1949

Jack Edward Robinson was born on February 20, 1921, in Orange, New Jersey. He attended Bloomfield High School, graduating in 1939, and then spent a year at the Bordentown Military Institute.

He played for the Amsterdam (New York) Rugmakers of the Class-C Canadian-American League, a New York Yankees affiliate and did exceptionally well with a 22-5 record and a league-leading 2.81 ERA. Promoted in 1942 to the Binghamton Triplets in the Class-A Eastern League, he was 15-9, with an ERA of exactly 2.00 before enlisting in the navy.

He spent the next three seasons in the service and played first base for the Norfolk (Virginia) Naval Training Station team. Mustered out early in 1946, he got in a full season of work in the minors, mostly with the Beaumont Exporters in the AA Texas League.

In 1947, he split the season between Portland, Oregon, and Newark, New Jersey, both of them Triple-A ball clubs. Jack pitched Opening Day for the Kansas City Blues in 1948, but was traded to Louisville, in the Boston Red Sox system, in June.

Jack trained with the Red Sox in the spring of 1949, taken to camp as a batting practice pitcher. He stuck around a little longer than originally envisioned and got into his first big-league exhibition game at Tampa against the Cincinnati Reds. In April he found out that he had made the team. It took a while to get into his first game, but he was given three opportunities, in three different cities.

At Briggs Stadium in Detroit in May, manager Joe McCarthy gave him his big-league debut, in relief for Mickey Harris. His final game was in Chicago in mid-May when he pitched one inning and gave up one hit. When it came time to pare the rosters to 25 players, the Red Sox sent him to Louisville. He returned to minor-league ball, without a decision and with a career 2.25 ERA in the majors. 

With the Colonels once more, he had a subpar season. In 1950 he was with Louisville and in December, his contract was purchased by the Syracuse Chiefs. He pitched the next three seasons for Syracuse. His last year in professional baseball was in 1954 with the Ottawa A’s, a Kansas City A’s affiliate.

After his baseball career was over, Jack became a claims adjuster, auditing insurance claims for the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Company.