April 15th is best known as income tax day. But it is also Jackie Robinson Day, commemorating and honoring the day Jackie Robinson made his major league debut. April 15, 1947 was opening day for Robinson's first season in the Major Leagues. Initiated for the first time on April 15, 2004, Jackie Robinson Day is celebrated each year on that date.
On April 12th, 2013 the movie "42" opens starring Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson and Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey.
Jackie and Me tells the story of then thirteen-year-old Tania Grossinger living in the famous Grossinger hotel in New York's Catskill Mountains. Her mother Karla was the social director. Her cousins owned the hotel but Tania didn't feel like a real Grossinger. Lots of celebrities came to Grossinger's, but Tania just wanted to meet one man: Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play Major League baseball.
In the early 1950s Robinson arrived with his wife Rachel and their children for a weekend at Grossinger’s. Somehow, he found out that young Tania was a self-styled “terrific ping-pong player,” even if “a little chubby,” and as they shook hands he said, “How about meeting me in the ping-pong room at 4 o’clock?”
Skeptical Tania dismissed it as a pleasantry, but when 4 o’clock rolled round, the telephone in her room rang; It was Jackie. He was in the ping-pong room, where was she?
Tania reminisced, “I think he let me win. He bought me an ice cream soda and said: ‘You’re too young to be so cynical.’ ” A lifetime friendship resulted and Jackie told the young Tania, "You should never be ashamed of who you are. That is what makes you special. Never give up."
I have known and admired Tania for over 30 years. She is the author of Growing Up at Grossinger's and Memoir of an Independent Women as well as the co-author of the novel Weekend. We've crossed paths many times as she is a well known travel writer. This slender 32 page childrens book (recommended for 5-9 year olds) has beautiful illustrations by Charles G. Esperanza and is published (April 1st, 2013) by Sky Pony Press at $16.95.
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