42

My grandmother, Rhoda Singer, died earlier this year. She lived much of her life in Brooklyn and was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. Her favorite player was Pee Wee Reese, the Dodgers' scrappy white shortstop who famously silenced a racist Cincinnati crowd by putting his arm around his black teammate Jackie Robinson during pre-game warmups. I thought about my grandmother a lot while watching '42,' the new

Spring training is in full swing, Team USA is contending for the World Baseball Classic title and Opening Day is less than18 days away (but who’s counting?). We’re also less than a month from another major baseball milestone -- the release of “42,” the highly anticipated film about Jackie Robinson and his struggle to break Major League Baseball’s infamous color line.

'42' looks fascinating, and not just for Harrison Ford's weird make-up. Relaying the biography of Jackie Robinson, it shows how the star baseball player (played by Chadwick Boseman) had to struggle against the prejudices that didn't want to see professional baseball become integrated. Now there's a featurette that plays up Robinson's historical significance.