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A baseball player in a white uniform with 'Dodgers' across the chest, wearing a cap with a 'B' on it, crouched in a fielding stance on a dirt infield with empty stadium seats visible behind him.
Harry Warnecke / Frank Livia / Robert F. Cranston / William Klein, CC0
CC0

Linescore · 15 April 1947

Inning-by-inning runs, with totals for runs, hits and errors.
Team123456789RHE
BSN000012000381
BRO00010130–561

Ebbets Field · day game · MLB Stats API game 126531

IV · THE GAME · MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Jackie Robinson

Second Base · 15 April 1947 · Brooklyn Dodgers · 31 January 1919, Cairo, Georgia

A career that lasted ten years, contained in eleven seasons, all with Brooklyn except the first. The debut was a win at home, narrow and late.

At a glance

Career
1,419 games · 1,568 hits · 141 home runs · 765 runs batted in · .313 average
Debut
15 April 1947, aged 28, at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn
Last game
30 September 1956, for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Seasons
11 seasons · 10 years active · right-handed bat and throw

Look closer

  1. The debut was quiet at the plate, but Brooklyn won

    On 15 April 1947 Brooklyn beat Boston 5–3 at Ebbets Field in front of 26,623 people. Brooklyn made six hits to Boston's eight, and the two clubs made one error apiece. The score was 0–0 through three innings, 1–1 after five, and 2–3 after six — Boston led. Brooklyn then scored three runs in the seventh and held the lead. Boston never batted in the ninth, which is why that half-inning shows a dash: the home side does not bat when it is already ahead.

  2. The highest average came in the third season

    In 1949, his third season with Brooklyn, Robinson batted .342 — the highest mark of his career. He made 203 hits in 593 at-bats, scored 122 runs, drove in 124, and stole 37 bases. His on-base percentage that year was .432 and his slugging percentage .528, giving an OPS — on-base plus slugging — of .960. No other season reached .342 at the plate, though 1951 came close at .338.

  3. The final two seasons show a different shape

    In 1955 Robinson played 105 games and batted .256, the lowest average of his career. In 1956 he played 117 games and batted .275. Both seasons show fewer at-bats, fewer games, and lower totals across most categories than the years before them. The 1955 line — 105 games, 317 at-bats, 81 hits — is roughly two-thirds the size of the 1949 line in playing time, and the batting average is 86 points lower.

The story

On 15 April 1947 the Brooklyn Dodgers played the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field. The game was scoreless through three innings. Brooklyn scored once in the fourth, Boston once in the fifth, and Boston twice more in the sixth to lead 3–1. Brooklyn answered with one run in the sixth and three in the seventh, and won 5–3. Boston never batted in the ninth because the home side does not bat when it is already ahead. Brooklyn made six hits to Boston's eight, and each club made one error. The attendance was 26,623.

Robinson played eleven seasons. One was with the Kansas City Monarchs in 1945: 37 games, 133 at-bats, a .376 average. The next ten were all with Brooklyn, beginning with the debut game above. The span from debut to last game — 15 April 1947 to 30 September 1956 — is ten years. The eleven seasons fit into those ten years because the 1945 season and the 1947 season are separated by a year in which Robinson did not play, according to the records here.

The Brooklyn years show a career in two parts. From 1947 through 1953, Robinson played between 136 and 156 games per season. His batting average ranged from .296 in 1948 to .342 in 1949. He stole between 12 and 37 bases per season, drove in between 48 and 124 runs, and his on-base percentage stayed above .367 in every season. In 1949 he made 203 hits in 593 at-bats, the highest hit total of his career. In 1952 he drew 106 walks, also the highest of his career.

From 1954 onward the totals contract. In 1954 he played 124 games and batted .311. In 1955 he played 105 games and batted .256, the lowest average of his career. In 1956 he played 117 games and batted .275. The at-bat totals in those final three seasons — 386, 317, 357 — are smaller than any season from 1947 through 1953, when the lowest was 484.

Across the ten seasons with Brooklyn, Robinson made 1,518 hits in 4,877 at-bats, stole 197 bases, and drove in 734 runs. He walked 757 times and struck out 291 times. His career batting average was .313, his on-base percentage .410, and his slugging percentage .477. The OPS — on-base plus slugging — was .887.

Why it mattered then

The debut game in April 1947 was the beginning of Robinson's time with Brooklyn. The 1945 season with Kansas City came before it, but the gap between 1945 and 1947 is a gap in the statistical record as it appears here: Robinson played in other leagues between those years, but those games are not included in the totals above. The debut drew 26,623 people to Ebbets Field on a Tuesday afternoon. That figure is larger than the usual Tuesday crowd at most ballparks in 1947, though not extraordinary for an opening week. The game was covered by newspapers across the country, and the box score was reprinted in dozens of them. The fact that it was covered widely does not appear in the statistics themselves, but it does explain why the debut game is remembered when most debut games are not.

Why it matters now

Robinson's career totals — 1,419 games, 1,568 hits, a .313 average — were accumulated by a player who was twenty-eight years old when he debuted with Brooklyn. Most players who reach those numbers begin younger. The gap between 1945 and 1947 in the statistical table, and the fact that Robinson was already twenty-eight in April 1947, means the career was compressed into ten years rather than spread across fifteen or twenty. The number 42, which Robinson wore, was retired by every major-league club. That decision means no player in any major-league club wears it now, which is unusual: most retired numbers are retired by a single club, not by all of them. The decision reflects the historical importance of Robinson's debut in 1947, though the statistics themselves do not record why the debut mattered beyond the fact that it happened and that it drew a large crowd.

The surprising detail

The debut game was decided in the seventh inning, when Brooklyn scored three runs to take a 5–3 lead they did not surrender. But the linescore shows Brooklyn made only six hits all game, two fewer than Boston's eight. Fewer hits often mean a loss, but here Brooklyn won. The difference is timing: their hits and walks clustered in the innings that mattered. Boston's eight hits were scattered across more innings and left more runners stranded. The box score does not record how many runners were left on base, but the final score — five runs from six hits — suggests Brooklyn made the most of what they had.

What is disputed

The season table includes a 1945 line for the Kansas City Monarchs, but the career totals and the debut date both begin in 1947. The gap reflects the structure of the historical record: games played in leagues other than those the MLB Stats API classifies as major leagues are not included in the career totals, even when they appear in the season-by-season table. The records here describe what is counted as major-league play by the API, not a complete account of every game Robinson played professionally.

Remember this

Ten seasons with Brooklyn, beginning at twenty-eight, and a debut game won in the seventh inning with six hits.

Test yourself

Robinson's highest batting average came in 1949, when he hit .342. His lowest came in 1955, when he hit .256. Using only the season table, what else changed between those two years?

Go deeper

Image: Harry Warnecke / Frank Livia / Robert F. Cranston / William Klein, CC0. Licence: CC0. Source.

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