1962 Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Plaque Presented to Jackie Robinson....

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Fifteen years later, Jackie is first yet again...

1962 Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Plaque Presented to Jackie Robinson. On Jackie Robinson's tombstone in Brooklyn's Cypress Hills Cemetery, just five miles from where Ebbets Field once stood, these words are engraved: "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." By that metric, no athlete in American sporting history is more important than the man who took the dangerous first step across baseball's shameful color line. Though Ruth and Cobb may stand taller in the sport's pantheon, from a purely sociological standpoint Robinson has no challenger in significance, and it's no stretch to say that Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Barack Obama would have been impossible without the forward momentum Robinson supplied to the cause of racial equality.

Nearly lost in the massive shadow of that larger context is the brilliance of the man as a player, a decade of Major League service that matches that of the greatest era of Brooklyn Dodgers history. Among players whose Major League careers began after the Second World War, Robinson's .311 lifetime batting average finds him firmly within the top twenty. Six National League Championships in a ten-season span stands as a record to this day, and will almost certainly endure for eternity.

Proudly presented is the foremost symbol of Jackie Robinson's athletic and cultural immortality that exists in private hands, the personal edition of his Baseball Hall of Fame plaque, presented to him on July 23, 1962 as he brought the noble cause of racial desegregation to Cooperstown. It is noteworthy that Robinson's bronze plaque at the museum was changed in 2008 to make note of his status as the first African-American Major Leaguer, but his original plaque did not--he instructed the sportswriters casting their induction ballots that he wished to be judged on his talent and achievements alone, and his 1962 plaque reflects that desire to be seen only as a ballplayer, and not as a cultural phenomenon.

It is presented as issued, essentially a high-quality black and white photograph of the original bronze, matted and framed to dimensions of 10x12". A minor degree of handling and storage wear is apparent, but the historic relic presents without any distractions of note. It is unquestionably one of the most significant articles of sports memorabilia that Heritage has ever had the privilege to offer. Letter of provenance from Rachel Robinson.