MLB calls for justice continue
Major League Baseball observed a Jackie Robinson Day like no other Friday, with teams celebrating a man who broke the sport’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 while the racial reckoning continued.
Ten baseball games were postponed over two days as some teams joined other sports like the NBA, WNBA and MLS in protesting social injustice.
Jackie Robinson Day is usually on April 15, but the celebration was moved to
Aug. 28 this season to accommodate the COVID-19-altered schedule, which started in late July. The date was chosen because it is the anniversary of the March on Washington in 1963 and also the day in 1945 when Dodgers GM Branch Rickey met with Robinson to discuss breaking the color barrier.
“I think (Robinson) would want us to talk about change,” said Rockies outfielder Matt Kemp, who is Black. “Coming up in the Dodgers organization and the name Jackie Robinson, it just meant so much more. I wore the jersey that
Jackie Robinson wore back in the day. To be around guys like Don Newcombe and Maury Wills, you get to hear stories about things that people have never heard.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone broke down in tears during a media briefing and left the room when he was asked about his two Black adopted sons Friday. He returned a few minutes later, still shaken.
“I would just say, I know I’m talking to a lot of people out there, it’s a hard, heavy year, and a heartbreaking year in so many ways,” Boone said.