What events in the movie are not historically accurate?

The "rebellion" INSIDE the Dodgers organization was way overdone -- it did happen, but Rickey (not Durocher) dealt with it quickly and ruthlessly, informing the petition signers if they did not relent they would be shipped to the most remote and godforsaken outposts in the world of organized baseball, if not shipped out of baseball forever.


At the time Rickey was a virtual god in the Brooklyn Dodgers organization -- what he said was the law, and if he wanted to ship somebody somewhere, they were gone. In the days of the reserve clause, players had no options to become free agents or anything else; Rickey could (and did) essentially threaten to simply suspend without pay (permanently) any players who did not go along with his plans -- and end their careers.

Had any significant number of Dodger players stuck to their guns and stood behind the petition, Rickey would have responded by suspending them all without pay for several years (long enough their careers would be over) and then, to fill the talent gaps in the Dodger organization, he would have launched upon a Negro Leagues signing spree to grab virtually the entire Negro Leagues all-star team of the time.

As things turned out, Rickey proceeded more cautiously, signing black players in limited numbers over the next several years (adding Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella to the roster within 3 years).


What was not really touched upon in the movie was that petitions were circulated among OTHER National League teams (St. Louis and Cincinnati mainly) threatening to pull their teams off the field if Robinson played. Ford Frick, president of the NL (and later commissioner) threatened to mass-suspend any players who did so ('and I don't care if it wrecks the National League for five years,' Frick wrote in a letter to the strikers).





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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.

Also, don't forget that the IMDb keep a "goofs" page on each movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453562/trivia?tab=gf&ref_=tt_trv_gf

And if anyone here feels they have a hard case for a misrepresentation in the flick, they're welcome to submit it!

--
And I'd like that. But that *beep* ain't the truth. --Jules Winnfield

The movie says Durocher was suspended for his relationship with Laraine Day. According to his Wikipedia page, Durocher was suspended for associating with gamblers. I do not know which is true, but I suspect the latter is true, that is, the gambling.

All said, however, the movie was excellent.

How about things the movie failed to mention that could significantly alter the public perception of events?

Like Jackie was the only black ballplayer ... for about 13 weeks. In July, Larry Doby was playing in Cleveland, and both Willard Brown AND Hank Thompson were in St. Louis.

(FWIW, Doby was easily the best player of the four early, but is largely forgotten today.)

Also, the film (IMO) did not accurately show the level of support many black players received from those within greater Major League Baseball. Consider this: Doby received more MVP votes from sports writers just 3 years later (in 1950) than Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams!


(Also, Jackie was not the first black Major League Player. Black players were banned around 1890, but played before then. The first was probably Moses Walker.)

Jackie Robinson was actually the first Jewish ballplayer in MLB. They made him black because Chad Boseman really killed in the audition.