While most of the country associates April 15 as the dreaded "Tax Day" the rest of us know that today's date has much more meaning.
Happy Jackie Robinson Day.
Today is the 64th anniversary of the date when Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, becoming the first black man allowed to play the game outside the Negro League. The baseball legend played his first big league game with the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field on April 15, 1947. He went on to win the Rookie of the Year honors and play in six All-Star games.
After his retirement on January 5, 1957, Robinson continued to make an impact on American Culture during and after the Civil Rights movement until his death in 1972.
Rachel Robinson, Jackie's wife and the Founder of the Jackie Robinson Foundation; their daughter Sharon Robinson, Vice Chair of the Foundation; and two Jackie Robinson Scholars will be at Yankee Stadium this evening prior to their game against the Texas Rangers for a special on-field ceremony.
His life and legend is being recognized today around the entire league as every player and manager will don no. 42 with other ceremonies at many stadiums to honor his legacy.
We highly recommend you check out these videos on MLB.com of big league players' thoughts on the holiday.
3 comments:
Research is being done on baseball in the 19th century. It was recently discovered that baseball clubs were integrated until sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. What Jackie Robinson did was become the first African American player of modern baseball, re-integrating it. Still a very important milestone in the game's history.
Awesome MLB site!
What are they going to do with all the left over Robinson t-shirts from Tropicana Field tonight? No way there will be 10,000 people at that stadium.
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