Jackie Robinson’s not so friendly departure from baseball

Great article on how alienated Jackie Robinson was from baseball at the end of his life. Very sad.

Robinson never bothered to hide his antipathy toward the game he had done so much to change. He participated in very few of its ceremonial events over the years and refused to go to old timers games so often that teams stopped inviting him.
One notable exception occurred on June 4, 1972, when Robinson agreed to come to Dodger Stadium to have his number retired. He had resisted the idea for many years but finally Don Newcombe, his old friend and teammate who worked in the Dodgers’ community relations department, convinced him.