rachel robinson continues to tell the jackie robinson story



one of the perks of this year's topps flagship release has been the jackie robinson story inserts at target.  my favorite is the 'call to the hall' card seen below



it shows jackie along with branch rickey (and his cigar) and jackie's wife, rachel, while celebrating his election to the baseball hall of fame in 1962 as he became the first african american so enshrined.

there are other interesting cards in the set (i still need four of them), such as this one showing him playing basketball at ucla

jackie was actually a four-sport star at ucla - baseball, basketball, track, and football. 

following college, jackie enrolled in the military

but was given an honorable discharge from the army following an incident in which he did not move to the back of a bus.

from there, it was on to the negro leagues, where jackie played for the kansas city monarchs

after just one year in kansas city, jackie was signed by the dodgers and assigned to their minor league affiliate in montreal for the 1946 season.  he eventually broke the color barrier in major league baseball and led the dodgers to a world series title in 1955

yogi still thinks jackie was out, by the way.

the last card in the set commemorates the retirement of jackie's number 42 across major league baseball

which is a fantastic legacy.

 

speaking of which, seeing the hall of fame card reminded me of the work that rachel robinson does to this day to honor her late husband's legacy, and so i sent a double of the card along with a donation to the jackie robinson foundation.  ms. robinson was kind enough to sign the card in silver sharpie and return it to me

along with a nice form letter outlining the purpose and work of the foundation.

at first, i was confused, because this is what i saw when i opened my return envelope

yes, she signed the card holder, too

i have heard of that happening with some ttm signers, but i am glad that the card was signed as well, as that is apparently not always the case when the holder gets signed.

here are a couple more jackie cards from 2015 topps just for fun - his archetypes insert

and the gallery of greats insert

i'm guessing that those two photos also show up on two of the jackie robinson story inserts that i am missing.

thank you, rachel robinson, for signing my card.  i am proud to support the jrf and your work in honoring jackie's career and life by helping others.