>I think the key word here is hero. Although I think the others were heros as well, even though they lived to tell the tale.
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>Jackie Robinson didn't suffer the same fate as Pat T....but he is probably one of the biggest heros in all of professional sports. The opposition and bigotry he faced was unbelievable - but he never backed down.
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>Henry Aaron is one as well - the man faced a ton of death threats (and I'm sure Jackie Robinson did as well)

One of the tricky parts for Robinson was that although he never backed down, he had to keep himself under control. I am sure there were times he would have liked to smash some of the bigots' faces in but that would have hurt the cause.

He was a great player, too. He would have been in the Hall of Fame even if he had not broken the color line. Excellent hitter, excellent second baseman, and probably the best base runner in the game at the time. He had a pretty good number of stolen bases in an era when the SB was not emphasized. I believe he still holds the record for steals of home, maybe his signature play. (A great photo here -- http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/30489361/).