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Jackie Robinson breaks barriers on Web
July 10, 1997
Web posted at: 5:51 p.m. EDT (2151 GMT)From CNN Interactive Writer Wayne Drash
"If there is an unfilled obligation in the case of baseball vs. Jackie Robinson, the debt belongs to baseball, which can never pay off in full." -- Harold Weissman, sports writer(CNN) -- He moved around the basepads as graceful as a bank of fog. He stole home 19 times. But so too when Jackie Robinson rounded the bases, he endured jarring, racist taunts from fans and ballplayers alike. Brooklyn Dodgers teammate Dixie Walker refused to look at cameras in team pictures, a show of protest for playing alongside the first black player in Major League history.
"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.
— Jackie Robinson
Robinson pressed on and forever changed sports and America's notions about race. And with the 50th anniversary of integrated Major League baseball upon us, the World Wide Web provides a storm of Robinson tributes, facts, articles and videos.
Was Robinson out or safe when he slid home during the 1955 World Series? What became of Robinson after his baseball career? What ever happened to the neighborhood around Ebbets Field, the Dodgers' old home in Brooklyn?
The answers are all just a click away.
Los Angeles Dodgers have created a special page dedicated to No. 42. The site is expansive, informative and easy to navigate. It includes rare Robinson video clips, stats, articles, a timeline biography, among other items. The video footage is well worth the trip.
Find a host of information about the Dodgers star at The Jackie Robinson Society, a non-profit student organization at the University of Texas. The site offers an image gallery, special interviews with sports figures, a calendar of events, and much more. Of particular interest: the page links to an article that revisits an Ebbets Field neighborhood in decline.
Peruse detailed Robinson stats, such as his batting average per team he faced and his attempts stealing home on the Brooklyn Dodgers page. Though the site is widely commercial, it contains useful and interesting background information on Robinson. 
A site called This Was Negro League Baseball provides information about Robinson and other stars of the black league, as well as invaluable league history data and photographs. Did you know Robinson and Negro League legend Satchel Paige played on the same team in Kansas City in 1945?
One of the most detailed biographies on the Web about Robinson comes from Afro-Americ@.
Stealing Home, a site designed by Vince Vaughan to pay "tribute to maybe the greatest person whoever put on a baseball uniform," points users to articles about the 50th anniversary and provides links to other sites. Try your hand at Robinson trivia by taking Vaughan's interactive quiz.
Lastly, be sure to visit Major League Baseball's special tribute to Robinson, a graphically pleasing and informative site.
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