On This Day: January 5th - Baseball Legend Jackie Robinson Retires

On this date in the year 1957, baseball legend Jackie Robinson retires from the sport. He found immense stardom and popularity during his career while playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was the first African-American to play for a major league ball club in America. He was 38 years old when he retired from the sport he loved. He felt that he was getting too old to play baseball and that he would no longer be helpful to any major league ball club.

At 38 years old, one major obstacle he had was staying in shape to keep up with the younger guys in the league like Willie Mays. He believed that he needed to lose at least 20 lbs before he would be back in shape to be of good use to a baseball team. When Robinson retired, he left a large imprint on America's pastime. Playing as the first African American in major-league baseball, he helped end 60 years of racial segregation in the sport. He won the World Series with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955 propaganda for beating the New York Yankees. After he won the World Series with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he was traded to the New York Giants in the year 1956. Soon after he retired in 1957 with plans to become an executive of a company called Chock full o'Nuts. He played his final game on October 10th, 1956. He was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia and he passed away on October 24th of 1972.