Jackie Robinson

Weird Glitch on Moviefone

A friend and I wanted to catch up with 42, the well received Jackie Robinson movie I'd missed the screening of. I called Moviefone and entered the first three letters of the movie title: F-O-R. But 42 didn't come up. What did pop up was a head-spinningly bizarre assortment of films, which surely c ... More >>

Jason Collins is Warmly Accepted by the NBA; Time for Other Pro Sports Commissioners to Step Up

Well, it happened even faster than we expected. This, from the upcoming cover story in Sports Illustrated, a personal essay by NBA center Jason Collins: "I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay." See more: The Jackie Robinson of Gay Rights" "I didn't set out to be the first openly gay ... More >>

The Jackie Robinson of Gay Rights

In one of the more light-hearted moments in 42, a nearly-naked Ralph Branca (played by Hamish Linklater) confronts an equally near-naked Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) on the question on why he doesn't shower with the rest of the team. After a minute or so of hemming and hawing, Branca blurts ou ... More >>

How to Spot Hollywood's Nonthreatening Black Man (NTBM)

What the Manager Who Verbally Abused Jackie Robinson Has to Do With Valdimir Nabokov

If you've seen 42, no doubt one of the more memorable scenes is when Philadelphia Phillies manager Ben Chapman heaps verbal slurs on Jackie Robinson in a 1947 game. The incident actually happened, and it shortened Chapman's career even though the two posed for photographers shortly afterwards to sh ... More >>

Bathed in Amber Light, 42 Sugars Over the Greatest Generation's Dark Side

"Are You Prejudiced?" Asked Faith 'n Stuff Magazine in 1994. Take the Quiz and See!

Your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from thrift stores, estate sales, and flea markets. Faith 'n Stuff: The Magazine for Kids Date: September/October 1994 Publisher: Guideposts The Cover Promises: The Protestant youth of America, photographed at the ... More >>

Marvin Miller: One Of The Most Important Men In Sports

Marvin Miller, who died early yesterday of cancer at age 95, was more than what Red Barber once called him: "along with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson, one of the three most important men in baseball history." He was, for almost four decades, one of the most important men in all of sports He was th ... More >>

Lew Zuchman, a Freedom Rider 50 Years Ago, Recalls Historic Journey

Lew Zuchman: a mug shot for freedomFifty years ago this month, black and white Freedom Riders set out on buses for the South to challenge local segregation laws, particularly in bus terminals' restaurants and waiting rooms. Their 1961 journey became a turning point in the civil rights movement when ... More >>

Derek Jeter The Best NY Athlete of All Time? Really?

​In 1975, a survey representing America's biggest rock and roll stations asked several thousand listeners to name the greatest rock and roll record of all time. The Beatles, you might guess? Stones? Beach Boys? Stevie Wonder? Maybe Elvis? Or The Supremes? None of the above. According to those ... More >>

Bob Feller, the Greatest Pitcher Ever?

​Robert William Andrew Feller, who died yesterday of leukemia at the age of 92, was the greatest pitcher in baseball history. Well, he might have been. If not, he was damn close, and, if not, he would have been with a break or two. Feller made his major league debut in 1936 when he was 17, f ... More >>

Best Of NYC: How a Chock Full o' Nuts Opening Means the City's Back

Cult in California Found Not Dead, Media Sighs

​Everyone that works in 24-hour cable news got really excited temporarily when the Los Angeles Times reported that a "cult-like" group could not be found, but left behind letters that "essentially state that they [the missing persons] are all going to heaven shortly to meet Jesus and their dec ... More >>

George Steinbrenner, 1930-2010

​"What does it matter what you say about someone?" Marlene Dietrich says about Orson Welles at the end of Touch Of Evil. What, indeed? Except that now, at the end, we should say a few things about George Steinbrenner that even out the other things we remember all too well: the ridiculous outbu ... More >>

Willie Mays Needs a Tiebreaker From These Clowns?

​Anyone out there feel as cheated by the final regular position episode of The Lineup as I did? The segment on center fielders was really the only one worth doing; the winners at the other positions -- Yogi Berra at catcher, Lou Gehrig at first, Jackie Robinson at second, Derek Jeter at short, ... More >>

Dave Winfield? 'The Lineup' Goes Off the Tracks

​After gimmes at catcher (Yogi Berra), first base (Lou Gehrig), second base (Jackie Robinson), third base (Alex Rodriguez) and shortstop (Derek Jeter), MSG's The Lineup lost all credibility last night when they picked Dave Winfield as New York baseball's all-time best left fielder. First of ... More >>

Graig Nettles over A-Rod?: Finally, Some Heat on The Lineup

​At last some heat during the latest installment of MSG's The Lineup. In Episode 4, Sparky Lyle and Gary Carter -- muddleheads both -- went against the majority (Elias Bureau Steve Hirdt, Will Leitch, and host Fran Healy) by choosing Graig Nettles over Alex Rodriguez as New York's all time bes ... More >>

Will Leitch Unspectacular on Television

​MSG Network continues to waste our time with "The Lineup." So far, there haven't been any picks by the five-man panel (Sparkly Lyle, Gary Carter, Will Leitch, and Steve Hirdt along with host Fran Healy) that couldn't have been phoned in: Yogi Berra as the best catcher in New York baseball hi ... More >>

12-year-old Luis Martinez of Brooklyn found stabbed on Queens Parkway

Police are are questioning two teenaged suspects in the Saturday night stabbing of 12-year-old Luis Martinez of Brooklyn. Initial reports suggested that Martinez, who was found bleeding from multiple wounds on the Jackie Robinson Parkway, was thrown from a car, but police are now saying that he walk ... More >>

Jockbeat: How Important Was Don Fehr to Baseball?

The late great Dodgers and Yankees announcer Red Barber once called Major League Baseball Players Association founder Marvin Miller "one of the three most important men in baseball history, right up there with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson." (Branch Rickey, who brought Robinson into baseball and cre ... More >>

GRAND SLAM

Where baseball fans go for old-fashioned spirit

Live-Blogging Jimmy Breslin at KGB Radio Hour

Jimmy Breslin just told a woman who offered him a lap dance to "jump out the window -- I want to see her guts flattened." And he meant it. He wasn't happy that he'd been interrupted during a long recitation from his next book, a work-in-progress about Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers exec who hi ... More >>

Citifield To Lose Ugly, $400M Name?

The Wall Street Journal says that Citigroup is looking at forfeiting their naming rights to the new Mets ballpark. Citigroup claims not to be using their TARP funds from the federal government to pay for putting the name "Citifield" on the park -- just as they said the corporate jet they recently ha ... More >>

On Jay-Z's "Brooklyn (Go Hard)"

Daily Flog: Equal rites

Letters

Debunkers Strike Out

It's a swing and a miss for the attempts to tear down a Jackie Robinson moment immortalized in a Brooklyn statue

Eddie Robinson's Unlikely Pal

Remembering the Grambling legend and his unusual friend

Fading to the right: No cutting edge in Barbershop sequel

Horoscope

The Best Red Sportswriter

Commie Columnist Lester Rodney's Fight for Jackie Robinson

Close-Up on Glendale, Queens

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The Rise of the Latino Slugger

Powerful Arguments Against Old Stereotypes

Interstate Raid

Megabank Moves In on SRO Tenants; Residents Protest at Ebbets Field

What It Feels Like for a Girl

A Woman’s Place

Jane Chastain, Sports Broadcasting Trailblazer

Pigskin Pioneers

Slow Racial Progress and a Cloud of Dust

Forced to Retire

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The Century in Sports

The Eighth Annual Village Voice Sportswriters' Poll

A Century Of UNI Watch

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The People's Game

Letters

Rights and Wrongs

Giant Steps

Breaking The Ice

One-Eyed Willie O'Ree, the man who busted the NHL'S color line

Show Me the Money