Jackie Robinson

Before baseball, Robinson was court-martialled in the army for refusing to move to the back of a bus, and acquitted. In 1947 the Dodgers signed him on one condition he accepted with difficulty: that for three years he would not answer back.

He was spat at, spiked and sent hate mail, and was named rookie of the year. He spent his later life on civil rights and on getting Black managers into the game, which he did not live to see. His number, 42, is retired across all of baseball.