An Analysis of Jules Tygiel's Baseball's Great Experiment

Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and his Legacy

Jules Tygiel’s Baseball’s Great Experiment details the history and aftereffects of Jackie Robinson’s reintegration of the sport. Tygiel was a prominent baseball historian who taught at San Francisco State University. The author’s research and passion for baseball and race relations can be shown through his writing – every page is detailed and filled with information about everything relating to the reintegration of baseball. The book, whose extended title bears Jackie Robinson’s name, does not focus on Robinson – Tygiel shows readers that Robinson was one piece in a carefully orchestrated experiment. This lack of focus on the player that reintegrated the sport accompanied by Tygiel’s account of the complexities of that experiment proved to be a fascinating and eye-opening read.

The most notable thing about Baseball’s Great Experiment after reading may be the amount of content that does not focus on Robinson. While the book opens with Robinson’s first game in organized baseball, the author quickly turns to the history of baseball in America. This background provides a context for Robinson’s story and provides an excellent starting point for the complexities of the topic. Tygiel discusses the attitudes of the nation under Jim Crow and its effects on the sport, noting that by the 1930s “four fifths of the National League players and managers had no objections to integration” (33). In addition, other sports had already integrated – Joe Louis was the world heavyweight champion and Jesse Owens was a symbol of American hope at the Berlin Olympics. Tygiel continues to discuss the history of the integrated sport, discussing the Negro leagues and the necessity of barnstorming.

Branch Rickey seems to be the hero of the book, being the man who orchestrated Robinson’s debut in organized professional baseball. Tygiel goes into immense detail chronicling the plans to break the color line and subsequent managerial strategies to strengthen Robinson’s career. Rickey’s difficulty in finding the perfect athlete seemed odd to me at first, but certainly made sense as other black players found less success following the integration. Rickey scouted the Negro leagues for the ideal candidate. The player had to be young and in his prime, so older stars like Leroy Satchel Paige were ruled out. Rickey wanted a college-educated athlete, preferably someone who served in the military. Most importantly, the player needed to be levelheaded and nonaggressive, able to withstand the resistance and cruelty of others. While Robinson was far from the best athlete in the Negro leagues and baseball was his worst sport after football, track, and basketball, Robinson’s education and ability to speak respectfully and clearly made him Rickey’s ideal candidate.

The complexities of the integration proved to be the most fascinating part of Tygiel’s book. The hesitation from both whites and blacks to integrate the sport showed a different aspect of race relations, and that hesitation is justified given the destruction of Negro leagues following Robinson’s move to the majors. While the integration of baseball appears to be a great thing for black America at the time, economic implications complicated the matter. Little to no respect was given to the contracts between players and their Negro league teams, allowing managers of white sports to easily come in and sign the best players for lower rates – Effa Manley’s Newark Eagles were offered $10,000 for Larry Doby’s contract, and “appallingly low figure” (213). The integration also drew black crowds away from Negro league games and into professional games, so the black teams were making less money, making it impossible to continue to rent the ballparks for their teams to play. While the integration was great for race relations on a broad scale, it forced a large section of the industry to go under and unemployed black athletes and managers who could not make it to the major leagues.

Also notable is the distrust of Rickey’s reasoning for integrating his team. On the surface, it appears to be a noble cause, but others theorize less noble reasons. Tygiel briefly mentions the possibility of the experiment being a marketing ploy, designed simply to grow the manager’s wealth and name. Others believed that Rickey wanted Robinson to fail, which would set back integration inevitably. While the real reason of integrating the sport cannot be known, ill intentions do not seem to be responsible.

Tygiel also discusses the difficulties of continuing this integration. According to many, black ballplayers may have been as talented as white ballplayers in specific positions but often lacked the versatility required in the white professional leagues. This began to show as more teams attempted to recreate the Jackie Robinson success. Bill Veeck of the Cleveland Indians found difficulties when signing Larry Doby. Doby, who mirrored Robinson in background but not personality, proved to be less of a success. His rookie season was not successful, showing that the integration experiment would be much harder to completely execute. However unsuccessful athletes immediately following Robinson’s lead proved to be, the door was opening for black players. Leroy Satchel Paige got his chance to play for the Cleveland Indians, and leagues slowly but surely began integrating other leagues in professional baseball.

Tygiel’s book chronicles Jackie Robinson’s legacy without focusing on Robinson entirely. In doing so, he creates a more complete and complex look at baseball’s reintegration, carefully regarding the legacy of the player’s pioneering in contrast to the sport’s history.