Stephen Satlow is an eight-year-old boy living in Brooklyn, New York, which means he cares about only one thing: the Dodgers. Steve and his father spend hours reading the sports pages and listening to games on the radio. Aside from an occasional run-in with his teacher, Steve’s life is pretty simple.
But then Steve hears a rumor that an African American family is moving to his all-Jewish neighborhood. It’s 1948, and some of his neighbors are against it. Steve knows this is wrong. His hero, Jackie Robinson, broke the color barrier in baseball the year before.
Then it happens—Steve’s new neighbor is none other than Jackie Robinson! Steve is thrilled to live two doors down from the Robinson family. He can’t wait to meet Jackie. This is going to be the best baseball season yet! How many kids ever get to become friends with their hero?
This will probably be one of the few sport-centered books I review on this blog. I’m just not into sports. I only read this book because I thought it was an interesting story. It wasn’t until I brought the book home that I realized it was based on a true story. I felt dumb because it said so right on the book cover at the bottom. In my defense, the print is pretty tiny.
I liked baseball as a kid. I didn’t want to watch it on TV, but I enjoyed playing in my front yard and at the park. I usually just played with my dad, and he would throw me the ball, and I would hit it and run the bases while my dad chased me with the ball. My parent signed me up to play baseball with a team for some reason. It was boring. I don’t mean to insult baseball players and/or people who love baseball, but it’s boring waiting to be brought out to bat and standing out in the field. I played one time and never went back. My parents were happy because they were bored too.
Let’s talk about a serious topic: prejudice and discrimination. I’ve never understood how someone can hate another person based on the color of their skin or where they come from. Maybe that’s just because I was born in this time period and how I was raised. Sometimes I wonder what my opinion would be if I had been born in another time.
If you want to learn more about Jackie Robinson, check out Brad Meltzer’s book I Am Jackie Robinson.
On an ending note, here’s a Baby Blues comic featuring the ‘joys’ of baseball:
This week’s Weird but True Fact about Baseball
A study found that a 3-hour baseball game involves an average of just 18 minutes of actual play time.