Robinson’s ‘strength, courage’ hailed across MLB
LOS ANGELES — Major League Baseball marked the 77th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the sport’s color barrier on Monday.
Robinson started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, marking the end of the racial segregation that had relegated Black players to the Negro Leagues for decades.
“Jackie Robinson became the most vilified, targeted subject of verbal abuse and malicious treatment in the sports arena since Jack Johnson had the audacity to become heavyweight champion of the world in 1908,” sociologist and civil rights activist Harry Edwards said at Dodger Stadium. “Like Jack Johnson, Jackie Robinson stood alone.”
Members of Robinson’s family, including his 101-year-old widow, were at ballparks from coast to coast to honor him.
At New York’s Citi Field, Rachel Robinson rode in a golf cart to the Mets dugout, where she was given flowers by manager Carlos Mendoza and retired players Mookie Wilson and Butch Huskey — the last Met to wear Robinson’s No. 42.
“She’s the legacy of perseverance,” said David Robinson, the youngest son of Jackie and Rachel Robinson.
The Robinson family is in attendance for a very special day 💙 #Jackie42 pic.twitter.com/AkJaiIbACy
— New York Mets (@Mets) April 15, 2024
Every team playing Monday wore No. 42 jerseys.
Robinson’s life story is particularly poignant to the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts, the first manager of Asian heritage and second Black manager to lead a team to a World Series title.
“He had a big burden in his life to be a professional baseball player but to take on all this negativity, this hate towards him, his wife, his kids, and still persevere,” Roberts said.
Players and staff from the Dodgers, including Shohei Ohtani, and the Washington Nationals surrounded Robinson’s statue in Centerfield Plaza hours before game time in Los Angeles.
“I can’t say enough of what Jackie Robinson’s meant to not only the Black community but the Hispanic community, as well,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez told the group. “He opened the doors for many, many great players, he really did, and he changed the lives of many, including myself. I don’t know if I would be here if it wasn’t for Jackie. My idol Roberto Clemente definitely, probably, wouldn’t have been around.”
“He exemplifies what it means to have strength, courage and passion,” Martinez said of Robinson.
Reggie Smith, who never played on a losing team in his 13-year MLB career, recalled nervously speaking to Robinson when they were on the same flight from Los Angeles to the East Coast. Smith introduced himself and said Robinson told him, “I know who you are, and I know what you stand for.”
“That meant so much to me,” Smith told the players. “Whenever there was injustice on that ballfield of any kind, I would speak up because he gave me the courage to be able to do that.”
The Dodgers and Nationals also were joined by Ayo Robinson, a granddaughter of Jackie and Rachel Robinson who was born after Jackie’s death in 1972. Her father is David Robinson.
“I soak up my grandfather through the experience of others,” she said after the ceremony. “The fact that he is still so impactful in our society today means a lot to me as a person, but it means a lot to me as an American, as well.”
Smith urged today’s MLB players to remember Jackie Robinson and his travails, which included being barred from hotels and restaurants because of his skin color as well as on-field verbal abuse from fans and opposing teams.
“Keep it in mind so that this game can continue to move forward the way that it has over the last years,” Smith said, “and be thankful that you’re here and you’re able to do the things that you do day in and day out.”
In related news, former National League Cy Young Award winner Orel Hershiser, the 1988 World Series MVP for the Dodgers, has purchased a painting titled “Grace” that depicts Robinson praying around a dinner table with Martin Luther King Jr. and former Dodgers greats Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe.
Hershiser plans to keep the painting at its current home, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
“I’m honored to be its owner,” he said in a statement. “It marks a very important historical time, and it is important to keep this piece where people can learn about this moment.”
Artist Dave Hobrecht donated his painting for display at the museum in 2020, but the wooden canvas was damaged during shipment, resulting in a crack that completely detached the bottom portion of the image from the rest.
Hobrecht and museum president Bob Kendrick decided to reframe the piece and keep it the way it arrived.
“Not having a breakable spirit, that’s Jackie Robinson,” Kendrick said in the statement. “We decided to unveil it with the damage and that it would be a metaphor that beautifully captures what Jackie was all about.”
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Jeff Passan, ESPN
Major League Baseball plans to address its uniform fiasco after changes this spring to the standard jerseys and pants led to widespread complaints from players and fans, according to a memo obtained Sunday night by ESPN.
The prominent modifications include a return to larger lettering on the back of jerseys, remedying mismatched gray tops and bottoms and addressing the new Nike jerseys’ propensity to collect sweat, according to the memo distributed to players by the MLB Players Association on Sunday.
The changes, which will happen at the latest by the beginning of the 2025 season, will also include fixes to the pants, widely panned this spring for being see-through.
The union informed players of the coming changes in a letter that placed the blame on Nike and the debut of its Vapor Premier uniform, which was advertised for its superior performance but remains disliked by players.
“This has been entirely a Nike issue,” the memo to players read. “At its core, what has happened here is that Nike was innovating something that didn’t need to be innovated.”
The union also absolved Fanatics, the manufacturer of the uniform that has received the majority of public scorn for the uniform mess, saying the company “recognizes the vital importance of soliciting Player feedback, obtaining Player buy-in and not being afraid to have difficult conversations about jerseys or trading cards. Our hope is that, moving forward, Nike will take a similar approach.”
While the new uniformed debuted at the 2023 All-Star Game, its rollout this spring led to reams of bad publicity. The shrinking of the letter size on players’ name plates gave jerseys an amateur look. The pants — which, according to the memo, will “return to the higher quality zipper used in 2023” — had myriad issues, including the see-through fabric, a lack of tailoring and rips and tears that players believed unnecessary.
Nike’s partnership with MLB began in 2019, when it took over as the league’s official uniform supplier as part of a 10-year, $1 billion deal for MLB. Fanatics has partnerships with the league and the union, both of which have invested in the company and own small stakes.
“We cautioned Nike against various changes when they previewed them in 2022, particularly regarding pants,” the union memo read. “MLB had been, and has been, aware of our concerns as well. Unfortunately, until recently Nike’s position has essentially boiled down to — ‘nothing to see here, Players will need to adjust.'”
MLB declined to comment. Nike did not offer immediate comment when reached by ESPN. Fanatics did not respond to a request for comment. The MLBPA declined to comment.
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Neil Paine
The first week-plus of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs has already provided much in the way of excitement and bone-crunching action. The average playoff game has featured 89.5 combined hits by both teams — nearly double the league average (45.5) from the regular season, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
With so much chaos, there are plenty of teams that have exceeded — or fallen short of — expectations already.
For instance, the defending champion Vegas Golden Knights have been mighty impressive, taking a 2-1 lead over a Dallas Stars team that had led the league in goal differential during the regular season. But on the disappointing side, the Toronto Maple Leafs have fallen behind 3-1 in their series against the Boston Bruins, and the Los Angeles Kings are in a 3-1 hole versus the Edmonton Oilers.
Let’s run through the clubs that fit into each category, based on their playoff goal differentials as compared with what we’d expect from their pre-series power ratings and their opponent’s (adjusting for home-ice advantage). We’ll also highlight a player who has contributed to the state of his team, for good or bad, in the playoffs thus far.
We’ll start with the positive side of things. Here are three teams that have impressed the most:
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