Pee Wee Reese and the true Hall of Fame

On this date in 1984 the great Pee Wee Reese was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He played for the Brooklyn and L.A. Dodgers from 1940-58 and was a ten-time All-Star shortstop. The nickname “Pee Wee” was given to him as a boy in his racially segregated hometown of Louisville because of his prowess at marbles (the smallest of the marbles is called a “pee wee”). After graduation in 1937 he pursued a career in baseball taking time out to serve his country in the Navy from 1943-45.

Long before Avery Johnson was termed “the little General”, Pee Wee was dubbed “the Little Colonel” and was such a leader as the Dodger’s team captain that he, not the manager, brought the line-up card to home plate before all games. Reese scored more runs than anyone in Dodger history, he was a homerun threat from the shortstop position (a rarity in those days) and ranks in the Top 10 all-time in put outs and double plays. These records earned him entrance into the Hall of Fame, but in reality none of them matter much anymore.

The event that earned Pee Wee Reese a place in the annals of greatness occurred in the spring of 1947. Jackie Robinson was brought up to the Dodgers as the first African-American player in the 80 year history of the Major Leagues. Although Reese had no previous interactions with people of color (Jackie Robinson was the first black man he had ever shaken hands with) he had no prejudices either. Perhaps that was because of the day as a youth when his father made him aware of racial injustice showing him a tree where a lynching had occurred. Perhaps recalling this, Reese refused to sign a petition threatening a boycott if Robinson joined the team.

But it was later that spring in Cincinnati, Ohio that Reese’s leadership, integrity and charity came into full view. The fans of the Reds were heckling Jackie Robinson with a round of “boos”, racial slurs and expletives never imagined in America’s great game. As the taunts and barbs came raining down upon young Jackie, team captain Pee Wee Reese walked over, engaged him in conversation and placed his arm around Jackie’s shoulder. It was the gesture of support that silenced the crowd and turned the scales of justice in Robinson’s favor. Later that year as others still taunted him, Pee Wee once told Robinson, “Some people hate you because you're black, and others just because you’re good.” The duo of “Reese to Robinson” went on to be one of the most dynamic midfields in the history of baseball.

Joe Black, another of Major League Baseball’s black pioneers, said these words at Reese’s funeral:

"Pee Wee helped make my boyhood dream come true to play in the majors, to play in the World Series. When Pee Wee reached out to Jackie, all of us in the Negro Leagues smiled and said it was the first time that a white guy had accepted us. When I finally got up to Brooklyn, I went to Pee Wee and said, 'Black people love you. When you touched Jackie, you touched all of us.' With Pee Wee, it was No. 1 on his uniform and No. 1 in our hearts."

Note: Pee Wee Reese’s gesture is depicted in the book, Boys of Summer, and in a bronze sculpture of Reese and Robinson, created by sculptor William Behrends, that was placed at Key Span Park in Brooklyn and unveiled on November 1, 2005.