What I Learned From Jackie Robinson: A Teammate's Reflections On and Off the Field [Hardcover]

Carl Erskine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005

AN INTIMATE LOOK AT JACKIE ROBINSON'S FIGHT FOR EQUALITY, FROM FORMER TEAMMATE AND LONGTIME FRIEND CARL ERSKINE

"Jackie needed to quell his anger the first couple of years, a task which only someone of this inner strength and vision could have coped with at that moment. When I reflect and wonder what it must have been like for a man who should have been at the happiest of moments in his life, to still have to deal with racial indignities on a daily basis, it is mind-boggling. Most mortal men would have cracked."--Carl Erskine, from the book

Jackie Robinson changed the game of baseball forever when he paved the way for equality in sports. In What I Learned from Jackie Robinson, former teammate and friend Carl Erskine shares his memories of Jackie's crusade in a loving social memoir.

Written with New York Times bestselling coauthor Burton Rocks and filled with personal photos, this moving portrait of friendship takes readers for the first time inside the locker room, inside the soul of Jackie, and inside the hearts of his friends, teammates, and oppressors. As a former Dodger, with access to the important people from Jackie's life, Erskine talks with Robinson's widow and also shares memories about:

Yogi Berra

Whitey Ford

Sandy Koufax

Stan Musial

Pee Wee Reese

Roy Campanella

Don Drysdale

Billy Martin

and many other players, coaches, sportswriters, and entertainers who remembered Jackie on and off the field. A retrospective on a man who fought for his cause until death, this memoir is a testament to the man and the game that brought the world together when it was falling apart.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Focused, determined and devoted to his ideals, Jackie Robinson impressed teammates and opponents alike. Now, one of those admirers, ex-Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Erskine, has penned a memoir describing some of the lessons he learned from his trailblazing former teammate. Erskine and Robinson, integral parts of the last and greatest era of Brooklyn baseball, were fast friends. Robinson taught "Oisk" a lot about competition, dignity and the terrible costs of discrimination. Unfortunately, while Erskine's book is a pleasant enough read, it offers little that's new. Part of the problem is that Erskine joined the Dodgers in 1948, more than year after Robinson broke baseball's color line. As a result, Erskine can do little more than repeat secondhand some of the well-worn anecdotes about Robinson and the courage he displayed during his rookie season. Even when detailing incidents he witnessed, Erskine treads old ground. Only in the last third of the book-in which he describes his own bittersweet return to Brooklyn with his family in 2000, Robinson's determination to continue his crusades despite failing health and Robinson's regrets about his troubled son-does the book acquire gravity. In a sense, the title is misleading; Erskine's genuine admiration for Robinson permeates the book, but this volume is very much about the Dodgers, the team's David-and-Goliath struggle with the mighty Yankees and their wrenching departure for Los Angeles after the 1957 season. Other books have covered this territory more revealingly and poignantly, especially the classic Boys of Summer. Still, just as we might enjoy listening to a grandparent tell the same old stories, it's nice to hear Erskine talk about the old days one more time.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Volumes have been written exalting Jackie Robinson's dignity, intelligence, and perseverance and discussing his impact on baseball and society. This account by one of Robinson's teammates offers a very personal perspective from an ordinary guy who shared a dugout bench with the man who made history. Robinson, according to Erskine, was all about winning. Losing would have made integration that much tougher. For Erskine, earning a World Series paycheck meant not having to work in the off-season. Erskine admired Robinson and honors him appropriately, but that has been done many times. This memoir's real draw comes from its insider's view of an era when ballplayers shared apartments to save a buck or took the subway to the game because the wife had the car. Players were only a half step removed from working-class heroes, and Erskine and coauthor Rocks fit the Robinson anecdotes into that context, showing how the bond that existed between players and fans was able to trump the racial prejudice of the era. A nice addition to the Jackie Robinson bookshelf. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071450858
• ISBN-13: 978-0071450850
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,094,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( R ) > Robinson, Jackie

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book of Sincere Appreciation, February 16, 2005

By 

C. W. Emblom "Bill Emblom" (Ishpeming, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What I Learned From Jackie Robinson: A Teammate's Reflections On and Off the Field (Hardcover)

Carl Erskine has written a book of sincere appreciation of former Brooklyn Dodgers' teammate Jackie Robinson for the role he played in Erskine's life and also in advancing the cause of civil rights in which baseball paved the way for the rest of the country to follow. Part of the book covers the careers both had as teammates on the Dodgers and their almost yearly quest to dethrone the Yankees as World Champions in the World Series. Some of the anecdotes can be found in other books, but there are some stories Erskine relates that I have never heard before. Erskine relates the struggle Robinson faced in gaining acceptance in baseball to his (Erskine's) son Jimmy, a Down syndrome child, faced in gaining acceptance in a prejudiced American society. As Erskine relates, the Boys of Summer are now in their autumn as many of his teammates have passed on. Carl believes that our experiences that take place early in our life are designed to prepare us for what is to come ahead. A black friend he had as a young boy prepared him for the time when Robinson would become his teammate. It's easy to see Erskine's affection towards Robinson. Sometimes what appears to be a small kindness looms large in the one who receives it. Carl Erskine pitched as a minor leaguer against the parent Brooklyn Dodgers' team, and after the game Robinson came over and praised Carl's pitching effort to him. To hear this praise coming from Jackie Robinson meant a lot to him, and was something Erskine always remembered. A chapter I especially enjoyed was Erskine relating a year 2000 trip he and his family made to New York and returned to Brooklyn to see the old neighborhood he used to live in while a member of the Dodgers. The book is only 150 pages long, but whether you are of age to remember the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950's or not this is a book you will find to be of interest to you. I give the book five stars for Carl's efforts to relate his experiences in trying to teach others the importance of accepting others for who they are.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To Become Myself, April 11, 2009

By 

J. H. Minde "Everything I need is right here" (Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: What I Learned From Jackie Robinson: A Teammate's Reflections On and Off the Field (Hardcover)

This is a rare little gem of a book. Carl Erskine ("Oisk") is one of the fabled Brooklyn Dodgers "Boys of Summer" whose Major League career paralleled that of Jackie Robinson, who became a mentor, an inspiration, and not least of all, a friend. WHAT I LEARNED FROM JACKIE ROBINSON is more than a memoir of their playing days together, it is an accidental philosophical reflection, a Zen statement on life.

Oisk was there for the institutional racism that forced Jackie to stay in separate hotels during road stands, he was there for catcalls and insults, and he was there to see Jackie Robinson transmute hatred into respect through the force of his own personality and talent.

"Be prepared. Be ready. Seize the opportunity."

Jackie was never one to pass up an opportunity, whether it was to encourage a young rookie like Oisk or to knock an opposing player's teeth out in a furious slide as repayment for a potentially career-ending spiking. He was a warrior who did not suffer fools gladly: One time, he sent an inebriated black fan packing by screaming at him, "I bet your front yard looks worse than you do! Go home, and CLEAN IT UP!"

Not always popular, Jackie nevertheless was respected throughout baseball for his fortitude and his innate abilities. These were lessons that were put to good use by Carl Erskine when, after his playing days, he fathered Jimmy, his son with Down Syndrome. Having a Special Needs child introduced Erskine first hand to the kind of narrowmindedness, prejudice, foolish preconceptions, and bigotry suffered by Jackie on a moment-by-moment basis. But, having learned from Jackie, he worked with Jimmy to give his son the most complete life he could have, and he battled to break down the iron walls of ignorance built by those that would happily have otherwise consigned his son to an early death as a "Mongoloid Idiot" shut away in some institution.

Moving, profound, and motivating, WHAT I LEARNED FROM JACKIE ROBINSON is truly an essential read.

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth the read, April 5, 2011

By 

Dominic Schiavo (NAPLES, FL, US) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: What I Learned From Jackie Robinson: A Teammate's Reflections On and Off the Field (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book although I would have liked to see more stories about the rest of the Dodger team. I realize the book was primarily about Jackie Robinson but Carl Erskine, having been such an integral part of the 50's Dodger team, could have lent some new insights into the personalities of that memorable group of players.