April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond that afternoon at Ebbets Field, he became the first black man to break into major-league baseball in the twentieth century. In Opening Day, Jonathan Eig tells the true story behind the national pastime's most sacred myth. Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil rights era.