Preintegration pickup #2 Jackie Robinson

In a post a couple of days ago I shared a picture of a new pickup, a picture of the 1946 Nashua Dodgers featuring Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe. While the Nashua Dodgers had 2 African American players on their roster, the Montreal Royals were of course the Minor League team that Jackie Robinson played for. Both location (Montreal and Nashua, NH) were chosen for their French Canadian populations, a group that has historically not been bigoted.

It is interesting to note that Branch Rickey's motivation was not exclusively altruistic. Rickey believed that if he could lead the charge toward integration he would be able to gain a monopoly on Black players and thereby improve his team. Remember that the Dodgers; "Dem Bums" were notoriously bad and had never won a championship at this point. To support the position that adding Black players would improve the teams, both the Montreal Royals and Nashua Dodgers won the the World Series in their respective leagues in 1946....

Signed items from Minor League teams in that era are of course pretty rare. This item has basically been #1 on my wantlist for months.

Link to Campanella and Newcombe picture:
http://www.freedomcardboard.com/forum/showthread.php/151948-Preintegration-pickup

Amazing item. Thank you so much for sharing.

Another nice unique piece. Nice job.

Ryan

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Really enjoyed seeing this. Congratulations on the acquisition.


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Yes, lovely collecting focus and great pieces

cbrandtw said:

Amazing item. Thank you so much for sharing.

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RStadlerASU22 said:

Another nice unique piece. Nice job.

Ryan

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deaconblues63 said:

Really enjoyed seeing this. Congratulations on the acquisition.

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Lancemountain said:

Yes, lovely collecting focus and great pieces

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Thanks guys!

I know that it does not fit in with what most people collect here (namely cards) but I've been here a long time and so excited to share it with you guys.

I've found that focusing on items like this really has me more excited and I've been reading tons of baseball books that the items have lead me to.

Amazing! Even my non baseball loving wife liked. Thanks BTW, Now I hear y don't u collect meaningful stuff

AnthonyCorona said:

Amazing! Even my non baseball loving wife liked. Thanks BTW, Now I hear y don't u collect meaningful stuff 

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The items that I've taken to pursuing usually walk a line between baseball history and US (or world) history and I definitely love when people who are not baseball people see the significance, so thanks for sharing that.

I didn't even know something like that still existed, let alone in such good condition! Thanks for sharing and for the brief history lesson. Really like both!

kryslarry said:

I didn't even know something like that still existed, let alone in such good condition! Thanks for sharing and for the brief history lesson. Really like both!

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Thanks!

It's been a combination of collecting and exploring baseball history, each feeding off the other. Books about the integration informing about possible collectibles. A WWII baseball leading to exploring how baseball was played for the entertainment of the soldiers around the world. Same a baseball about the US Tour of Japan in 1934 which lead to books, to the '31 Tour etc. (if you are not familiar with the '34 Tour and the story of Moe Berg, that's one you want to check out!


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WWWWWWWOW, congrats

what a superb and important piece of human and baseball history. Just like you, I am a fan of the Montreal Royals's past and collect Montreal sports artefacts, I am jalous...lol

holding this piece would make me freak out I can tell you. Here in Montreal, it's a great deal to see items from the Royals's past. Last year, just by mistake, we came accross this collection of archives and one of the box was full of items and some did not seem to match or we could not figure what they ment. It took several months to find out that all pieces where Montreal and sports related items. Some dated as far back as 1884, being the oldest autograph of a player in a championship match to score points...Huntly Drommund Redpath from the Montreal football club vs the Toronto Argos in the 1884 Dominion Championship cup

we really had to take piece by piece and carefully digg cause all had important meaning for Montreal' sport evolution

You hold a very important piece and since you seem to have a lot of passion for it, it's nice that you be the one to hold on to it, again, congrats on the find...

Wow! Absolutely awesome!

Bibitte2 said:

WWWWWWWOW, congrats

what a superb and important piece of human and baseball history. Just like you, I am a fan of the Montreal Royals's past and collect Montreal sports artefacts, I am jalous...lol

holding this piece would make me freak out I can tell you. Here in Montreal, it's a great deal to see items from the Royals's past. Last year, just by mistake, we came accross this collection of archives and one of the box was full of items and some did not seem to match or we could not figure what they ment. It took several months to find out that all pieces where Montreal and sports related items. Some dated as far back as 1884, being the oldest autograph of a player in a championship match to score points...Huntly Drommund Redpath from the Montreal football club vs the Toronto Argos in the 1884 Dominion Championship cup

we really had to take piece by piece and carefully digg cause all had important meaning for Montreal' sport evolution

You hold a very important piece and since you seem to have a lot of passion for it, it's nice that you be the one to hold on to it, again, congrats on the find...

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Hey, thanks for the comment! I am definitely very excited about the ball. That book you have is a beautiful piece in its own right! Who is the signature under Jackie?

homerun28aa said:

Wow! Absolutely awesome!

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Thanks!

Incredible piece of baseball memorabilia and American historical importance.
Your collection is amazing.

Man, there have been some awesome baseball historical threads on this board the past few days.

Austin said:

Incredible piece of baseball memorabilia and American historical importance.
Your collection is amazing.

Man, there have been some awesome baseball historical threads on this board the past few days.

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I'm a big fan of modern stuff as well so I definitely am not looking to bash it but if we can get a push to expand backwards to appreciate the older stuff and the players who were paramount in helping the game come what it is today, I'd say that that's a good thing!