April 15, 2007: MLB started the tradition of wearing # 42 for Jackie Robinson
Tuesday, April 15, 2025 4:25
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Back in 2007, MLB celebrated the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson starting for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Padres played the Dodgers on ESPN. It was a special night. Every Dodger was wearing # 42. They’ve been wearing # 42 every April 15th since to remember Robinson.
During the game, Jon Miller and Joe Morgan spoke with Mrs. Robinson. She looked great and as upbeat as ever.
Of course, we forget that Jackie died young. I was reminded of this by watching an old video from the ’72 World Series (his last public appearance) and reading Taking a Bat to Prejudice By George Will:
“By 1956, Robinson’s last season, he had lost his second-base position to Jim Gilliam, a black man. Robinson died of diabetes-related illnesses in 1972, at 53, the same age Babe Ruth was when he died. Ruth reshaped baseball; Robinson’s life still reverberates through all of American life. As Martin Luther King Jr., who was 18 in 1947, was to say, Robinson was “a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides.”
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Source: http://cantotalk.blogspot.com/2017/09/april-15-2007-mlb-started-tradition-of.html
