Robinson gets a statue at Dodger Stadium

LOS ANGELES » He was the first black man to play in the major leagues, ending six decades of racial segregation, and a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Fittingly, Jackie Robinson is the first to be honored with a statue at Dodger Stadium. It will be unveiled Saturday on the 70th anniversary of his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Two years ago on Jackie Robinson Day, owner and chairman Mark Walter suggested a sculpture belonged at Dodger Stadium of the six-time AllStar second baseman who starred when the team was in Brooklyn.

“He just felt it was an idea whose time had come,” said Janet Marie Smith, the team’s senior vice president of planning and development.

The 77-inch tall bronze statue depicts Robinson as a rookie in 1947 stealing home, a nod to his aggressive baserunning.

On the statue’s granite base are three of Robinson’s quotes as chosen by the family, including wife Rachel’s favorite: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

Now 94, Rachel Robinson is traveling from the East Coast to attend the unveiling, along with daughter Sharon and son David. Their other son, Jackie Jr., died in a car accident in 1971.

Carew’s new heart, kidney came from late NFL player

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CALIF. » Hall of Famer Rod Carew received a new heart and kidney from the late NFL player Konrad Reuland in what is believed to be the first such transplant involving pro athletes.

Carew underwent the procedure last December and met Reuland’s family in March after mutual friends connected Reuland’s death with news of Carew’s transplant on Dec. 16. Reuland had died four days earlier after a ruptured brain aneurysm at age 29.

Reuland attended middle school in Southern California with Carew’s children, and he met Carew when he was 11. “The whole thing is just unbelievable,” Carew told American Heart Association News.