42 - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of 42 or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to 42

[cassandra]

Branch mentions that Jackie wishes he wasn't leading the league in hit by pitch. Jackie Robinson finished 1947 as the batter most hit by pitchers, with 9.

[veronica]

Although Chadwick Boseman underwent weeks of baseball training to prepare for his leading role, Jasha Balcom, a former minor league player, was his stuntman in some scenes.

[tamara]

Jackie Robinson was not the first black major league baseball player, but he was the first in the 20th century. The first black major league player was Moses Fleetwood Walker, on the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1884. He was followed by his brother Weldy. Evidence suggests that another player named William White may have played even earlier.

[aaron]

The film does not explore Jackie Robinson's career with the Montreal Royals, but he was hugely popular. After leading the team to the league championship, it was noted: ..."probably the only day in history that a black man ran from a white mob that had love, not lynching, on its mind."

[fred]

The film broke the record for highest box office opening weekend by a baseball movie. The previous record holder was The Benchwarmers (2006).

[linda]

While it is true that Jackie Robinson didn't get a hit in his first game, he did get on base via a throwing error by Bob Elliott, third baseman for Boston. He scored later, when Pete Resier hit a double.

[kylie]

In 1997, baseball commissioner Bud Selig universally retired Jackie Robinson's number, 42. The handful of players still wearing the number were allowed to keep it. As of the film's release, only Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees continued to wear 42 on a daily basis. Rivera retired at the end of the 2013 season. As of 2014, barring special requests or approval, no major league player will wear #42 again.

[bernard]

Four players from the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers were still alive when this film came out: Tommy Brown, Ralph Branca, Marv Rackley, and Don Lund.

[melinda]

In the movie, the punishment for not agreeing to play on the same team with Jackie Robinson was being "traded to Pittsburgh". Branch Rickey left the Dodgers in 1950, and become general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1953. Bobby Bragan, who said he wanted to be traded but then asked not to be, ended up managing the Pirates in 1956.

[manuel]

For the scenes when Ben Chapman taunts Robinson, Alan Tudyk got into character by watching videos of street fighting before each take.

[fred]

Branch Rickey blurts out "Judas Priest!" According to those closest to Rickey, that was the worst profanity he ever uttered.

[sandra]

Jack Nicholson was considered to play Branch Rickey.

[amber]

Harrison Ford purposely played Branch Rickey wearing prosthetics and talked in a different voice so that people wouldn't know it was him.

[linda]

The movie sanitizes Leo Durocher's speech to the Dodgers on the eve of their planned strike in protest of the signing of Jackie Robinson. His actual quote was "Don't care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a fucking zebra, I'm manager of this team, he plays!"

[lonnie]

The last scene of the movie takes place at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. As Jackie Robinson rounds the bases for his home run, one shot includes the Cathedral of Learning, a famous building at the University of Pittsburgh. In real life, Forbes Field was right next to the university. Forbes Field was torn down after the Pirates moved to Three Rivers Stadium in 1970, and the university kept home plate in its exact location. Forbes Field's home plate is encased in the ground at the same location as in the movie, in William Posvar Hall at the University of Pittsburgh.

[ken]

When calling the catch of a fly ball in the movie, broadcaster Red Barber says "Back, back, back..." In another play-by-play call, he exclaims "Oh, Doctor!" Contrary to popular belief, Barber didn't use either line regularly. Barber said the only time he used those lines in a broadcast was when he called Al Gionfriddo's dramatic, game-saving catch off of Joe DiMaggio in the 1947 World Series. Since recordings of that Barber call became so famous, many people assumed they were trademark calls.

[miriam]

T.R. Knight and James Pickens Jr.. used to star together on Grey's Anatomy (2005).

[tammy]

Alan Tudyk claimed that he and Chadwick Boseman deliberately avoided fraternizing while filming their scenes together, to better convey the animosity between Jackie Robinson and Ben Chapman.

[javier]

In the movie, Branch Rickey punishes some of his rebelling players by trading them, or threatening to trade them, to the Pittsburgh Pirates, in that they were one of the worst teams in the National League. Coincidently, in 2013, the same year the movie was released, the Pirates ended a streak of 20 straight losing seasons, going 94-68 and making the playoffs where they beat the Cincinnati Reds in the Wild Card Game but lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Division Series.