Robinson statue slides into a home
First statue at Dodger Stadium ties his Brooklyn and Los Angeles roots
LOS ANGELES — A bronze statue of Jackie Robinson stealing home was unveiled Saturday at Dodger Stadium, an idea stemming from a meeting shortly after the team’s new ownership took control in 2012.
Dodgers chairman Mark Walter had just met Robinson’s wife, Rachel, when he rose and approached her.
“He pulled Mrs. Robinson aside and said, ‘We’re going to get a statue of your husband,’” team co-owner Magic Johnson said. “And he backed it up.”
It’s the first statue at Dodger Stadium, and its unveiling came on the 70th anniversary of Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier. Baseball celebrates an annual Jackie Robinson Day on April 15, when all players and coaches wear his No. 42.
“Every advancement in society has come from people standing on the shoulders of giants,” Dodgers President Stan Kasten said. “And in the history of baseball, in the history of our country, few people have stood taller than Jackie Robinson.”
A pregame ceremony included Frank Robinson, baseball’s first black manager; Dodgers Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully; Robinson’s children Sharon and David; Kasten and Johnson.
Rachel Robinson, 94, was also in attendance, as was Robinson’s former teammates Sandy Koufax, Don Newcombe and Tommy Lasorda.
“This was a great moment for all Dodger fans, for baseball fans,” Johnson said. “I’m just happy. I’m bubbling over.
“It’s funny, I’m more happy because of his statue than the two I got [Staples Center, Michigan State].”
David Robinson was born in 1952, too young to grasp his father’s impact as a child, but he said he understands it clearly now.
“Baseball really has achieved a coming together of people over the 70 years and is continuing that great impact on society,” David Robinson said.
The 77-inch tall bronze statue depicts Robinson as a rookie in 1947 stealing home, a nod to his aggressive baserunning. It weighs 700 pounds and is secured with a 150-pound steel rod. It stands in the left field reserve plaza, with sweeping views of downtown Los Angeles in one direction and Elysian Park in the other.
Janet Marie Smith, the Dodgers senior vice president for development, said the location was chosen because it’s where the majority of fans enter the hillside ballpark that opened 55 years ago.
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.”
“Our goal was to both celebrate Jackie Robinson as an athlete and to acknowledge the important role he had in civil rights and social change in America,” Smith said.
The family shared numerous photos of Robinson with sculptor Branly Cadet of Oakland, California.
“They really wanted me to get the likeness and I assured them I’d be working very hard on that,” he said. “That was the element I spent the most time on to capture an expression that would be happening in that moment.”
Some of the biggest names in Dodgers history were also on hand: retired broadcaster Scully, who was friendly with Robinson; pitching greats Koufax and Newcombe, who were Robinson’s teammates when the Dodgers won the 1955 World Series; and Hall of Fame manager Lasorda.
Also, Frank Robinson, a Hall of Fame player and the first black to manage in the majors and no relation; Dodgers co-owner Johnson; and Kasten, team president and CEO.
The first 40,000 fans at Saturday’s game against Arizona received a replica of the statue.
Robinson’s statue at the ballpark is the eighth of him, the most of any American athlete, according to two British researchers.
Statistician Chris Stride from the University of Sheffield and Ffion Thomas, a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Central Lancashire, have cataloged Robinson’s monuments as part of their Sporting Statues Project database.