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MAURY ALLEN |
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Erskine and Robinson
were connected by pain
of TheColumnists.com
Jimmy Erskine was the fourth child of Carl and Betty
Erskine. He was born in 1960 after Erskine ended his brilliant
pitching career with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Erskine was a ‘55er, one of the members of Brooklyn’s
only World Series championship team, the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers,
who defeated the Yankees in a seven game series behind the two
wins of Johnny Podres.
Erskine was as well known for the game he never got into as for
his 122-78 record, his two World Series wins in 1952 and 1953
and his two no-hitters. The 1951 game was always remembered because
of The Shot Heard Round the World, the game-winning Bobby Thomson
homer off Ralph Branca and the screaming call of broadcaster
Russ Hodges, “The Giants win the pennant, the Giants win
the pennant, the Giants win the pennant.”
“I was warming up alongside Branca,” recalled Erskine,
“and I just bounced a curve ball. I often did that. Roy
Campanella always told me to ‘bury’ my curve ball.
He would keep it from getting past the plate.”
Bullpen coach Clyde Sukeforth reported that to manager Charlie
Dressen over the phone as the skipper decided on a reliever for
starter Don Newcombe. He chose Branca. The rest is tragic Brooklyn
history.
Erskine has written a book with Burton Rocks entitled, “What
I Learned From Jackie Robinson” (McGraw Hill, $19.95) that
captures these baseball moments and more importantly captures
significant life moments for the former pitcher, baseball coach
and banker from Anderson, Indiana.
Jimmy Erskine was born with Down syndrome. “The word spread
rapidly at St. John’s Hospital in Anderson. ‘The Erskine
baby is Mongoloid’--a harsh and fearful term in the ‘50s.
The doctors suggested that there were many places where Jimmy
could enjoy a nice home and that he would be cared for--but Betty
was having none of that. She had carried this little guy for
nine months and wasn’t about to abandon him,” Erskine
writes.
This was the time in his life where Erskine connected his experiences
as a teammate and friend of Jackie Robinson with the birth of
his son.
“Jackie and Jimmy, because of tradition, superstition, ignorance,
fear and arrogance felt the bitterness of rejection. Society
considered them second class citizens or worse. The whole Robinson
experience which I had lived through as a player, now seemed
to arise in our lives. Jimmy was facing many of the same barriers.
Only now I was coping with this experience as a father,”
Erskine writes.
“Some of those who uttered these terrible words were people
I personally knew quite well. I felt a good dose of the pain
and rejection Jackie told me he used to feel. I’d never
known how fearful people could be about someone who was different.
I used to ask myself, ‘why are all these harsh things being
said about my son?’ Jimmy didn’t do anything to deserve
this.”
When Erskine attended a meeting in town discussing a possible
group home for youngsters like Jimmy, it was opposed by neighbors
describing these children as lunatics, sex maniacs and insane
people. They said they were concerned that property values would
drop.
“We’re talking about a group home here,” Erskine
responded, “not a landfill.”
Jimmy Erskine stayed at home with his family, loved by his parents
and his three siblings, all other family members and friends,
a participant in all Erskine family activities.
The pitcher’s tale is one of those classic sports hero stories.
Erskine was signed as a teenager out of high school by the Dodgers,
never weighed more than 165 pounds, won 20 games in 1953 and
was a Brooklyn favorite called ‘Oisk’ by all fans of
the Dodgers.
His relationship with Robinson was always strong, going back
to the first day they met when Brooklyn played an exhibition
game in the spring of 1948 against Erskine’s Texas League
team.
Erskine had pitched five scoreless innings against the big leaguers
as he fought for attention in the talented Brooklyn farm system.
“I was walking off the field into the dugout and I heard
someone call my name and tap me on the shoulder. It was Jackie.
‘You’re going to be with us real soon’ Those were
unforgettable encouraging words for me,” Erskine said.
In some few months Erskine was called up to the Brooklyn club
and remained a teammate of the historic Dodger figure until Robinson
retired after the 1956 season rather than report to the hated
New York Giants after a trade.
They remained close friends until the end of Robinson’s
life in 1972.
Robinson’s legacy will be honored with a Medal of Freedom
in Washington on March 2, 2005, 58 years after he revolutionized
America by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers as the 20th century’s
first African American big leaguer.
Carl and Betty Erskine will attend the ceremony. Jimmy Erskine
won’t be able to go. He will be too busy to leave his job
at Applebee’s restaurant in Anderson.
One of the managers there told Erskine, “Carl, my whole
staff interacts better when Jimmy is here. We couldn’t run
this place without Jimmy.”
That would have been a nice thing for Jackie Robinson to hear
from the bosses of the Brooklyn Dodgers half a century ago. At
least he left that 1955 World Series ring behind for his family.
©2005 by Maury Allen. This column
first posted Feb. 28, 2005.
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