Wave Staff and Wire Report
LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers joined the rest of Major League Baseball in marking the 79th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color line April 15, gathering with the New York Mets at the statue of Robinson in Dodger Stadium’s Centerfield Plaza to discuss his continued influence on the sport.
The Dodgers have been gathering at the statue on Jackie Robinson Day annually since 2021 to hear manager Dave Roberts and others talk about Robinson. In 2023, they began being joined by their opponent.
The spark for the joint gathering was a request by the Chicago Cubs’ social media team to attend the ceremony. The Dodgers then asked then-Cubs manager David Ross if he would like his team to join the Dodgers and he accepted.
Ross began his major league playing career with the Dodgers in 2002 and Roberts was among his teammates.
Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Robinson’s granddaughters, Sonya Pankey Robinson and Ayo Robinson, and Nichol McKenzie-Whiteman, the CEO of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, also spoke.
“Every player of color who now enjoys our great sport, they owe it to this man,” Kendrick said. “What he did was incredibly difficult under some of the most harsh circumstances you could ever imagine. He had to go out there and deal not only with the racial hatred but he was carrying 21 million Black folks on his back when he walked across those lines.
“Had he failed, an entire race of people would have failed. That’s an enormous amount of pressure. How he did it with such grace, class and dignity is absolutely incredible. And no, we should never forget Jackie Robinson.”
Jackie Robinson Foundation scholars also attended the afternoon ceremony.
Members of the NCAA champion UCLA women’s basketball team brought their trophy to the game and threw out an honorary first pitch. Robinson was the first UCLA athlete to letter in four sports — baseball, basketball, football and track and field.
Pankey Robinson threw out the ceremonial first pitch and Kendrick, Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholars, Ayo Robinson and McKenzie-Whiteman made the announcement that precedes every Dodger game at Dodger Stadium, “It’s time for Dodger baseball.”
Robinson’s widow, Rachel Robinson, founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation in 1973, the year following her husband’s death at the age of 53. It provides four-year college scholarships to disadvantaged students of color.
The Jackie Robinson Foundation is among the beneficiaries of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, the team’s charitable arm whose mission is “to improve education, health care, homelessness, and social justice for all Angelenos.”
All players, coaches and managers wore Robinson’s No. 42 for all major league games April 15 as they have done on each Jackie Robinson Day since 2009, with all teams using Dodger blue for their “42” jersey numbers regardless of their primary team colors for the fifth consecutive year.
All players, coaches, managers and umpires wore caps with a “42” side patch and royal blue 42 socks.
The recognition also included commemorative base jewels, lineup cards and “Breaking Barriers” batting practice shirts.
The No. 42 was retired throughout Major League Baseball in 1997, on the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s April 15, 1947, debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Robinson — who was raised in Pasadena and attended Muir High School and Pasadena City College — went hitless in four at-bats in his major league debut, but scored what proved to be the winning run in Brooklyn’s 5-3 victory over the Boston Braves in front of a crowd announced at 25,623 at Ebbets Field.
Robinson played his entire major league career with Brooklyn, helping lead the Dodgers to six National League pennants during his 10 seasons, and, in 1955, their only World Series championship in Brooklyn. Robinson’s successful integration of Major League Baseball is credited with helping change Americans’ attitudes toward Black players and being a catalyst toward later civil rights advances.
