Baseball in Fort Wayne

Today, Jackie Robinson’s number 42 is temporarily unretired in Major League Baseball. Commissioner Bud Selig proclaimed the action for the second consecutive year as Major League Baseball celebrates the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking its color barrier. Any Major League player may wear the late Hall of Famer’s famous No. 42 in action on Tuesday.

The Dodgers, Angels, A’s, Pirates, Cardinals, Rays, Rangers and Nationals will take the field waring Robinson’s number. Included in that group are local tie, Rob Bowen and former Wizards Luis Rivas and Torii Hunter.

Hunter, spreads the Robinson message to youth wherever he travels.

“I talk to kids in the neighborhood,” Hunter said, “and they’ll say, ‘Baseball’s a white sport; I’m into the NBA.’ I ask them if they know about Jackie Robinson, and they say, ‘Yeah, heard of him.’ What about Hank Aaron? They’ll get this look and say, ‘Who’s he?’

“Man, that kills me. Our kids have lost touch with our history, our heritage. They don’t know we had our own league, the Negro League, with all those great players. Something’s got to be done. You have to start somewhere: reach one kid, two kids. All you can do is your part. That’s something I would love for the players to do. This is definitely a big issue.” [source: MLB.com]

In addition to the full teams donning number 42, several individual players have chosen to join the celebration. Among them is former Wizards, LaTroy Hawkins.

“I was a kid and my grandfather used to tell me how Jackie was the first African-American to break into the Major Leagues,” Hawkins said. “My grandfather watched him in the Negro Leagues and said he wasn’t the best player on the field, but he was the best player to deal with what he had to deal with.

“The thing that impresses me the most about what Jackie did was keeping his composure. It wasn’t just on the field — it was off the field, too. He had players going after him at second base and guys yelling racial slurs. All the while, he was separated from his teammates [on the road]. That must have been the hardest thing” [source: MLB.com]