“He died from the load he carried,” famed baseball announcer Red Barber said of Jackie Robinson.
When Robinson died at the young age of 53, the official causes listed were diabetes and heart failure, but his health and well being undoubtedly suffered from the abuse he took as the first African American baseball player in modern history. In the 1880s, blacks and whites played side by side, but the International League officially banned African Americans in 1887.
Jackie Robinson ended that ban when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers at the start of the season in 1947.