When asked to describe a baseball, the first word usually said is white, and before April 15, 1947, that's exactly what baseball was, white . "There is no law forbidding blacks from playing with white teams, or whites from playing with colored clubs, but neither has invited the other for the obvious reason that they prefer to draw their talents from their own ranks" ('42'). That was the feeling of people living in 1947, that blacks and whites were not supposed to play baseball together. So why decades earlier had there been an African American in the league? In 1887, an African-American pitcher, George Stovey, was scheduled to pitch in a game for Chicago, however, first baseman, Cap Anson, would not play while Stovey was on the field. Other influential players in the league quickly joined Anson in expressing their disgust, and Stovey suddenly found himself out of the game. "In the six decades that followed, the only other attempt to sign a black player was made by Joan McGraw of Baltimore. He tried to pass Charlie Grant off as an American Indian during spring training in 1901” (Frommer 65). It had been years since anyone had attempted to play against an African-American, but on April 15, 1947, the entire baseball world changed. The fight for the integration of Major League Baseball has been going on for decades, and it took not only highly influential players, but also the press and determined owners to make the change permanent. When people think of the integration of Major League Baseball, they often remember the name Jackie Robinson. On April 15, 1947, “Jackie Robinson, a black man, played first base for the Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, breaking baseball's centuries-old color line” (Stewart 49). Robinson was in the middle of the newspaper......orks cited "Branch Rickey Biography". Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, and Web. April 9, 2014. The editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica. “Larry Doby (American baseball player).” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, nd Web. April 8, 2014.Frommer, Harvey. Baseball album. Np: Franklin Watts, 1988. “Jim Crow Stories” print. PBS. PBS and Web. April 9, 2014. “Letter to the Editor.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Np, and Web. April 10, 2014. Stewart, Mark. Baseball: A History of the National Pastime. New York: F. Watts, 1998.Print. “Wearing No. 42 with Pride, MLB honors Jackie. » Major League Baseball. Np, ndWeb. April 9, 2014. “Wendell Smith: Major League Baseball’s Unsung Hero.” New Post from PittsburghRSS. Np, and Web. April 9, 2014. "'42' How Sporting News Covered Jackie Robinson." Sports news April 10 2013.