The Pecan Park Eagle

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Larry Miggins, later and today of Houston, played in Jackie Robinson’s first groundbreaking game that broke the organized baseball color line first at the minor league level in 1946.

The new Jackie Robinson movie “42” is set for nationwide release next week on April 12th. It stars a believable young actor named Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson and Harrison Ford in an incredible portrayal of Branch Rickey in a great retelling of how the color line was broken in organized baseball back in the late 1940s. Throw in the rich gifts of digital photography in bringing back the look and feel of Ebbets Field and Brooklyn in the post World War II years and we almost have the makings of a perfect tale about to play out every string of sentimentality that most of us still have for this great moment of change in baseball and American cultural history.

Except there is more. And I doubt the film is going to highlight what I’m about to describe for you here.

The color line wasn’t broken in 1947 with the Dodgers. It was broken on April 18, 1946 in a game between Robinson’s Montreal Royals of the AAA International League as they blasted their way to a 14-1 victory over the home team Jersey City Giants. Jackie Robinson played second base for Montreal that banner day, going four for five at the plate, including a two-run homer. He scored four runs on the day, picked up two bunt singles, stole two bases, and also scored two runs from third base on balks. His speed and derring-do on the base paths had the Jersey City staff thrown off balance all day. He also played with heat and sportsmanship, drawing positive support from even many of the Jersey City fans who came to see him make the real official return of a black man to organized baseball for the first time since the late 19th century.

Larry Miggins:    A Man for All Seasons.

There was another thing about that game that I’m betting may not come out in the bigger frame presentation of the movie as a Brooklyn Dodger event. And that’s the fact that the game contained a connection to a future Houstonian.

You see, 87-year old Larry Miggins, who later played for the AA Texas League Houston Buffs and then briefly with the St. Louis Cardinals, also played in that famous groundbreaking game. Larry Miggins played third base that day for the Jersey City Giants and, somewhere among his souvenirs, he even has a news article photo of him taking a late throw on a steal of third base by Jackie Robinson. Miggins will tell you himself too. He’s a man who gives credit where credit is due. The atmosphere was electric that day – and Jackie Robinson played a lights-out magnificent game of ball.

Today, Larry Miggins is one of the few, if not the only surviving player from Jackie Robinson’s first official 1946 game in organized baseball. If we are ever so fortunate as to come across a box score of the game, we will be able to make that determination for certain. Either way, it is important enough to know that Larry Miggins was there as a participant in one of the most dramatic days in American baseball history – and that he still walks among us in Houston in 2013.

That being said, I’ll say it again: I can’t wait to see “42”.

Post Script: Oh, yes, by the time Jackie Robinson broke the big league color line in 1947, I am reminded by Dr. Jimmy Disch that a second Greater Houston area connection comes into play when Robinson replaces the late Ed Stevens of Galveston as the starting first baseman of the Brooklyn Dodgers on Opening Day 1947, but that’s a whole other story that is not connected to the original color line break in Jersey City in 1946.