For those that don’t know, yesterday was Jackie Robinson day in baseball, and all players were wearing jerseys with no name on the back, just the number 42
I love me some baseball, and for the most part I love me some baseball tradition. Baseball does a good job of honoring it’s history and honoring tradition. I get that, I like it. I heartily endorse it.
I also know the tremendous story of Jackie Robinson, and all that he meant to baseball, and to society. It really is bigger than baseball, in many ways, and it’s a huge story in US history, and in race relations.
Still, the idea of all the players on the field, all the coaches, everyone who has a number, all having the same number bugs me. When I’m watching my team play, I want to see their numbers on their backs. Even other teams, I associate players with their traditional numbers, not number 42.
I liked the way they used to do it, where each team would choose one or two players to wear number 42, usually an African-American player to show the continuation of Jackie Robinson’s legacy. That seemed somehow more meaningful to me.
It was fun watching the beginning of the telecast of the Giants-Dodgers game last night. Vin Scully and John Miller were in the press box together doing the player introductions…
Leading off for the Dodgers, playing Second Base and wearing Number 42…
Leading off for the Giants, in Center Field, Number 42…
For the Dodgers, batting 2nd, the Left Fielder, Number 42…
Batting 2nd for the Giants and playing First Base, Number 42…
Had Major League Baseball simply allowed Black American players into the game ( the allowed Cubans for many years) there wouldn’t be a need for a “42 Day.” They didn’t and this is the result.
You know, I can rattle off the numbers of the first five guys in the Cubs lineup circa 1970…11 leading off (Kessinger), 18 hitting second (Beckert), then 26-10-14 (Williams-Santo-Banks). I think Randy Hundley was #9; don’t remember Jim Hickman’s number. And I know the numbers of a number (ha!) of other players of that time and the next few years.
But today, even though I follow baseball pretty closely, I’m not sure I know the numbers of more than a handful of players. I’m impressed that the OP does! So it doesn’t bother me at all to have everybody be 42. Obviously, YNumbersMV.
The best suggestion as to how to deal with both sides is for each team to designate a single player to wear 42. Thus, it honors Robinson and also the player chosen.
I guess I’m just not understanding why anything that any team does with their uniform for a day is problematic. Hell, I could even deal with the horribly ugly powder blue throwback uniforms the Dodgers used a few times a couple of years ago because it was infrequent.
And given the percentage of players who are in MLB today thanks to the color barrier being broken, it is probably both easier and preferable to let everyone participate, since the no-name players would probably never have a shot otherwise.
But then the question becomes “who gets to wear it, and why?” MLB did the easy thing and made everyone wear the number.
I have heard a rumor that the Latino players want to have a similar honor for Roberto Clemente and his number 21. I don’t know how much steam this has gathered, but there are so many latinos in baseball, I can’t see them not doing something like this eventually.
I think it would be a nice gesture to honor Clemente in the same way, because he did not have an easy time of it when he came up, either. Not nearly at the level of Robinson, but apparently it was ugly.
I don’t believe he was the first Latino, but he was the first who really made a significant mark on the game and was the first latino enshrined in the HOF… He is apparently an idolized figure in latin America in general and P.R. in particular.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear in my OP, but I have NO PROBLEM at all with the day of recognition. If anything, it probably isn’t enough for what Robinson accomplished
This. I felt the honor had more, well, honor, to it when it was the older system of just a few players wearing the number. Heck, I’ll let some actual African-American baseball players chime in. From the wiki entry on “Jackie Robinson day”:
Several players thought having over 150 players wearing number 42 on Jackie Robinson Day was far too many.[11] “This is supposed to be an honor”, Minnesota Twins outfielder Torii Hunter told USA Today, “and just a handful of guys wearing the number. Now you’ve got entire teams doing it. I think we’re killing the meaning. It should be special wearing Jackie’s number, not just because it looks cool.”[11][13] Cleveland Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia, who decried the lack of African-American players in the game in March 2007, told USA Today that “It kind of waters it down. I could see the Dodgers since that was his team, but not everyone else.”[11][13] “I didn’t know so many guys planned to wear the number. I sure wasn’t expecting whole teams to wear it”, Griffey told the USA Today. “But I’m not going to look at it as a negative. This is a tribute for what the man has done, a day to celebrate.” Garret Anderson, Los Angeles Angels left fielder, told the USA Today that he won’t wear number 42 because “I just don’t feel I’m worthy of it.”[11][13]
The wiki entry goes into a full history of how the day came about and how it has evolved, this is just a snippet that discusses the idea of ALL players wearing 42.
Don’t get the impression that this keeps me up at night or anything, just a preference. I remember being at a game when Andruw Jones was the sole Braves player on the field wearing 42. It just seemed a little more special than the generic, IMHO diluted, effect of all players sporting the number.
I’m all for honoring Jackie Robinson as well as Clemente if it’s done for him as well. But doesn’t it make it hard for umpires to keep track of who’s really in the game? Seems to me that the teams could make a fielding substitution with the umps being none the wiser.
I think that a) the umps can recognize the majority of the players, and b) if they can’t the opposing manager certainly can. Plus, c) can you imagine the publicity nightmare resulting from a manager trying to obfuscate a position change by manipulating the umps like that? It would be a major shit show, and likely result in the manager being fired.
Not so sure they’d notice if you swapped out two nondescript rookies. Boy, if you had identical twins one of which could hit and one of which could field, you’d really have it made.
I’m all for honoring Jackie Robinson but having all the players wear 42 for the day is just damn stupid. You can’t tell the players even with a scorecard. The whole point of having the players wear numbers is that so the guy in the upper deck can identify the players and now they can’t do that.
Just off the top of my head much better ways to honor Robinson would be to have the players all wear a patch honoring him, or have 1 player per team designated to wear 42, or dispense with the commercials on the scoreboard and replace them with a film about Robinson. But having all the players on every team wear 42 is just damn stupid.
Or one little person with another on his shoulders. But then, technically, only one would have a 42 jersey on their backs. Hrmm, I’ll have to think on this a bit more.