Last week we started our journey through the long, slow process that spread integration from the Brooklyn Dodgers throughout the league with that first year, 1947. That year obviously ended with Jackie Robinson winning the first ever Rookie of the Year Award, and his team going all the way to Game 7 of the World Series. But only two other teams integrated over the course of that season, and one of those two cut its Black players within a month.
1. Why did the American League integrate so much more slowly? Is there any particular reason, or is that just how it worked out?
2. It's wild that Branch Rickey picked Jackie Robinson over Jethroe apparently because Jethroe was too cool...