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Jackie Robinson Day was celebrated on April 15th, marking 79 years since he broke baseball's color barrier. Players across MLB wore his number 42 in honor of his legacy.
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Jackie Robinson (#42) at Ebbits Field shortly after breaking baseball's color barrier. (Photo by Focus On Sport/Getty Images)
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Seventy-nine years ago this past Wednesday, Jackie Robinson went out to first base at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and became the first Black man to play major league baseball. These facts are well-known and well-trod. So, too, is the story that Branch Rickey told Robinson that they had to win with hitting, running, and fielding, and that he was looking for a ballplayer āwith the guts not to fight backā against the racial abuse, taunts, and violence he would encounter. One need not be a baseball historian, or even a baseball fan, to appreciate and honor the legacy of Jack Roosevelt Robinson.
And yet, every year since 1997, on April 15th, in ballparks all across our great land, we do just that, with MLBās official āJackie Robinson Day.ā Since 2004, players on every team wear Jackieās #42 on the back of their jerseys, and they do so in Dodger blue. Pregame festivities include remembrances of the great Dodger and civil rights leader, and special care is taken to make sure that Jackieās memory is not lost to any generation.
Citi Field has the same facade as the old Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
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There is no place where the celebration of Jackie is bigger or more heartfelt than at Dodger Stadium. While the Dodgers donāt always play at home on this particular day (as recently as 2014 they played in ), the schedule-makers do attempt to make that happen. And this year was a perfect alchemy, with playing the , who play at CitiField in Queens, which has an entrance that is Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.
Jackie Robinson Day is celebrated on April 15th each year to honor Jackie Robinson's legacy as the first Black man to play Major League Baseball.
Jackie Robinson faced racial abuse because he was the first Black player in Major League Baseball, breaking the color barrier in a time of significant racial segregation.
On Jackie Robinson Day, MLB players wear jerseys with the number 42 to commemorate Jackie Robinson's contributions to the sport and civil rights.
Since 1997, Jackie Robinson's legacy has been honored annually with Jackie Robinson Day, featuring pregame festivities and tributes across all MLB ballparks.
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Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, New York.
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Prior to the game, both the Mets and the Dodgers gathered in the Centerfield Plaza, where a statue of Jackie Robinson is located, and listened to the words of Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. There is no one better to discuss the Negro Leagues and the history of the Black player in baseball. Kendrick reminded the assembled players that āthe social advancement of America can be tied directly to Jackieās breaking of baseballās color barrierā¦that it wasnāt just a part of the Civil Rights Movement, but the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.ā
Back in the ballpark, the players ā and essentially all MLB players on this day ā took batting practice sporting t-shirts and sweatshirts that read: āBreaking Barriersā with the years of Robinsonās career on either side of the logo.
Denzel Clarke of the Athletics wore a "Breaking Barriers" t-shirt prior to the start of the game against the Rangers on Jackie Robinson Day. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
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Once the players had completed their pre-game routines in Los Angeles, Sonya Pankey Robinson, Jackie and Rachel Robinsonās granddaughter, threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Mookie Betts (himself a leading voice for increasing Black representation in baseball). Unfortunately, Rachel Robinson (age 103), who continues to be the guiding force for the Jackie Robinson Foundation that she established in 1973 shortly after her husbandās death, was not in attendance at Dodger Stadium Wednesday night.
The home team took the field wearing Brooklyn Dodgers hats, and proceeded to beat the visiting Mets by the score of 8-2. Shohei Ohtani continued his early-season dominance, throwing six innings, striking out ten, while allowing just two hits (both to MJ Melendez), and his first earned run of the season.
Prior to the game, JosĆ© Mota, the son of Dodger legend Manny Mota, who broadcasts Dodger games for SportsNet LA, told Forbes.com that in 1948, his father, just ten yearās old at the time, first saw Robinson play. During spring training in the Dominican Republic, and Mota and some other boys climbed a mango tree to look inside the ballpark and watch baseballās first ācoloredā player get ready for his sophomore season. That spring in the DR was special for Robinson, in that it was the first time that he stayed and swam in the same hotel as his teammates.
On Tuesday night, ESPNās Buster Olney had a chance to speak with the older Mota, MLBās all-time pinch-hit king, who told the reporter that Robinson was his hero.
On October 15, 1972, twenty-five years after his first appearance in a MLB game, the baseball establishment recognized the importance of the achievement, and Robinson gave a speech prior to Game 2 of the World Series in Cincinnati. He concluded his remarks that day with this famous line:
āI am extremely proud and pleased to be here this afternoon, but must admit that I am going to be tremendously more pleased and more proud when I look at that third-base coaching line one day and see a Black face managing in baseball. Thank you very much.ā
Those words would carry even more import insofar as Robinson died of a massive heart attack just nine days later. Two and half years after Robinson said those words, on April 8, 1975, future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson managed his first game for Cleveland, breaking yet another color barrier. Rachel Robinson threw out the first pitch.
While today the Dodgers and MLB hold the icon in the highest regard, ātwas not always thus. In fact, in 1969, barely a decade after he retired, Los Angeles issued his #42 to Ray Lamb, a 40th round draft pick. The right-handed pitcher made his MLB debut on August 1, 1969, and immediately gave up a double to Joe Torre. Lamb ultimately pitched three inning and gave up one run in what one might view as a righteous Dodger loss to St. Louis. The Dodgers retired Robinsonās #42 in 1972, followed by the rest of the league on the 50th anniversary ā April 15, 1997.
The statue of Jackie Robinson that sits at the āfront doorā of Dodger Stadium has three different quotes attributed to the man:
Statue of Jackie Robinson at Dodger Stadium. (Photo by Leon Bennett/WireImage)
WireImage
Today, the question of freedom still pervades our polity, and we know from history that many people did not like Jackie Robinson ā the man or the player. But, the arc of time has allowed Robinson to accrue a level of respect rarely seen outside of world or religious leaders. The impact his achievements and triumphs had on the lives of others is unquestioned. And, the results of Jackieās feats, performances, and words and deeds ā those that were celebrated at Dodger Stadium and fourteen other ballparks Wednesday night ā confirm for all time that Jackie Robinson lived an important life.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com