Born in the small rural community of Ekron, Kentucky on July 23, 1918, Harold Peter Henry “Pee Wee” Reese would grow up to become the legendary, ten-time All-Star shortstop and captain of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Reese earned his famous nickname not from his modest physical stature on the baseball diamond, but from his boyhood prowess as a champion marble player—a “pee wee” being a specific type of small marble. His lightning-fast reflexes and unshakeable poise on the field would later be honed by military discipline when he left baseball at the peak of his career to serve in the U.S. Navy during the height of World War II.
The profound, historic layer of Reese’s legacy extends far beyond his defensive stats or his wartime service. As the captain of the Dodgers when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, Reese was confronted with intense racial animosity, death threats, and petition drives from his own Southern teammates who refused to play alongside a Black man. Reese famously refused to sign the petition, and during a particularly hostile game in Cincinnati, he quietly walked over to Robinson on the field and put his arm around his teammate’s shoulder—a simple, heartfelt gesture of Southern solidarity that silenced the abusive crowd and signaled to the world that the Dodgers stood together as an unbroken brotherhood.
