LOS ANGELES – Major League Baseball on Monday commemorated the 77th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the sport's color barrier.
Robinson started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, marking the end of racial segregation that had relegated black players to the Negro Leagues for decades.
“Jackie Robinson became the most vilified object of verbal abuse and malicious treatment in sports since Jack Johnson had the audacity to become world heavyweight champion in 1908,” said sociologist and civil rights activist Harry Edwards in Dodger Stadium. “Like Jack Johnson, Jackie Robinson was alone.”
Members of Robinson's family, including his 101-year-old widow, were in stadiums from coast to coast to honor him.
At Citi Field in New York, Rachel Robinson rode a golf cart to the Mets dugout, where she was presented flowers by manager Carlos Mendoza and retired players Mookie Wilson and Butch Huskey, the last Met to wear No. 42. Robinson.
“She is the legacy of perseverance,” said David Robinson, the youngest son of Jackie and Rachel Robinson.
The Robinson family is present on a very special day 💙 #jackie42 pic.twitter.com/AkJaiIbACy
— New York Mets (@Mets) April 15, 2024
All teams that played on Monday wore jerseys with the number 42.
Robinson's life story is particularly poignant for the Dodgers' Dave Roberts, the first manager of Asian descent and second Black manager to lead a team to a World Series title.
“He had a big burden in his life being a professional baseball player, but he had to take on all this negativity, this hatred for him, his wife, his kids, and still persevere,” Roberts said.
Players and staff from the Dodgers, including Shohei Ohtani, and the Washington Nationals surrounded the Robinson statue at Centerfield Plaza hours before tip-off in Los Angeles.
“I can't say enough about what Jackie Robinson meant not only to the black community but also to the Hispanic community,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez told the group. “He opened the doors to many, many great players, he really did, and changed the lives of many, including myself. I don't know if I would be here if it weren't for Jackie. My idol Roberto Clemente definitely, probably, wouldn't have existed.”
“He exemplifies what it means to have strength, courage and passion,” Martinez said of Robinson.
Reggie Smith, who never played on a losing team in his 13-year MLB career, recalled nervously talking to Robinson when they were on the same flight from Los Angeles to the East Coast. Smith introduced himself and said Robinson told him, “I know who you are and I know what you stand for.”
“That meant a lot to me,” Smith told the players. “Every time there was injustice of any kind on that baseball field, he spoke up because he gave me the courage to do so.”
Also joining the Dodgers and Nationals was Ayo Robinson, a granddaughter of Jackie and Rachel Robinson who was born after Jackie's death in 1972. Her father is David Robinson.
“I soak up the experience of others from my grandfather,” he said after the ceremony. “The fact that it still has so much impact on our society today means a lot to me as a person, but it also means a lot to me as an American.”
Smith urged today's MLB players to remember Jackie Robinson and his travails, which included being excluded from hotels and restaurants because of his skin color, as well as verbal abuse on the field from fans and opposing teams.
“Keep that in mind so this game can continue to move forward like it has the last few years,” Smith said, “and be grateful that you're here and you can do the things you do every day.” inside and outside of the day.”
In related news, former National League Cy Young Award winner Orel Hershiser, the 1988 World Series MVP for the Dodgers, purchased a painting titled “Grace” that depicts Robinson praying around a table with Martin Luther King Jr. and former Dodgers great Roy. Campanella and Don Newcombe.
Hershiser plans to keep the painting in its current home, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
“I am honored to be its owner,” he said in a statement. “It marks a very important historical moment and it is important to preserve this piece where people can learn about this moment.”
Artist Dave Hobrecht donated his painting to be displayed at the museum in 2020, but the wooden canvas was damaged during shipping, causing a crack that completely detached the bottom portion of the image from the rest.
Hobrecht and museum president Bob Kendrick decided to reframe the piece and keep it as it arrived.
“Not having a brittle spirit, that's Jackie Robinson,” Kendrick said in the statement. “We decided to reveal it with the damage and that it would be a metaphor that beautifully captures what Jackie was.”
