Reese, the Dodgers’ shortstop and team captain, called timeout.

After glaring for a long moment at the fans, he walked over to Jackie at first base, turned, stood beside him, and put his arm around him. The ballpark grew eerily quiet. Pee Wee shook the young player’s hand and slowly walked back to shortstop. For the rest of the game, fans cheered each time the rookie first baseman came to the plate.

Jackie played 154 games during his rookie season and considered quitting after most of them. However, he realized that the stakes were bigger than he was, so he hung on. At the end of the season, Jackie won the Sporting News Rookie of the Year award in the National League. Two years later, he earned the league’s Most Valuable Player Award. Jackie Robinson led the Dodgers to six World Series appearances before retiring in 1956. He was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

Jackie never forgot that moment in May 1947. “Pee Wee Reese made me feel like I belonged in the big leagues,” he later recalled, “It probably saved my career.” In 1997, on the 50^th anniversary of Jackie’s rookie season, all 28 Major League Baseball teams permanently retired Jackie’s No. 42. He is the only Major League player to receive this honor.

Today, near the site of the old Dodger Stadium in Brooklyn stands a life-size bronze monument that captures the moment when Pee Wee Reese put his arm around his beleaguered teammate. The two Hall of Famers remained lifelong friends.