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Ex-Met remembers his boyhood idol and hero
A: It was like I was still that little 12-year-old kid. I was trembling like a little kid and I was 39 years old! I was nervous, man. . . . But I walked up to him and said, "Mr. Robinson, thank you for what you had to do for us." I just went off."
Q: What was your reaction on Oct. 24, 1972, when you heard that Robinson had died?
A: It was like boom! Like somebody tore my guts out. I cried like a little baby. All that was flashing through my mind was, "Why, God? Why does this man who has endured all that he did, why did he have to go so young?"
And this is no joke, the inspiration for [Charles' poem] "Jackie Robinson - Superstar" came, like somebody was directing me to write right after he died. It just flowed out.
Q: Can you compare Robinson to other athletes of his era?
A: We used to hug the radio when Joe Lewis was fighting. But no athlete at the time made a contribution like Jackie.
He brought the whole country up to another level, the radical part and stuff like. He impacted the way America does business. He started the whole civil rights movement. He was the front-runner before Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and all of them.
Q: Was there a time that Robinson, Branch Rickey and the integration of the game seem forgotten?
A: You are talking about the '60s. At that point in time, they had kind of gotten used to things. There were a lot of blacks in the game. Occasionally you would have a little recognition but not to the point that it is today. All of a sudden it's like baseball discovered that we needed to focus on this man and do the right thing.
Q: Do you recall the time when Robinson actually seemed to fall out of favor with some blacks?
A: In the '60s. I couldn't understand why there was a lot of hostile feelings toward Jackie among blacks coming from the political arena. They didn't like the fact that he was a Republican. I was like, give me a break! But that's a fact.
Q: What do you think Jackie Robinson would say if he saw baseball struggling to get young black men to play the game?
A: He would definitely be disappointed. But then again I think he would understand what's taking place and would bring it to the attention to the parents. A lot of kids aren't playing because they don't have playing fields. Jackie would work toward trying to get blacks back in the game.
Q: What would you say about some young African Americans not even knowing about Robinson and his contributions?
