Familiar Faces / Strange Places: Frank Robinson / Indians

On October 15, 1972, Jackie Robinson attended a World Series game that included a commemoration for the twenty-fifth anniversary of breaking the color line.

In his televised speech, Robinson again pushed baseball to employ blacks in more capacities: "I'd like to live to see a black manager, I'd like to live to see the day when there's a black man coaching at third base." When Robinson stepped onto the field, it was his second appearance at a Major League Baseball game since ending a self-imposed boycott of baseball which he had begun in protest of the sport's poor record in hiring minorities for managerial and front-office positions.

Nine days later, on October 24, 1972, Jackie Robinson died of a heart attack at his home in Stamford, Connecticut.

The first black baseball manager, Frank Robinson, was hired three years later by the Cleveland Indians.