What If Jackie Robinson Would Have Sucked?

     I want to pose a question to everyone today.  What would have happened if when he came into the league in 1947, Jackie Robinson would have not been good?  What would have been the repercussions?  I think this is a fair, reasonable idea to explore.  This happens to rookies all the time.  Sometimes it takes a while for a player to adjust.  Sometimes they need a period to learn what exactly they need to do.  Sometimes players just slump and eventually snap out of it. And that's just for a regular rookie.  Jackie Robinson was playing that rookie year under pressure and prejudice that I could never begin to understand.  And he excelled.  Through the first month of a season Robinson had a strong on-base percentage and was scoring over 1 run a game. That made it easier to keep playing him.  The Dodgers were playing a good ball player.  They could "justify" that to the people who thought otherwise.

     But what if Robinson would not have gotten off to that good start?  What if through that first month he wasn't getting on base or doing anything productive?  What would the reaction have been?  I could very easily see people in the league thinking, "Well we knew black players weren't good enough.  And this confirms it.  Time to end this 'experiment'." (Just playing devil's advocate).  Would the Dodgers have caved in to this pressure?  This is a really tricky question. Branch Rickey signed Robinson with a purpose to break the color barrier and racism prevalent throughout baseball.  Rickey wanted to do what he could to fix that.  But at the same time, Rickey was an astute businessman.  If Robinson didn't pan out right away, surely fans would have been upset about it and that would not have been good for business.  Would Rickey have waited to see if Robinson could get it together?  He had proven it during all his time in the Negro Leagues and even in the minor leagues the year before, where he won the batting title.  Would Rickey have seen this as a long-term investment, hoping it would pay off eventually?  Or would he have cut his losses? Or would he have been so committed to Robinson breaking the color barrier that he would have just stuck with it to make the point?  These are all really difficult questions to which I honestly don't have an answer

   It scares me to think what would have happened if the Dodgers would have given up on Jackie Robinson.  Most likely, that would have at the very least set integration in baseball back for a while.  Because of Robinson's success, more black players started joining the league over the next few years, including the great Willie Mays in 1951.  If Robinson would have failed, there is a very good possibility Mays never gets the opportunity to play.  I think eventually baseball would have integrated but how long would it have taken? And how many great players would have never gotten the chance to play in the Majors.  We know there were great players before Jackie Robinson paved the way.  How many more would have missed out?