Ticket for Jackie Robinson’s first game in Dodgers uniform sells for $26k

Ticket to exhibition game is even rarer than Robinson's MLB debut

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Jackie Robinson signed his first major-league contract with Branch Rickey's Dodgers in 1947. Here, the two are pictured signing a deal in 1950 after Robinson won the 1949 NL MVP award. (Credit: Getty Images)

The holy grail of sports ticket collecting comes as no surprise.

It's a ticket to the April 15, 1947, game at Ebbets Field to see Jackie Robinson break the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

Available on the market for $15,000 in 2014, Robinson's debut ticket with the Brooklyn Dodgers now runs a minimum of $300,000, which makes it unaffordable to 99.9% of the collecting audience.

Over the years, a few tickets for Robinson's debut have surfaced, as the total population graded by PSA is now 14.

But an even rarer ticket of Robinson emerged this month, and it sold at auction for $26,400.

A game on April 11, 1947, was actually Robinson's first with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Four days prior to his official debut, Robinson put on the uniform in front of 24,247 (31% of the seats were empty) and drove in three runs in a 14-6 rout of the New York Yankees.

Yes, it was technically an exhibition game, so it wasn't really his debut, but it certainly marked the very first time a Black player was on the field for a major-league team.

The ticket to Robinson's exhibition game with the Dodgers has a PSA population of just two. (Credit: Love of the Game Auctions)
The ticket to Robinson's exhibition game with the Dodgers has a PSA population of just two. (Credit: Love of the Game Auctions)

The ticket, which has a PSA graded population of two, was auctioned off at Love of the Game Auctions on Nov. 30, selling for about 10% of the price for a ticket to Robinson's historic on-field debut.

"I think most ticket collectors couldn't care less about a player's first appearance in uniform, but isn't his debut," said Matt Fuller, PSA's principal ticket authenticator. "But this is different. This is the anomaly. This is a very cool ticket in my opinion.”

Fuller said that "first game in uniform" suggests Robinson might have not played, but he certainly did.

On April 10, Robinson played first base as Brooklyn's Triple-A affiliate Montreal played the Dodgers. During the fifth inning, the Dodgers announced they had purchased Robinson's contract.

The next day, temporary manager Clyde Sukeforth, who was whipped into action when Leo Durocher was suspended for a year, made the decision to play Robinson against the Yankees.

Sukeforth was a special assignment scout who was the only person other than Dodgers GM Branch Rickey who knew of the plans to bring up Robinson. Sukeforth only managed three games — the exhibition against the Yankees, Robinson's debut and the following game.

A New York Times editorial the next day filled its page talking about Robinson's feat and its overdue place in history.

"In this morning's newspapers, the box score of the exhibition game yesterday at Ebbets Field between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees carries the above name in the Brooklyn lineup. If Robinson had been a white man, the name would have been there long before this. ... Robinson's elevation to the major-league parent club should have almost been automatic, but the color line has always been drawn in modern baseball."

Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectible market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.