10 Degrees: The secret virtual-reality project to honor Jackie Robinson

Early last week, in the courtyard of a notorious Brooklyn high-rise, an oversized drill bored three holes into the concrete. One of the most important moments in baseball history, and a seminal event in American culture, took place on that very spot, and for it to have sat empty, without a whit of acknowledgement for decades, simply didn't seem right.

About eight months ago, the impetus behind the drill holes started. As part of his new documentary on Jackie Robinson, documentarian Ken Burns started working on a project to be used with Google's Cardboard virtual-reality headset. The idea was to take people through Robinson's life and show them what he endured – including his first at-bat in Major League Baseball.

On the site today stands the Ebbets Field Apartments, named after their architectural predecessor, the late, great home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. While the stadium is long gone, archival imagery gave Google engineers a sense of where everything stood. By overlaying that photograph onto one of the current landscape, Google determined the exact location in the apartment's courtyard, off Sullivan Place and between McKeever Place and Bedford Ave.

Burns, PBS and the Robinson family chipped in to make sure the site received its proper affirmation as where baseball's color barrier was broken. Into the three drill holes went the pegs that hold in place a plaque.

The plate looks a bit catawampus, especially compared to the lines between the blocks of concrete, and that's intentional. It faces where center field at Ebbets would be today, out into this world that even nearly seven decades later still suffers from the sort of sadness Robinson wanted to vanish.

On Monday, P.S. 375, also known as the Jackie Robinson School, will get a first look at this new plate via a Google Expedition seen through the Cardboard headsets. Later that night, PBS will air the first of the two-part miniseries "Jackie Robinson" starting at 9 p.m. ET. The legacy of …

1. Jackie Robinson finding new depth almost seven decades after he brought baseball its finest moment, and nearly half a century after his death, is a credit to baseball and the media-and-filmmaking universe that orbits it. For so long Robinson's life was story after hagiographic story, unwilling to portray the complicated, conflicted man at the center of the narrative spun by Burns and his co-directors, Sarah Burns and Dave McMahon. It's not that Robinson was inherently flawed; the flaws he did have simply amplified his finer characteristics.

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Burns explores whether Pee Wee Reese putting his arm around Robinson actually happened. (The strong sense: No.) He looks at Robinson's court martialing (and eventual acquittal) for refusing to move to the back of a bus when in the Army. And he covers the lesser-known post-baseball version of Robinson's life, during which his political activism in search of equality – "I admit freely that I think, live, and breathe black first and foremost," he wrote in his autobiography – drove him into another arena of controversy.

So much of Robinson's life is ensconced in myth, separating fact from fiction all these years later for Burns was like keeping …

2. Trevor Story

from hitting a home run in his first major league week. In six games, the Colorado Rockies rookie launched seven home runs. He didn't just destroy rookie records. No player in history had hit more than six home runs in his team's first six games – and the three who had hit six are Larry Walker, Mike Schmidt and Willie Mays, which puts Story in the sort of company usually surrounded by names like Mantle and Williams and Ruth.

If not for the domestic case against Jose Reyes, Story likely would've started the season in Triple-A, and the Rockies would be better known for their woebegone pitching staff that yielded 29 runs to San Diego in the two games after the Dodgers shut the Padres out three straight. Instead, it's Story, who within the span of one week hit as many home runs as Xander Bogaerts, Elvis Andrus and, yes, Jose Reyes all last season.

Minus a bad 2013, Story has torn up the minor leagues but lived as something of a tweener glove-wise. With the spectacular Nolan Arenado at third base and rangy DJ LeMahieu at second, Story's teammates can allow him to focus on making the easy plays in the field. That and continuing to crush as pitchers adjust to him and try to exploit a lack of patience that has manifested itself in one walk among 28 plate appearances. Though when you're swinging like he is, what's the sense in walking? It's not quite as difficult a question to answer as the ones …

3. Ross Stripling provided Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on Friday night. The scenario came straight out of the Modern Baseball Choose-Your-Adventure book, rife with a bunch of awful outcomes.

So, Stripling, a rookie making his major league debut, less than 15 starts separated from Tommy John surgery, coming off a spring training in which he threw 145 pitches total, has a no-hitter through 7 1/3 innings. He just walked a batter on his 100th pitch, and the offense has staked him only a 2-0 lead. Do you:
a) Leave him in.
b) Take him out.

If you leave him in, he can:
a) Throw a no-hitter!
b) Give up a hit.

If he throws a no-hitter:
a) You are subjected to second-guessing about leaving in a pitcher who hasn't thrown more than 120 pitches since college and has six full years of service time before free agency all so … you can win the fifth game of the season?
b) You hope he stays healthy.

Now, not all of these are binary, of course. Taking out Stripling, which Roberts did, was terrible to see. Even if no-hitters have lost their cachet, this would've been a no-hitter in a major league debut. People are going nuts for Trevor Story because he's a rookie. Same would've gone for Stripling.

By taking him out, not only did Roberts prevent the one-pitcher no-hitter, he did so on the god-forsaken 100th pitch, which only reinforces the senseless idea that 100 is some sort of a necessary threshold for pitchers when in reality it's nothing more than a round number. Maybe one of these days the same executives and managers who wonder what happened to pitchers who threw complete games will let those capable of it – those who have stayed healthy and have enough mileage on their arm to warrant it – not hew to the 100-pitch silliness and work deep into games.

Even as everything was conspiring against Stripling – the score, his elbow history and the fatigue to which he alluded after the game in particular – he could've tried for the no-hitter and likely been fine. He is more than two years removed from Tommy John surgery; the tendon transplant fully turns into a ligament around 18 months, meaning Stripling's recovery is well past done. And that should make him ready to go on a career that hopefully gives him another opportunity as good as his first. Though as Story and …

4. Nomar Mazara

will agree, it's pretty tough to beat a great debut. On the day Shin-Shoo Choo hit the disabled list, the Rangers summoned the 20-year-old Mazara from Triple-A, slotted him in Choo's No. 2 hole and watched him thump a home run and add two singles in his major league debut. With Choo out at least a month, Mazara will get regular at-bats in right field. What this means come mid-May, when Choo and Josh Hamilton return, is for the Rangers to deal with then.

Today, they're reaping the benefits of a gamble nearly five years ago. Knowing baseball was prepared to penalize international spending, the Rangers spent like wild on young Latin American prospects. In total, they paid nearly $13 million for their July 2 class – about 14 percent of the entire international market, according to a Baseball America estimate. The first player to reach the big leagues received a $425,000 signing bonus: Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor.

The jewel of the lot, who cost $4.95 million, still the most ever spent on a 16-year-old international free agent: Nomar Mazara. He was a gamble, certainly, not exactly a …

5. Bryce Harper, who might've received 10 times what Mazara did if declared a free agent at 16. Harper's first week was a typical, ho-hum .385/.556/1.000 showing. The most impressive part, though, was a number that still doesn't appear this season: a Bryce Harper strikeout.

Now, for all the oomph in Harper's swing, never has he been a hackalicious sort with strikeout rates in the 30 percent-plus range. His highest came two years ago at 26.3 percent. His career rate is closer to 20. In the first week, with 18 plate appearances logged, it's at 0 percent, and while it's fair to say that it came against the Braves and Marlins, this four-game whiffless stretch matched Harper's season high last year.

In fact, Harper over an eight-game span from May 10-17 was damn near impossible to punch out. Aside from a swing-and-miss K against Oliver Perez, Harper had a 36-at-bat stretch of unparalleled patience and contact. One strikeout-free week doesn't seem like much of a big deal until you realize 11 players already are in double digits after a week and Harper is one of just six players with at least 10 at-bats and no strikeouts.

He's 23, by the way. It's easy to forget that sometimes, that he's just starting to do this, starting to master this game that so few master, starting to do with the bat what …

6. Terrance Gore does with his legs. And those legs must be special for someone with all of six plate appearances in a major league career that now spans three seasons to show up in the season debut of 10 Degrees.

Gore, actually, is more than anything a proxy to marvel one more time at the defending-champion Royals, whose addition of him to their roster dovetails with their style of play. Kansas City understands it is not an offensive juggernaut. It gets that its starting pitching isn't spectacular and it will often rely on its bullpen in close games. And with a decent offense and decent pitching, there may well be a lot of close games, in which case having perhaps the best base stealer on the planet actually isn't a waste of a roster spot at all.

If the 25th man for most teams rots on the bench, getting to use him like the Royals did Gore on Sunday makes the argument in favor of a pinch runner tangible. Gore came in on first base, induced a throwing error from Twins reliever Trevor May that allowed him to third and eventually sped home on a May wild pitch. Gore's speed drew the wild throw at first and made all the difference between an easy game-winning run and a very close play at the plate.

Professional pinch runners were once thought extinct, and perhaps Gore's stay in the big leagues is short-lived and he'll just rejoin the Royals come September, primed for their postseason run. It's just one week, of course, a week in which the …

7. Baltimore Orioles

and Cincinnati Reds find themselves atop their divisions. The Orioles are 5-0, the Reds 5-1, and baseball is hilarious, isn't it?

The Orioles are squarely in the is-it-good-pitching, bad-hitting or combination-of-both paradox that will flesh itself out as the season continues. A rotation of Chris Tillman, Ubaldo Jimenez, Yovani Gallardo and Vance Worley isn't exactly Palmer, McNally, Cuellar and Dobson, but 5-0 is 5-0, and a win April 10 is every bit as valuable as one Sept. 10.

Between some unexpected boffo relief pitching (thank you, Caleb Cotham, Jumbo Diaz and Blake Wood, for 10-plus scoreless innings) and some old-fashioned mashing from Eugenio Suarez to buoy the rest of the lineup (he's got 22 of their 64 total bases), the Reds – the Reds! – took two of three from the Pirates after playing Death Star to the Phillies bullpen's Alderaan.

Up Monday for the Orioles: Boston and David Price, at Fenway Park. And the Reds: Off to Wrigley Field for a duel with Jon Lester and the Cubs, who are also atop the NL Central at 5-1. Perhaps Baltimore and Cincinnati's second weeks will look more like what the …

8. Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves managed to pull off the first week, which were a pair of unsightly goose eggs. The pain was particularly acute for the Twins, who actually came into the year harboring contentions of winning, whereas the Braves disassembled themselves and are now in the process of gathering the pieces for reconstruction.

Atlanta isn't in complete tank mode – it did call up rookie speed demon Mallex Smith when Ender Inciarte hit the DL on Sunday – but the Braves haven't exactly assembled a roster that looks likely to reach the 70-win threshold, either. For the second consecutive season, Minnesota is locked in to the Panic Number, in which history shows teams that start the season 1-6 or worse almost never make the postseason. The loss Sunday that took Minnesota to 0-6 – Gore scampering home and the Twins giving up a game-winning run without a hit – was particularly excruciating.

It's times like those that Twins fans remember Byron Buxton was supposed to go in front of …

9. Carlos Correa in the draft four years ago and still has star written all over him. He isn't exactly Correa, of course, because nobody is, not with the power, speed and ability to play shortstop. Three home runs in the first week prevented the disaster that was Houston's pitching – 12 home runs and 19 walks in 42 innings – from completely spoiling things.

The other bright spot: Tyler White, a 33rd-round pick who finished the first week of his career leading baseball with a .556 batting average and an 1.167 slugging percentage. Baseball in April is replete with great stories (and, this season, Storys), and eventually they'll cede to the reality that is a 162-game season. The one constant is …

10. Jackie Robinson, whose presence permeates the game this time of year because MLB makes sure to honor it. Baseball retired Robinson's No. 42 almost 20 years ago, and seeing it in every stadium gives it even more gravitas than it had when players wore it on their backs. Jackie Robinson Day, always on April 15, in its best years fosters discussion about what the game can do to recapture its lost African-American fans and in its worst still manages to celebrate Robinson's life.

Burns' movie adds another masterpiece to the post-Jackie oeuvre, and a planned statue of him at Dodger Stadium this year will do the same, and all of it will go to the proper man, who despite his flaws positioned America to be a better country. Too many of his words were ignored, and he's here again and again to remind us of what he said, what he stood for.

The kids at Jackie Robinson School will see for themselves. They'll see all the phases of his life, including the 1947 day at Ebbets Field he walked up to the plate, stood in against Johnny Sain and grounded out. His first hit came the next game, his first home run the day after that, and off he went, a marvel, a beacon, a man who almost 70 years later is still transcending reality.

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