Today would have been Jackie Robinson’s 100th birthday. He passed away almost twenty years before I was born, and yet, I’ve been an obsessive fan all my life.
I don’t remember ever not knowing who Jackie Robinson was, thanks to my grandfather who grew up in Brooklyn and shared both his knowledge and love of the borough and their team with me. I knew Robinson as the second baseman he was, though he had started his big league career at first base, the position my grandfather played. I knew of his reputation for stealing bases, especially home plate, and that in each of his six World Series appearances he played against the Yankees. But, though I learned to love and respect Robinson through baseball, I think his legacy of advocacy for civil rights and his fearlessness in speaking truth to power resonate particularly clearly in our divided country today.
As Robinson said, “The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.” That quote shouldn’t still be as relevant today as it is, but perhaps that means we should read it more closely than we have before.
In 1997 all of Major League Baseball retired Robinson’s number, meaning no one who was not already playing as #42 could ever wear the number again in any league, on any team. It’s especially fitting that Mariano Rivera was so recently the first unanimously elected player to the baseball hall of fame (January 22), as he is, and will forever be, the last player to wear the number 42 as a player in the Major Leagues.