42

For this next post, I would like to write about a movie that has inspired me.  The movie "42" is about the life story of the first African American man to play professional baseball.  Jackie Robinson was signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers in the year 1946.  Up until this point in time, a black man had never played professional baseball.  There were separate leagues for African Americans and were referred to as "Negro Leagues" at the time.  Whites and Blacks were still segregated at the time and nobody wanted blacks to play professional baseball. That all changed when Branch Rickey signed Jackie.  The film does an outstanding job of portraying Jackie Robinson.  I know this because I play baseball and have studied and learned a lot about the game and specifically Jackie Robinson.  I try to put myself in his shoes and what it would have felt like to be him.  It is scientifically proven that the hardest thing to do in professional sports is to hit a baseball.  You must pick up the release point of the pitcher, what type of pitch he is throwing you, where it will be located when it reaches the plate, and approximately how fast it is coming.  Then, once it gets close enough it is almost a pure guess as to where it will end up because the naked eye can not relay a message to the brain that quickly.  Taking all this in to account and having the N word screamed at you and people telling you they were going to kill you, which he endured, would be nearly impossible to succeed at this sport.  In conclusion, the movie "42" does an amazing job of showing the struggles that Jackie Robinson endured so that baseball could be played by men of all races.