To players like Hunter, Jackie Robinson is sacred

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 4/19/2007

Sixty years to the day ‹ April 15, 1947 ‹ Major League Baseball and the commissioners office recognized the day Jackie Robinson changed the landscape of American history ‹ not just Major League Baseball (MLB). In this the Land of the Free, it was Robinson the experiment who broke the shameful barrier that MLB had masked that White players and Black players could not play together.

Robinson kicked the barrier down like a semi-truck going through a chain-link fence. Commissioner Bud Selig called Robinson¹s achievement ³The most powerful moment in baseball history.² Indeed.

The anniversary was scheduled to be celebrated at every ballpark throughout baseball. Players were permitted to wear Robinson¹s famous number 42 in his honor.

Robinson was selected to break the barrier for several reasons, the main one being that MLB wanted to cash in financially on bringing in the talented Black players, many of whom played in the Negro Leagues. You had to know that economics was the primary reason. It had nothing to do with doing the right thing.

An educated man, a graduate of UCLA, Robinson played the game with fire and fervor. He had the strength of character to absorb the ignorance of many racist teammates, opponents and fans and their pure, unmistaken hatred towards him.

Could Twins star Torii Hunter do what Robinson did 60 years ago? ³I could not imagine that,² said Hunter. ³I would not have made it. I would have been in a lot of fights. Just my mindset today, I don¹t think I could go through all that.

³But you would be amazed at some of the words that I hear in the outfield in different stadiums,² Hunter added. ³I still get the racial slurs.² Today, players in MLB come from around the globe ‹ Cuba, Japan, Mexico, Latin America and other countries. Robinson opened the door, and now everybody is playing this game. On the social front, Robinson was the springboard of the Civil Rights Movement before Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Rosa Parks.

Not everybody agreed with allowing entire baseball teams to wear the number

42 in recognition as the Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros did. The Dodgers, after all, was the organization Robinson played for. The Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros happen to be two teams that don¹t have a single Black player on their rosters.

When entire teams with no Black players like Houston and Atlanta market the

number-42 jersey by having the entire team wear the same jersey, which was retired by MLB 10 years ago, is it really about honoring Robinson¹s historic accomplishment, or is it shameless exploitation?

³I don¹t know if it¹s a bad thing or a good thing,² said Hunter, ³but I think Jackie RobinsonŠhis name is very sacred. I don¹t even think I¹m worthy of wearing that jersey, but I think he did what he did for me. A lot people tell you he did it for everybody else, but no, he did what he did for us, and I can put money on that.² Today, less than 10 percent of MLB players are Black. Why is that? It is alarming.

³[There are] so many reasons and theories we could sit here all day and talk about them, and they are all good reasons,² said Hunter. ³One reason is [that] the NBA and NFL is just hip hop. It¹s cool in our community to play in the NBA and NFL. You see LeBron James, Kobe Bryant; you see the shoes, the Michael Jordan shoes. Everything is cool about playing in the NBA.

³Another reason is [that] in college baseball there are no full scholarships. It¹s rare, so a lot of kids gravitate towards the NBA and NFL.

In my community, a lot of young people can¹t pay for college; it¹s hard for them to pay. Single-parent households ‹ 60 percent of our communities have single-parent households.²

Fitz Notes & Quotes

The Twins players that wore Jackie Robinson¹s number on Sunday were Hunter, Rondell White, and first-base coach Jerry White. Several organizations and groups were honored by the Twins for carrying on Robinson¹s legacy.

Breaking Barriers Essay Winners is a program of MLB that asks students to write essays about how they break barriers. Jackie Robinson Scholars are Minnesota scholarship recipients from the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Most Valuable Diverse Business Partner Tanaka Advertising is part of an MLB program that supports minority- or women-owned businesses. Hunter¹s community work and his new foundation The Torii Hunter Project were honored.

Larry Fitzgerald can be heard weekday mornings on KMOJ Radio, 89.9 FM, at 8:20 am, and Monday evenings 6-7 pm. He welcomes reader responses to lfitzgerald@spokesman-recorder.com, or visit www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com.