LOS ANGELES – Major League Baseball celebrated the 75th anniversary of the day Jackie Robinson broke the major leagues’ color barrier with an appreciation of his trailblazing life and an evaluation of how much further the sport still must go.
Every player, coach and umpire on Friday wore Robinson’s No. 42, as they have since 2009 on April 15 – now known as Jackie Robinson Day. But for the first time, everyone wore the numerals in the famed Dodger blue to highlight this milestone anniversary of the day Robinson first took the field with the Dodgers at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field in 1947.
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes the day is an important vehicle to raise awareness and to continue to shape attitudes in the sport and beyond.
“Jackie was all about looking out and looking forward,” said Roberts, who in 202020 became the second Black manager to win the World Series. “So to appreciate how far we’ve come is certainly fair, but more important is where we need to go. That’s what pushes and challenges all of us to keep getting better and to make change. … What Jackie did was incredible, but we’ve got to keep going.”
Four hours before the Dodgers’ game against the Cincinnati Reds, Roberts led his players out to the park behind the outfield bleachers at Dodger Stadium, to the plaza where a statue of Robinson has stood since 2017. The Dodgers gathered around and listened to remarks from Robinson’s son, David.