Editor's note: This article, "If You Were Jackie Robinson," originally ran in the September 1947 issue of SPORT Magazine, during Jackie Robinson's first season in the major leagues. We are publishing it here in honor of the 75th anniversary of Robinson's debut, on April 15 of that year. It has been edited and condensed for clarity and space.
It was Saturday night in Sportsman's Park, St. Louis, where the prosaic practice of playing major league baseball games in the afternoon sunlight has become as obsolete as the horse and buggy since the discovery that an outdoor sports arena can be lighted as well as your living room.