"It was all about what kind of a ballplayer he was," said Reinsdorf, who grew up in Brooklyn as a diehard fan of Robinson's Dodgers.
"I watched this interview with Ralph Branca, and what Ralph said [jogged] my memory -- it wasn't that big a deal," Reinsdorf recalled while speaking to the media following Tuesday's panel discussion on Robinson and his impact on sports and society at the U.S. Cellular Field Conference and Learning Center. "It was a question of if he could play. And when he came up -- and he was only hitting about .240-something into May -- and so there were some questions about whether he was going to be a good enough player. Spider Jorgensen [another rookie] looked like he might be a better player, then Jackie took off and became very popular. But it was all based upon [whether] could he play."
