Beyond The Point Of No Return

For the sixth game, more than 19,000 people jammed Delormier Downs in the hopes that the Royals would bring the momentous season to a close. Forty-three-year-old Pitcher Curt Davis obliged with a 2-0 shutout. Robinson got two of Montreal's six hits and started two rally-ending double plays, including one in the ninth with two runners on base. The Montreal Royals were the 1946 Little World Series champions.

As the spectators poured onto the field Robinson fought his way to the clubhouse to join the Royal celebration. The French-Canadian fans refused to leave, chanting for Robinson to rejoin them and singing "Il a gagné ses épaulettes" (He earned his stripes). When he appeared outside the stadium in his street clothes they gathered around him, kissing him and hugging him and tearing at his clothes. As they lifted Robinson to their shoulders tears welled in his eyes. The crowd then chased him deliriously for three blocks as he attempted to leave. A passing motorist finally rescued Robinson and spirited him home. To Sam Maltin of the Courier, who had shared so much of the season with Jackie and Rachel, it provided a fitting climax. "It was probably the only day in history." he wrote, "that a black man ran from a white mob with love instead of lynching on its mind."