After 10 years with the Brooklyn Dodgers, including the heroic MLB segregation-busting season of 1947, Jackie Robinson was traded in December of 1956 to the New York Giants for pitcher Dick Littlefield and $30,000.
You may have heard or read somewhere over the years that Robinson, ever the fierce competitor and ultra-loyal to the Dodgers, retired rather than play for the archrival Giants.
It’s a nice story. But it’s myth.
Robinson never played for the Giants, and he did retire. But he did so because he would be 38 when the 1957 started, and injuries and other health issues had begun to take their toll. Although still effective and occasionally brilliant, his final two seasons with the Dodgers were nothing compared to the eight brilliant preceding seasons.
With class, pride and dignity, Robinson told Giants owner Horace Stoneham that he just didn’t have what it took — mentally or physically — to play at his accustomed level.
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