LOS ANGELES – Monday marked the 77th anniversary of Jackie Robinson making his debut with the Dodgers, and Robinson was celebrated in Main League Baseball, with all the uniformed workers sporting the quantity 42 in his honor.
At Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers hosted the Nationals, and earlier than the sport Magic Johnson was on the sector to current a video tribute to Rachel Robinson, Jackie's widow who’s now 101 years previous.
Within the video, titled “Pricey Rachel,” Mookie Betts, Jason Heyward, Dave Roberts, Dusty Baker, James Loney, Jerry Hairston Jr., Billie Jean King, Stan Kasten, Dr. Harry Edwards, Dodgers Basis CEO Nichol Whiteman, and Los U Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was amongst those that spoke.
“You've been the spine of that household for thus a few years,” Roberts stated within the video.
“Jackie and you’ve got been round for thus lengthy,” King stated. “However each time I see the quantity 42, it means freedom and equality for all. The contributions you each made will stay endlessly.
Through the sport, between innings, a number of extra movies performed, wherein Betts, Heyward and Whiteman defined what Rachel and Jackie Robinson meant to them.
About 4 hours earlier than the pregame festivities on discipline, Dodgers and Nationals gamers and coaches meet on the Jackie Robinson statue within the heart discipline plaza at Dodger Stadium. It’s the second 12 months in a row that the Dodgers and their opponents on April 15 have been summoned to the statue; Final 12 months, the Cubs have been on the town, and Heyward addressed his previous after which new groups.
This 12 months, Roberts launched two audio system to the statue, with Reggie Smith main the best way.
Following Smith was Dr. Harry Edwards, writer and longtime civil rights activist, who gave a rousing speech wherein he argued that Robinson ought to be posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for all of his work. life
“He answered a belligerent, belligerent prejudice with bravery and sensible baseball,” Edwards stated.
Roberts later stated that he first met Smith when Roberts performed with the Dodgers (from 2002 to 2004), and launched him as an awesome good friend and mentor. In 2021, Roberts added Smith to his teaching workers for the All-Star Recreation.
Smith referred to as Robinson a hero of his childhood, and marveled on the instance Robinson set for Black kids in all places.
“It allowed us as African-American gamers to have the ability to present that our SAT scores have been pretty much as good as anyone else's,” Smith stated. “Meaning we have been Good, we have been Athletic, and we have been Robust.”
On March 28, 1970, Robinson was at Dodger Stadium as a part of a kind of East-West All-Star Recreation simply earlier than the MLB season, an occasion to honor Dr. Martin Luther King. Again in 2018, Michael A. Fletcher wrote in regards to the star-studded occasion for Andscape, and Invoice Francis famous that the occasion featured 15 future Corridor of Famers.
Smith, then with the Purple Sox, was there too, simply days shy of his twenty fifth birthday and getting into his fifth main league season, having made his first All-Star staff the season earlier than. On a airplane journey to New York to affix the Purple Sox for Opening Day, Smith was on the identical flight as Robinson.
“I'm on the airplane, sitting in an aisle seat, and within the aisle got here Jackie Robinson. He was driving, as he had some issues along with his sight on the time, and he sat within the seat of the aisle proper subsequent to me,” Smith informed the assembled Dodgers and Nationals gamers.
“I'm certain you've skilled it your self when a child comes as much as you and tells you that you simply're his favourite participant, and he's somewhat nervous. I used to be a five-year main league participant on the time, and I used to be nervous ” stated Smith. “However I mustered up the braveness to say, 'Mr. Robinson, my identify is Reggie Smith.
“He stated, 'I do know who you might be, and I do know what you stand for,' and that meant a lot to me. As a result of at the moment, each time there was an injustice on that ball discipline or at any time, he would discuss to me, as a result of he gave me the braveness to have the ability to do this. And I'm grateful for that.”
