Jackie Robinson

April 15th, 1947 was a date to remember.  Jackie Robinson became the first African-American baseball player to play in Major League Baseball since the game was segregated in the 1890s. Robinson broke the baseball color barrier when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him in 1947 on 2nd base.

The movie "42" is the story of Jackie Robinson.  Robinson contributed to the civil right's movement and paved the way for African-Americans to be accepted into professional sports.  He went on to have a great ten year career in Major League Baseball and was later inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame.  Due to his time in the military and segration, Robinson did not play MLB until he was 28 years old.  He missed some of the prime years of his career.

In this activity we consider how many hits and homeruns Jackie might have had if he had begun his MLB career at the age of 20.  We also take a look at the value of his first baseball card and speculate how much the card will be worth in the future.  See the activity, CCSS correlation and the trailer for "42" below.

For Adventurer members we have an editable doc, an excel chart, and solutions.

Thanks to Brad Heintz from Tippecanoe Valley Middle School, Akron, Indiana, for the idea of this post.