Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (1919-1972) was an exceptionally talented and disciplined baseball hitter, with a career average of .317. He was known as the most aggressive and successful base runner of his era. But these statistic achievements were not the real reason for his significance. In 1947, Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers. As the first black man to openly play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated African-Americans to the Negro leagues for six decades. Robinson had an exceptional baseball career. Over ten seasons, he played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Championship. He was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games from 1949 to 1954, was the recipient of the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, the first black player so honored. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams.