Sunday is the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the end of a color barrier that had been in place for most of baseball’s history. In honor of the day, Major League Baseball is planning something unusual:
MINNEAPOLIS, April 11 - Mariano Rivera was given No. 42 sometime during his rookie season in 1995, and it was two more years before he realized that Jackie Robinson had worn it for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The number was retired throughout baseball in 1997, except for active players who were then wearing it. The only one left is Rivera, who now feels a kinship with Robinson, who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947.
“The legacy that Jackie left for us, especially as a minority player like me, being the last one to wear No. 42 is an honor, and I do carry it with honor,” Rivera said Wednesday. “I’m blessed.”
This Sunday, on the 60th anniversary of Robinson’s major league debut, Major League Baseball is allowing all interested players to wear No. 42. The Yankees announced that Derek Jeter, Robinson Can? and Manager Joe Torre will join Rivera in wearing the number.
“He’s a guy you’ve got to thank every single day,” said Can?, who is named after Robinson. “We’re here because of him. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be here.”
Jeter said he sat next to Robinson’s widow, Rachel, at the New York Baseball Writers’ dinner after the 1996 World Series. Since then, Rachel Robinson has attended the dinner for Jeter’s foundation.
“I’ve always had the utmost respect for her and her daughter,” Jeter said. “It’s a great family. If there was one player I could play with or talk to, it would be Jackie Robinson.”
Torre grew up a New York Giants fan, and he said he rooted against Robinson. But years later, when Torre was a major leaguer and Robinson was working for Chock Full o’Nuts, he met Robinson and shook his hand.
“As a teenager growing up, you’d play sandlot ball and get little trophies, even if it was just a hitter on top of a little stand, and it’d be him,” Torre said. “On some of them, you could see the outline of the little ?42′ on his back. He was a model for more than just the freedom to do what you want.”
The idea to honor Robinson by wearing his number originated with the Cincinnati Reds’ Ken Griffey Jr., who asked Commissioner Bud Selig for permission. Rivera said baseball should have gone a step further and required all players to wear 42 for the day.
Well, I don’t know if that’s necessary, not to mention that it would’ve been weird seeing an entire team of 42’s on the field. Nonetheless, its a cool way to honor a great player.
