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Follow @mlbreportsTuesday April.16/2013
#42 – we all know what the number means.
What significance does a number carry? Obviously we know that a number carries a value of an item or items. They can hold a positive or negative connotation depending on what the number is referring to.
If you are talking about a bank account or an amount of money, the higher the number, the better. If you are dealing with a number of people who want to cause you physical harm, the lower the number the better.
What significance does the number 42 have for you? It can carry many meanings. 42 hours in your individual work week. 42 miles to the gallon that your vehicle gets. 42 miles that you will be walking after your car ran out of gas because you only got 40 miles to the gallon and not the 42 that you thought.
What does 42 mean in the world of baseball? 42 Home Runs in a contract year and you will probably be making 42 million dollars on your next contract. 42 Doubles is a good season.
42 wins by a team in a season is terrible but 42 wins in a row, and they are setting records. Perhaps the most significant use of the number 42 in the baseball realm was by a young 28-year-old Second Baseman named Jackie Robinson.
Movie Trailer for 42:
Jackie Robinson is regarded as one of the best First Basemen to ever play the game. The man from Los Angeles originally hit for a 3 Slash Line of .311/.409/.883 during his 9 years with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson had a keen eye for the plate – Walking 740 versus just 290 Strikeout for his 5804 Plate Appearances. The man led the NL in SB two times, OBP 1 time and was was the 1949 NL Batting Champion. Robinson also scored 100 + Runs 6 times. The Hall of Famer help carry the Dodgers to 6 World Series showdowns versus cross town rival the New York Yankees. Brooklyn defeated the Bronx Bombers for their only win of those series in 1955. Robinson retired after the 1956 season.
On April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first African-American player to play at the Major League level in baseball. Let’s think about how important this is to the history of the game.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that if Robinson had not broken the color barrier, nobody else would have. If not for Jackie, we would never have had the beauty that was the over the shoulder catch of Willie Mays.
We would have never known the legend that was Satchel Paige.
Babe Ruth would still have his career home run record because Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds would never have swung a bat. Ozzie Smith would have never graced us with his beautiful back flip and smooth fielding. Reggie Jackson would never have hit his post-season homers and never would have gotten the name “Mr. October.”
Our eyes would never have had the visual stimulation of watching Ken Griffey Jr. glide across the Kingdome outfield followed by the suspense of whether or not he would get up after his gliding caused his body to collide with the wall and elation as he hops up, ball in hand and jogs toward the dugout.
Finally, we would never have had the joy of the chase last year as minor-league sensation Billy Hamilton broke the single season stolen base record in professional baseball.
Recently, we have had the occasion to honor the man who had the bravery and intestinal fortitude to do something that nobody else had done before.
Every 15th of April in Major League Baseball, all players wear the number 42 in remembrance of the sacrifice that he made. Being the first at something is never easy.
There is nobody that you can call to ask what to do or how to do it. There are no books to read on how to handle the situation. Neil Armstrong had no script to read from or a guidebook on what to do as he became the first man to set foot on the moon. Christopher Columbus had nobody to ask about what to do when you find a new land.
What Jackie Robinson went through was worse than many people up to that point had to endure. For some reason, some people had it in their head that they were better than other people simply because of the color of their skin.
They felt that people who did not have white skin could not do the same things that they could do as well as they could do them. There were people who thought differently though.
One of those people was the President and General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson was playing in the Negro Baseball League when he was scouted and offered a contract by the Dodgers.
They were looking for a player that was not scared of making a statement and that was willing to turn the other cheek when the persecution came.
They came to an agreement on a $600 a month salary for Jackie to play baseball in the Dodgers Minor League system. His only season in the Minors (1946), Robinson hit for a .349 Batting Average – and flashed the glove to the tune of a .985 Fielding Percentage on his way to the Independent League MVP award.
He was promoted to the Dodgers prior to the 1947 season. There are times in history that define who we are as a human race. April 15, 1947 was one of those times.
Jackie Robinson stepped out onto the soft green grass and light brown dirt of Ebbets Field and trotted to First Base to the cheer of the roughly 14,000 black ticket holders and the inquisitive eyes of about 13,000 white patrons.
I could only imagine how big the knot was in his stomach as he warmed up to the racial slurs that were tossed his way mixed with the words of encouragement.
No matter how hard it was and how bad the threats, slurs, and comments got, he did as he was asked to and turned the other cheek. He let his play speak for him. He fought through the turmoil and finished the year with a .297 Average and compiled 31 Doubles, 5 Triples, 12 Homers, and 29 Stolen Bases.
These numbers also earned him the Rookie of the Year Award.
When Jackie decided to call it quits on his career 9 years later in 1957 – he had earned the respect of the league that welcomed him in by threatening to forfeit the game rather than be on a field with a black player.
He racked up 6 All-Star selections, the NL MVP award in 1949, and finally a World Series Championship in 1955. Jackie was also the Batting Champ in 1949 – and a two-time steals leader for the National League.
In 1962, he was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first ballot with 77.5% of the vote. He was also voted to the ALL – Century team in 1999.
The greatest honor came in 1997 though when Major League Baseball retired his number throughout the game. After Mariano Rivera retires at the end of this year, there will never be another player in American baseball to wear the number 42.
The only exception to this is on April 15 of each baseball season when all players and managers throughout the game wear the number 42 to commemorate the legacy of the man who broke down the color barrier that held the game hostage for so long.
Let us finish where we began. What does the number 42 mean? To so many in the game of baseball it represents the struggle of one man. One man who endured what he did to open the door for so many more to follow.
It represents the bravery that was shown to not conform to popular opinion.
Finally it stands for the ideal that one persons opinion of you does not define or set into stone what you as a person are able to accomplish. With all that said, it ultimately represents one word…. Hope.
Words to live by. Thank you Jackie Robinson.
*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com and their partners***
A big thank-you goes out to our baseball writer Robert Whitmer for preparing today’s featured article. Robert just grew up in a military house and was used to moving every three to four years. He has lived in Oregon, Connecticut, Alaska, Philly, Boston, Arizona, and ended up in the Austin, TX area. Robert loves baseball and has been to Fenway twice.
Robert has a wife and five kids who are his life and inspiration. He tries to teach them to love the game for the game and not any other reason. All of them (but one) bleed Red Sox blue. Robert looks forward to spending time with his readers online, so follow him on Twitter and talk about the game of baseball! Follow @rwhitmer
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