“Celebrating” Jackie Robinson

In Major League Baseball, Other Topics by Rice Cube60 Comments

Today is April 15, which happens to be tax day (hope you remembered to file before now because who knows if you’re going to get a refund these days), and it also happens to be the league-wide celebration of one of the most iconic players in MLB history, Jackie Robinson. Robinson, of course, was officially the first Black American player in MLB in 1947, won Rookie of the Year, MVP a couple seasons later, and helped take the Dodgers to six World Series, finally beating those damn Yankees in 1955 for his lone championship in that stretch. By that year, there were more Black players on the Dodgers (and elsewhere), with fellow contemporary stars Roy Campanella, Jim Gilliam, and pitcher Joe Black joining Robinson for that championship run. It cannot be overstated how important Jackie Robinson’s bravery and his immense success was to paving the way for future waves of African-Americans and other people of color to join MLB and thrive. Unfortunately, we have to put “celebrating” in quotes because…are they really?

I’m trying not to mention anyone by name, but you know who is primarily responsible for freaking out whenever the letters D, E, and I are in too close of proximity to each other. The whole row about the Department of Defense pretty much blitzing Robinson’s military service is well-documented, even finding its way onto ESPN. The Jackie Robinson Foundation’s site is rather coy, removing too many mentions of skin color, race, inclusion, etc from its summaries, but definitely not shy in showing the successes of its many obviously African-American mentees, while the Museum is much more overt about Robinson’s legacy:

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era and achieved Hall of Fame status. He later became the first African American to hold an officer-level position at a major corporation, served as an advisor to top politicians, actively promoted economic empowerment by co-founding a bank and a housing development company, and of course was a key figure in advancing equal justice and first-class citizenship from the 1950s until his death in 1972. Hailed a “…freedom rider before freedom rides,” Robinson’s name has become synonymous with breaking barriers.

Source: Jackie Robinson Museum

I have not received any communications from MLB or the Cubs lately, but as you know, Shota Imanaga will start for the Cubs against the Padres tonight on Jackie Robinson Day, although the article MLB dot com posted is astonishingly whitewashed, mentioning plenty of luminaries (including Mrs. Robinson, she’s 102!) and guests and of course the Nike “Breaking Barriers” merch but almost bending over backwards to avoid mentioning race or equity. At the end, they do talk about why MLB established this day of commemoration, to mark when Jackie Robinson broke MLB’s color barrier, but that’s it.

I’m unsure how the individual teams or their keynote guests will handle it. Kansas City is playing in New York so at some point later on I assume when they get back they’ll invite the folks from the Negro Leagues Museum to the park to speak on it, but I honestly don’t know if anyone throughout the league-wide celebration will dare mention the dreaded three letter combo. As folks on social media have put it, MLB really chickened out after an at best questionable mandate from above, where they all but erase the legacy of a man they still intend to profit off of. It’s actually kind of surprising they allowed Castrovince to write this article on their website, but at this point, until things change for the better again, I guess we’ll take what we can get.

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  1. Author
    Rice Cube

    I of course used to teach in inner city Chicago with primarily African-American and Latino students, so after my experiences I remain an advocate for the D, E, and I

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  7. berselius

    Matt Shaw —> Iowa

    Palencia —> Cubs
    Little —-> Cubs

    No word on whether the other move is Morgan to the IL or Pearson to Siberia

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  8. Author
    Rice Cube

    All hail Brujan

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  11. Perkins

    I would not have guessed Don Kessinger had that many All Star appearances.

    Daily Walkoff ⚾️
    Cubs #228

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    dailywalkoff.com

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  32. berselius

    Cubs playing the west coast road trip hits in this series. Bullpen meltdown, cubesian defense, million guys left on base, getting shut down by a fifth starter

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  40. berselius

    berselius:
    Cubs playing the west coast road trip hits in this series. Bullpen meltdown, cubesian defense, million guys left on base, getting shut down by a fifth starter

    Forgot to include Rick Sutcliffe in the booth in the list of self inflicted wounds.

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  54. BVS

    RC. Totally with you on the DEI commentary above. For one thing, I’ve never seen DEI programs hire someone who was unqualified. Though to be honest, hiring policies I’ve been involved with have always been related to affirmative action policy, while DEI was more about workplace culture, respect, and educational opportunities.

    Has MLB ever cared about Jackie aside from making $$$ ?

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  56. BVS

    (dying laughing) at post game talking about how much better the bullpen was tonight as if they didn’t send 1/2 of the RPs from last night off the active roster.

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