** FAILED PSA ** 

It was absolutely a ball game for the ages when Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in so-called "Organized Baseball on April 18, 1946, at Jersey City's Roosevelt Stadium before an announced crowd of over 50,000. Robinson was playing for the Dodgers' Triple-A farm club, the Montreal Royals, as they opened the season on the road against the New York Giants' top farm team, the Jersey City Giants. Robinson was playing second base and batting second for the Montreal Royals. After grounding out in his first at-bat, Robinson out on an incredible performance. He hit a 3-run homer in his next at-bat, and followed that with three straight singles, two of them bunts. Robinson twice daringly danced off third base and he caused two balks, allowing him to score. Robinson wound up going 4-for-5, with four runs and four RBI as Montreal won 14-1. Robinson tore the Interational League apart. He led the league with a .349 batting average, stole 40 bases. and scored 113 runs. In his next season, 1947, he would break the major League "color barrier" with the Brooklyn Dodgers and become the National League Rookie of the Year, hitting .298 and helping the Dodgers reach the World Series. The displayed photo appears to have been cut from a magazine and fastened onto a thick card stock backing. The photo is autographed as "Jackie Robinson" in blue ink with fountain pen. The card stock backing has jagged edges which could be trimmed in the future. It remains a signed photo of Jackie Robinson on his way to integrating Major League baseball as not only a Hall of Fame player, but as one of the major civil rights personages in the country's history.