Last week, on April 15th, Major League Baseball celebrated the life and legacy of one of the all-time greatest baseball players, Jackie Robinson. On Jackie Robinson Day, every player on every team wears Jackie’s number: 42. This year was the 69th anniversary of the day Jackie broke baseball’s color barrier by becoming the first African American to play in a Major League Baseball game. Beginning in 2004, Jackie Robinson Day has become an annual baseball tradition. In fact, Jackie remains the only MLB player to have his number retired by all 30 Major League teams. The last player to wear the number 42 was Mariano Rivera, a pitcher for the New York Yankees who retired in 2013.
If I were to construct a Mount Rushmore for the people whom I admire the most, Jackie Robinson’s face would surely be etched into the mountain. Jackie Robinson was the first African American player to play on a professional MLB baseball team, thus breaking baseball’s color barrier. Before Jackie, black athletes were relegated to playing on black professional baseball teams in the Negro leagues, without the sponsorships and pay checks that players on MLB teams received. Even after he began playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he faced immense adversity due to the color of his skin. When travelling with his team to cities across the country, Jackie was often forced to find his own place to say because the hotels his team stayed at would not allow blacks to sleep in their rooms. When playing in opposing teams’ stadiums, ruthless fans would hurl insults and throw food at Jackie as he batted. Even some of Jackie’s own teammates refused to play on the same team as him and threatened to sit out games as long as Jackie was on the team. In one instance, an opposing pitcher purposefully hit Jackie in the head with a pitch. Instead of retaliating, Jackie calmly took the walk to get on first base, and let his actions and baseball skills do the talking. On the next pitch, Jackie stole second base, then third base, and finally, he stole home (stealing home plate is one of the rarest feats in all of sports). He showed off his amazing speed and for the rest of the game, none of the opposing players or fans said anything to him. This example perfectly shows why Jackie deserves so much respect: even when experiencing enormous injustice and being hit by 100+ miles per hour pitches, Jackie never lost his cool. He never once let his anger overcome him, and instead used his anger to fuel his performance on the field. In 1947, he became the first ever recipient of the Rookie of the Year Award, and he even won the National League MVP award in 1949. Singlehandedly, Jackie changed American sports overnight, and he paved the way for minorities such as myself to be able to participate in sports.
Having been on the recent PLA Civil Rights Tour and learning more about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, I now have a greater appreciation for the hardships and immense challenges athletes like Jackie Robinson must have had to face as the first minorities to play in a “white man’s” league. Jackie Robinson personified the ideals of a true leader: always be the bigger person, and let your performance and actions speak for themselves.
Here is a trailer for the movie “42” about Jackie’s life.
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