First, off this entry is in no way a rip on Jackie Robinson himself. I understand what’s he did for the league, how heavy of a burden it was for him to play, and how many threats he received. I’ve read many articles and books on the subject, and I caught a feature on him on Sportscenter. A lot of the threats, etc were even coming from his own teammates. Because there was no free agency “back in the day”, the other Brooklyn Dodgers players were either forced to quit, or play this colored man. On his first game that was played today, 60 years ago he was 0-3 with a sac bunt, and eventually scored the winning run. An interesting fact: Johnny Sain, the pitcher who was the starter against Dodgers, playing for the Boston Braves, at the time throw the first pitch that Jackie Robinson saw as a Major Leaguer. Sain also threw the last pitch that Babe Ruth ever saw in exhibition game during war time in the earlier 40’s.

Anyway, for those of you haven’t read much about it, Bud “The Tool” Selig un-retired his number (42) and made it wearable for this day only. This first started with Ken Griffey Jr. He got verbal permission from Jackie’s widow. Then Selig decided to pour it WAY out of proportion. Other players started picking up the number for the day. Then multiple players did, then whole teams started donning the number for the day. I can understand that the Dodgers would all be wearing the number. Teams like the Astros have no African American players on their roster. Garret Anderson of the Los Angeles Angels said he would not wear the number because he was not worthy enough to wear the number. Torii Hunter of the Minnesota Twins came out publicly and said that it all being watered down, now that over 200 Major League players and coaches will be wearing the number. Only 64 African American are on active 25 man rosters at the moment.

To me, it’s all getting overly “watered down” too. Sure, Robinson was this big to baseball, it was just truly way over done. Again not to knock on Robinson, but also I think his number shouldn’t have been retired for ALL Major League teams. The Dodgers, of course, but the rest including teams that weren’t around at the time such as the Rockies and the Marlins? Not so much. There was some nice speeches during pre-game ceremonies. Another interesting tidbit I picked up from the Chicago Cubs game today; Wrigley Field is the only stadium left standing that Jackie Robinson played at. I think it would have been more than adequate to have the ceremonies, and for players to wear patches, and have the special stickers on the helmets. Also there were some nice field treatments that I saw. The whole thing with people wearing his numbers turned out to be such a big deal, and it really just bugs me. Joe Morgan was supporting Selig’s plan and was saying that it wasn’t watered down at all. Any player should be able to wear the number to pay homage towards him. Why not just uses the patches so everybody is commemorating him, but the number? Maybe it’s just my extreme dislike of Commissioner Selig, I don’t know.

What about the other players who “broke barriers? Masanori Murakami, who in 1964, started playing for the San Francisco Giants as the first Asian in Major League baseball. During the times of segregation and war, the Asian Americans were treated horribly. They were almost as bad as slaves while many worked on the railroads being built at the time. There was also camps during World War II to “store” Asians because they could all be “spies”. What about one of the earliest, if not the earliest Latino, Luis Castro from Columbia, who played way, way back in 1902. These guys broke barriers too, albeit they were not in the league nearly as long as Jackie Robinson, who only played 10 years. I’m guessing he was inducted into the Hall of Fame because of the barriers he broke as a person and not his stats as a player. He was a Rookie of the Year and a one time MVP, but never put up such huge stats much as Andre Dawson, who yet still hasn’t been voted into the Hall, but that’s for an entirely different entry.

What do all you folks think?