Jackie Robinson

Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers on 15 April 1947, breaking the colour line that had kept Black players out of the modern major leagues. He was named Rookie of the Year that season and in 1949 won the National League batting title (.342) and its Most Valuable Player award.

In his ten seasons with Brooklyn (1947-56) the Dodgers won six National League pennants and the 1955 World Series, with Robinson playing first base, second base, third base and left field as the team required. He finished with a .311 career batting average and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

After retiring from baseball in January 1957 he became a vice president of the Chock full o'Nuts coffee and lunch-counter company. He later chaired the board of Freedom National Bank in Harlem, which was set up to lend to customers that established banks largely ignored.

In Game One of the 1955 World Series at Yankee Stadium, with Brooklyn two runs behind in the eighth inning, Robinson stole home against pitcher Whitey Ford and catcher Yogi Berra. SABR researcher Bill Nowlin, working from contemporary reports, notes that Robinson and manager Walter Alston both said he ran on his own decision, and that Berra argued the call for the rest of his life. Nowlin counts 19 regular-season steals of home in Robinson's major-league career, and 12 attempts on which he was thrown out.

A steal of home with his team behind sits alongside the profile's high risk tolerance score. The dozen failed attempts are part of the same record, which is why that row is marked dual-edged. Risk Tolerance

At their August 1945 meeting Robinson had agreed with Dodgers president Branch Rickey not to respond to provocation during his first years in organized baseball. In a September 1947 cover story, Time reported that after Enos Slaughter of the Cardinals spiked him that August he 'set his teeth, and said nothing', and quoted him on the Phillies' bench abuse: 'I'd get mad. But I'd never let them know it.' When public criticism of the abuse led Phillies manager Ben Chapman to ask for a photograph together, Robinson agreed to pose with him.

Keeping to the agreement through two seasons is consistent with the profile's moderate discipline score. The restraint was a condition he had accepted rather than a plan of his own, so the score stays moderate. Discipline

In December 1956 Robinson agreed to join Chock full o'Nuts and had already sold the story of his retirement to Look magazine when the Dodgers traded him to the New York Giants. Because of the magazine contract he could not announce his decision until the story ran in January 1957. When Dodgers general manager Buzzie Bavasi suggested publicly that the article was a move for a better contract, Robinson turned down the Giants' offer; by his own later account, after that remark there was no way he would play again.

Standing by his decision in a public dispute with his old club offers one example behind the profile's conflict tolerance score. Historian Andy McCue's account shows the club had its own grievances, so this is one reading of a two-sided dispute. Conflict Tolerance