Dodging a trade

Just a few months after rounding first base at New York’s Polo Grounds in 1956 and bolting for second in one of his final games for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the incomparable Jackie Robinson finds himself on the move – at least on paper – 68 years ago today as the Dodgers trade him to the archrival New York Giants for pitcher Dick Littlefield and $30,000.

Robinson, already with 10 years in the major leagues and with other business opportunities awaiting him, says he already is planning on retirement long before this.

The trade 68 years ago today just makes his decision an easy one, opting to leave the game on his terms rather than join the crosstown Giants on another team’s terms.

Dick Littlefield

At the time, Robinson – who in 1947 becomes the major league’s first Black player in the 20th century – says he is “glad I quit baseball before I was traded, and I bet I’m not the only one.

“I’m sure the true Brooklyn fans – the ones I really care about – will be tickled to death that they’ll never have to see me playing for another club.”

As for the well-traveled Littlefield, the Giants eventually repackage him at the start of the 1957 season and send the left-hander to the Chicago Cubs, one of nine teams he plays for during his nine seasons in the majors.

Five years after he retires, Robinson becomes a no-brainer, first-ballot inductee into the Hall of Fame in 1962.

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