Jackie

My name is Jackie and I was born on November 23, 1930. My brother was ten years old when I was born. He has played baseball since he was five years old. Once I was old enough to go outside and do things on my own, he would go outside and play with me. We both loved to be outside. He wasn't easy on me by any means but he know not to know me. He has always wanted me to play baseball just like him, and so did my parents. I always want to make my parents and brother happy so I tried it. I never seemed to get the topic of the game or get the skills down that I needed to know so I could play the game.
  I wanted to just give up because I couldn't play. Mamma and Daddy kept pushing me because they wanted another great baseball player just like my brother. So I decided to just keep trying to make my family happy.
Once I finally got the hang of playing I loved it. It was one of those sports that you had to get the hang of it before you really liked it, in my opinion. It took everyday practice to get to where my brother was but I pushed myself to get to that point. Once I figured out how to play and the rules i started playing. Ever since the day I had started playing baseball. even in the pros league.
One morning I got up and started my day like normal and the phone rang. It was the New York Yankees baseball coach. He asked if I was interested in coming to play major league baseball with them. I told him that I was a dark skin person. He said “ If you are still interested we would like for you to come up this weekend to have a practice with us”. When i told Mamma, Daddy and my brother, they all got excited for me and told me I should do it. I had second guessed myself because I didn't want to be away from them all the time. They talked me into going because they knew that this has been my dream ever since I started playing. This was also there dream come true because they have always wanted me to play. So I went and tried out that weekend and they said they would give me a call to let me know more details.
I went and tried out but the owner of the Yankees didn't like black people. He said the reason was because blacks and whites didn't play good together because it causes problems on the team. They rejected me because of my race, so I went home to reveal the news. A couple days later they called me back and they said they had changed their mind about not letting me play. I didn't really want to play anymore because they had rejected me in the first place. But once again mamma and daddy wanted me to go back and play. They said the reason they had changed their mind was because he was so good.
Once I was on the team and played a couple of games, he said he was being picked on. He told his parents that he was tired of being picked on. His parents told him to just tell the coach that it was happening and he would take care of it, so he did. Coach Lakewood would didn't do anything about it. I gave it a couple of weeks to see if it would get any better. After the couple of weeks it never got any better. So I confronted Coach Lakewood again. He knew that I was getting picked on but he didn't really care. So I told my family that I was going to be done with baseball from now on. I told them that I figured that if this team was like this than more than likely every team would be like this because I was the first African- American to ever play baseball. I had wished to play baseball for awhile, but I just couldn't take the pressure of being picked on.
I told coach Lakewood that I was done playing and he began to question me on why I was quitting. I told him it was because I have been getting picked on. I also told him a reason was because i had confronted him about it twice but he never did anything about it. The reason I was getting picked on was because of my race, and whites and blacks didn't get along very well.
That year was very depressing, but with the help of family and friends I pulled through it. My family was upset but they also wanted what was best for me. I loved playing baseball but I couldn't live with that happening to me. It wasn't so bad because I got to spend more time with my family and got to know them better.