The way Fox News national correspondent Ed Henry tells it, he almost missed the story of a lifetime over the World Series.
It was in October 2007, when at at the Belgian ambassador’s residence for a dinner featuring long and boring speeches by congressional lawmakers accepting leadership awards, the New York Yankees fan turned to his table neighbor and said, “the World Series is on and I want to duck out.”
Piqued by his baseball reference, society reporter Donna Shor revealed a family secret that Henry has researched and turned into a much anticipated new book about Dodger great Jackie Robinson, 42 Faith.
Shor’s father-in-law turned out to be a Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. minister. And not any preacher. He was the spiritual mentor of Brooklyn Dodgers President and General Manager Branch Rickey who signed the sport’s first-ever black player.
Henry said that in 1945, Rickey visited Plymouth Church and paced for 45 minutes before telling Dr. Wendell Fifield what was on his mind. He was having second thoughts about signing Robinson, but after his church visit, he determined, “I’m going to sign Jackie Robinson. I just needed to be in your, and God’s, presence.”
Said Henry, whose book is released April 4, “there was a hidden hand of God in this decision.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
