"The Jackie Robinson Story"

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play in the major leagues.  In recounting that historic event, the Ken Burns PBS documentary series "Baseball" proclaimed that with Robinson's arrival the sport had finally become that which it had always said it was: "The National Pastime."

Sixty-years later on the weekend before April 15 the motion picture "42: The Jackie Robinson Story" premiered in theaters across the nation earning an impressive $27.3 million in profit for the Warner Brothers studios. High praise has been expressed for the performances of Chadwick Boseman as Jackie and Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey, co-owner and general manager of the then-Brooklyn Dodgers who engineered the groundbreaking move. Among the talented supporting cast members are Christopher Meloni (TV's "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit") as Leo Durocher, Max Gail (TV's "Barney Miller") as Dodger manager Burt Shotton, and John C. McGinley (TV's "Scrubs") as broadcaster Red Barber.

Merrick Library has numerous books recounting the life and times of Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers and baseball during those turbulent times. Among them:

Breslin, Jimmy. Branch Rickey.

Eig, Jonathan. Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season.  

Falkner, David. Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson, From Baseball to Birmingham.

Golenbock, Peter. Bums. An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Wait Till Next Year.

McNeil, William F. The Dodgers Encyclopedia.

Prince, Carl E.  Brooklyn's Dodgers: The Bums, The Borough and the Best of Baseball, 1947-1957.

Robinson, Jackie. I Never Had It Made.

Shapiro, Michael. Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself.

Thorn, John. The Glory Days: New York Baseball, 1947-1957.

Tygiel, Jules.  Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy.

Ward, Geoffrey C. Baseball: An Illustrated History.