Home > Sport

Baseball fans have reason to celebrate
By Eric Lansing
lansing@mscd.edu

In light of the 60th anniversary of what is recognized as the pivotal moment in sports integration, there is finally something positive to write about in the world of professional baseball: Jackie Robinson.

A few weeks back, I wrote a column about the diseases that plague Major League Baseball and its 2007 season. Well, now I can turn away from the dismal side of the game and turn toward one of inspiration and courage.

Robinson’s name echoes throughout the entire sports world as does his legacy of breaking the color barrier in baseball and fighting through the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s, even after his baseball career.

And let’s not forget that Robinson was a great player. I think that gets lost behind all of his struggles with injustice, and understandably so. But Robinson wasn’t just a man who crashed color boundaries; he was an excellent athlete on the diamond as well. He won Major League Baseball’s first Rookie of the Year Award in his inaugural season, while leading the league with 29 stolen bases. He was nominated for six All-Star Game appearances, won the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 1949, and played in six World Series, including a title in 1955 over the Yankees.

Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Those first steps he took toward his position at first base were huge strides in abolishing racism and bigotry in not only the game he played in, but in the world he lived in.

Fifty years later, in 1997, MLB wanted to remember the man who pushed through racial discrimination by retiring No. 42, so that no player would be assigned the number again. Soon after, most ballparks displayed a No. 42 on the outfield wall, showcasing it in remembrance of Robinson’s accomplishments.

So on April 15, in honor of Robinson’s 60th anniversary, more than 150 players wore the No. 42, including five entire teams. That had to be tough for the statisticians who needed to record hits, runs or double plays.

Baseball has always brought the most historical tradition to the table – more so than any other sport in the U.S. – and it is exciting to see baseball teams and players focusing on what it is good about the game of baseball, instead of the headlining steroid accusations that we hear about every other day.

Sigh. I was hoping to go through an entire column without mentioning something negative, but it came to my attention that Torii Hunter, a black outfielder for the Minnesota Twins, made it known that he didn’t think white players should be allowed to wear Robinson’s number. He didn’t give a reason why, other than that it is simply his opinion.

Have we learned nothing from Jackie Robinson?

Robinson joined an all-white baseball league to not only to represent blacks as skilled athletes equal to whites, but to destroy that prejudicial line that segregates all races from being a single unity. And Brooklyn Dodger club president and general manager Branch Rickey hired Robinson with the very same hopes and intentions.

Anyway, I hope one ignorant player didn’t bring down a celebratory and beautifully historic day in baseball history and black history. Let’s just hope Mr. Hunter rereads the history books and discovers what April 15 really stands for.

As Robinson put it, “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me … all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”