Jackie Robinson and Civil Rights

Baseball is celebrating the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in the major leagues as the first player to break the color barrier. Baseball is closely tying this to the concept of civil rights. Now, I'm not the world's foremost historian, even in the realm of baseball, but I can't help thinking that Robinson's introduction into the bigs was mostly a business decision by Branch Rickey. It had more to do with freedom of association than it did with government laws forcing people to do things against their will.

Either way, Jackie Robinson was a great player, and the decision to sign him paved the way for the great baseball we have today.