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#42, African Americans, baseball, blacks, Brooklyn Dodgers, Bruin Nation, Bruins, Civil Rights Movement, Dodgers, Jackie Robinson, Jackie Robinson Day, little league, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Martin Luther King, MLB, softball, UCLA, UCLA Bruins, University of California Los Angeles
OUR ANNUAL TRIBUTE TO THE GREATEST DODGER & UCLA BRUIN OF ALL TIME ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BREAKING BASEBALL’S COLOR BARRIER
“Were there better players? Sure. But were there better men? No.” – Bob Costas (my favorite quote about the Dodger/UCLA/sports/American legend)
I’m sitting here in my living room, wearing my slightly-too-small Jackie Robinson #42 Dodger jersey, which I wear every year on this day, as I type this.
I have made it a point to do a Jackie Robinson commemoration tribute on this blog on this day every year since I started it; I figure it’s the least I could do to honor to this greatest of all Dodgers and Bruins.
Three things are foremost in my mind with regards to this man right now…
First,
That aside from his sports exploits – his breaking baseball’s racist color barrier seventy-four years ago today, his lifetime .311 average as a Dodger, his being the first Black man elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, his being the only person in UCLA history to letter in four sports, and on and on and on – what I consider perhaps his greatest greatness comes to mind;
How Jackie was heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement after his baseball career was done, going on marches – notably the March on Washington in 1963 – with Dr. Martin Luther King, visiting Southern cities to help and advocate black voter registration, campaigning for candidates who he felt were in favor of Civil Rights, and generally doing much to advocate racial progress along with starting black businesses like the Freedom National Bank.
In other words, Jackie did so much to better the plight of the African American community, to improve the economic, political, and social lives of such.
The second thing that comes to mind with regards to this great man lies in what I do whenever someone badmouths the Dodgers or UCLA, saying that USC or the Angels or the San Francisco Giants or some other team or school is better;
I just begin my reply with two words whenever I hear that negativity…
JACKIE ROBINSON
Then I double dog dare them to name someone from their team or school who was better than Jackie, who made more of an impact on sports, this country, and the world than he.
That pretty much shuts them up every time.
For all those Dodger fans or fellow members of Bruin Nation out there who have haters trash the Dodgers or Bruins,
If you follow my suggestion of pulling the Jackie Robinson card, I can 99.99% guarantee that you will enjoy the results.
And third,
For a while I have felt that Major League Baseball should not be the only sports entity to retire #42.
It’s my conviction that every baseball and softball organization, from Little League to all travel ball clubs to all high school, college, and minor league teams,
As well as all baseball and softball teams in countries like Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and every other country that has baseball and softball leagues,
Should forever retire the #42, making it illegal for anyone to ever don that number for all eternity.
Except on Jackie Robinson Day, of course.
While I honestly doubt that retiring the #42 worldwide at every level will ever happen, I feel that it’s something Jackie’s legacy deserves.
But that’s just my opinion.
In the meantime, I trust that you are wearing the appropriate gear today, whether it’s a #42 Dodger jersey or t-shirt or a cap.
I reckon next year’s Jackie Robinson Day will be significantly huge, being that it will be the 75th anniversary of his breaking baseball’s color line and having that sport be, according to Ken Burns’ classic 1994 Baseball documentary,
“…in truth, what (baseball) always claimed to be: the National Pastime.”
To state the painfully obvious, I’m very much looking forward to that.
Until then…