Who Started the Fire?

The 20th century was a time of immense change. Many factors lead to social and political changes around the world. Perhaps the country that experienced the most change in the 1900s was the Unites States. Assassinations, rights movements, terrorism, and political scandals altered the path of the free world and changed a stable country into an unpredictable land. 

In his 1989 hit “We didn’t start the fire”, Billy Joel explains that despite the radical change of the 20th century, it is no different than any other time period in history. In the song, Joel lists off key events and prolific people which altered humanity from 1949-1989. Joel also tries to explain that his generation actually worked to make progress on the failure’s of the previous generations. 

Ok so now that you have some background knowledge, it’s time to get into the project. For this assignment, we all picked a single lyric from the song “We didn’t start the fire”. We needed to research the lyric and it’s significance, and then use it to answer an inquiry question. 

At first I wanted to research the lyric “punk rock begins”, but as it was already taken I decided upon “Brooklyn’s got a winning team”. This lyric refers to the Brooklyn Dodgers, a baseball team who had seen little success throughout the early 20th century but still had a massive fan base. The team finally won the World Series in 1955 which inspired the lyric in the iconic Billy Joel song. 

Some people would argue that the success of a sports team is not important and shouldn’t be placed in a song about influential events, which gets me to my inquiry question: How was the Brooklyn Dodgers’ growing success in the 1940’s and 50’s significant to societal change?

Although the Dodgers won as a team, their impact on society revolves around one man: Jackie Robinson. In the 1930’s and 40’s African-American athletes were not allowed to play Major League Baseball. Instead, they were forced to play in the “Negro Leagues”, a league specifically designed for black athletes. Players in this league earned next to nothing and were the victims of horrific racial abuse. 

In the early 1940’s, Brooklyn Dodgers manager Branch Rickey looked to change all that when he drafted Robinson and placed him in Brooklyn’s farm system (a minor league team whose players are technically owned by the Dodgers). However, this proved to be troublesome for Rickey. Brooklyn’s Spring Training field in Jacksonville, Florida refused to let an African-American athlete onto the field. However Rickey, who was a devout member of the Methodist Church and advocated strongly for social justice, didn’t give up so easily. Instead of continuing to play in Jacksonville, Rickey tried to move the games to Sanford, however their stadium refused as well. Rickey finally found a stadium in Daytona Beach which would house the team’s Spring Training games. All this solely because Rickey believed in Jackie Robinson. Many people would have overlooked Robinson simply due to the colour of his skin, but Rickey ignored that and saw the standout athlete, and more importantly, standout person, that Jackie Robinson was. 

Robinson endured much abuse while playing in the minor leagues. He constantly had boos and catcalls directed in his direction, and fans sometimes threw things at him. However the fans weren’t the only ones who were critical of Robinson. Some of Robinson’s own teammates refused to take the field if Robinson was on the team. Opposing pitchers tried to hit him in the head and runners tried to spike him with their cleats. He received death threats in the mail and restaurants and hotels refused to give him service.  Despite the abuse, Robinson was extremely level-headed. He never retaliated and kept on playing with the team. His strength of character and will was amazing and is a testament to his determination. The fact that he could keep playing when other players were trying to injure him and fans were saying he should be murdered shows his courageousness and passion. He knew he had a message to prove and he would not rest until he had shown people that the colour of his skin did not determine his worth. Jackie Robinson was truly one of the most brave people the world has ever seen. 

On one iconic night in 1947, Robinson finally got his chance, as he was called up to the big leagues. Robinson was met with boos and jeers, yet he didn’t let it dissuade him. He ended up having a great season with the Dodgers and won the Rookie of the Year award (which is now named after him). Robinson breaking the colour barrier was a momentous event for people around the United States and changes the course of sports forever. 

Now the Dodgers were known as one of the most unlucky teams in sports. They made it to the World Series 5 times in the next 6 years yet fell short to the New York Yankees in each one. One of the catchphrases that followed the team was “there’s always next year”. 

Some fans argued that the Dodgers’ bad luck and lack of success stemmed from Robinson’s presence on the team, but manager Rickey laughed off these claims. Infamously in 1952, the Dodgers were a whopping 14 games above the Giants who were in second place, when a fan released a black cat onto the field as a jaw towards Robinson. From that point on the Dodgers went into a downward spiral eventually losing the pennant to the Giants. So you get the idea, the Dodgers were extremely unlucky. 

Yet the hapless Dodgers, like Robinson, never gave up.  Despite their core players getting older and slower, they came out firing every year, and the fans loved them for it. In 1955, the Dodgers finally achieved their ultimate goal, defeating the Yankees to win the team’s first ever World Series. It was a unifying moment that was enjoyed by Dodgers’ fans of all races and walks of life. Famously, Dodgers’ infielder Pee Wee Reese hugged Jackie Robinson, a moment which seemed to symbolize the unity of the team’s success. 

This was not just a victory for the Dodgers, but a victory for African-Americans throughout the country. The only team with a black player had just won the World Series. Robinson was no longer booed, but received ovations every time he stepped up to bat. 

Robinson did not just break the colour barrier of baseball. While he was in college he had a brief stint in the militaries. One day he was asked to sit in the back of a military bus, but he refused. Robinson was put in trial but was later honourably discharged. Shortly thereafter, the army was integrated, and Robinson played a large part in that. 

So how did the Jackie Robinson and the Dodger’s success change society. It showed people around the world that in the face of horrible prejudice and discrimination, people can still fight and change the world. The Dodgers unified fans and brought together different types of people people all rooting for a common cause. Robinson and Rickey integrated the Major Leagues and Robinson helped integrate the army. 

It was moments like these that aided in the success of the civil rights movements and Robinson was one of the pioneers of this movement. Through his charisma and determination, he showed that racial prejudice may be a setback, but it is not insurmountable. Jackie Robinson proved the racists wrong, and for that America owes him one. 

This is a photo album/timeline that I made illustrating the Dodgers’ and Robinson’s effect on the world:

Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Brooklyn_Dodgers

https://www.biography.com/people/jackie-robinson-9460813

https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/robinson-jackie

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bb9e2490