During the summer of 1939, young Jackie Robinson played a lot of softball, not baseball. The 20-year-old college student was in the physical prime of his life, and he had honed his skills by playing several sports for Pasadena Junior College, from football to baseball to track. He had secured admission to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and planned to play on at least two of its teams in the fall. Until then, the long California summer days and evenings were spent playing softball. It was a productive way to ease his stress, worries, and sorrow
