On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier when he took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Having reshaped baseball forever, Robinson's number, 42, is the only number retired MLB-wide, and every year on April 15, all players from all teams wear 42 to commemorate the day he made his major league debut.
In honor of Jackie Robinson Day, here are the best stats from Robinson's career.
42 Jackie Robinson Stats
On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at the age of 28. For reference, the average rookie today is around 22 years old, and the average age of all active players across MLB is 27.
In his rookie year, Robinson recorded the longest hit streak of his career, hitting safely in 21 consecutive games in 1947. At the time it was the fourth-longest hitting streak in Dodgers' history – and it remains the 17th-longest streak in franchise history.
Robinson had 701 plate appearances as a rookie, fifth-most in baseball, but had only 36 strikeouts, 83rd-most. He averaged one strikeout in every 19.5 PAs that season.
Robinson led the NL in sacrifice hits (28) as a rookie. No other player had more than 18.
In 1947, Robinson scored 125 runs during the regular season, second-most in the NL.
As of April 2023, there have been 339 cycles in MLB history. Only six of those are reverse cycles, i.e., in order of home run, triple, double, and single. Robinson has one of the six reverse cycles, having accomplished the feat on Aug. 29, 1948, in his 295th career game.
In his 10-year MLB career, Robinson struck out just 291 in 5,802 plate appearances. He averaged one strikeout in every 19.9 PAs, a strikeout rate of approximately 5%.
Robinson never struck out more than 40 times in a season and never had a strikeout rate higher than 7.4%.
In 1949, Robinson recorded 203 hits to tie with Dale Mitchell for the second-most in the National League, only behind Stan Musial (207).
Robinson stole home plate 19 times during his career, including once in the 1955 World Series. His first steal of home was on June 24, 1947, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.
1955 World Series Game 1 – Brooklyn Dodgers star Jackie Robinson steals home vs. New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra. He was called safe, but Yogi always maintained that he was out! (September 28, 1955) #MLB #History pic.twitter.com/pKjHvfeC7n
— Baseball by BSmile (@BSmile) September 28, 2018
During his 10-year MLB career, Robinson made six All-Star teams (1949-1954). He was also an All-Star in the Negro Leagues in 1945.