What you’re missing here is the absolute certainty that if Jackie Robinson hadn’t been “acclaimed” to be an “exceptional baseball player,” why, there would never have been another African American major leaguer. It would have been one and done. No one would ever have taken a chance on a Roy Campanella, a Bob Gibson, an Ernie Banks. Today we wouldn’t have Andrew McCutchen, or Jason Heyward, or Prince Fielder, or any other black players. All because Robinson had washed out of the league. Sad!
Fortunately, Rickey, in his infinite wisdom, picked a player who was…okay, I won’t say “perfect,” but I will say “acclaimed” as “exceptional.” Phew! We were spared the indignity of the color barrier going on for another 75 years.
If Robinson had been a hothead, it’s possible that it would have impacted the integration of baseball.
But I think it’s really really fucking important to note that even though Robinson was not a hothead, and even though he was a very good player, lots and lots and lots and lots of people wouldn’t have put him in the league, would have said it was too soon, would have asked if maybe there wasn’t someone else, someone better, would have said that it would be great to integrate baseball in the abstract but why him? Why now?
Hindsight says that Rickey made a good choice. Millions of people, if they’d had the power to vote, would have voted against it.
Remember all the hubbub about John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism? Kennedy ended up being very popular as a President, and the fear of a Catholic as President has dissipated, but even then, there hasn’t been another Catholic President since (John Kerry came the closest). What makes someone think that if not Hillary Clinton, we’ll have tons of women candidates banging on the door to the office of the President right after?