Seeing 42 All Over The Baseball World Today Leads To Engaging Future Generations of Fans

I was thinking about the autobiography of Jackie Robinson, “I Never Had It Made,” I recently finished. Especially today, when MLB celebrates that famous day when Jackie Robinson played in his first Major League Baseball game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Every MLB team participates, every MLB player wears 42, because “one day everyone will wear the number 42,” that’s the famous saying. If you haven’t read it, you should. If you’ve read it, tell the stories of the journey. If you are a baseball fan, an American, are disgusted by racism, love the underdog, root for what’s right, not just what’s the easy way, you know that Jackie Robinson personified greatness – – as a baseball player, as a husband, as a businessman, as a member of the US Army. Great read – “I Never Had It Made,” an autobiography by Jackie Robinson. I especially loved the Henry Aaron introduction.

I was thinking about all the times I saw the number 42 at baseball fields I have visited. I have also seen statues of 42 out in the front areas of the ball park entrance. I have seen huge displays and tributes. Here are a few that came to mind as I was thinking about Jackie Robinson today:

Milwaukee Brewers Spring Training Home, Phoenix, AZ

Baltimore Orioles, Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD

New York Mets Rotunda, Citi Field, Queens, New York

Durham Bulls, Ticket office area, Durham, North Carolina

Sloan Park, Spring Training home of the Chicago Cubs, Mesa, Arizona

Camelback Ranch, Spring Training Home of the Chicago White Sox, Glendale, Arizona

Camelback Ranch, also Spring Training home of Los Angeles Dodgers, Glendale, Arizona

Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, Boston, MA (look in the right field seats under lights)

This is just a small sample of the many, many tributes through professional baseball stadiums – MLB and minor league ball parks that I have witnessed and photographed and paid my respects to. By displaying the number 42, we are creating an opportunity to engage with the youth sports fan and educate him/her on who Jackie Robinson was and why his career is so monumentally important to the game of baseball. And the intense and difficult areas outside the baseball field as well. What an incredible story, I learned a lot about Robinson’s life pre-Dodgers, post-Dodgers, his marriage, his kids, his triumphs, his failures, his friends, his enemies, his legacy. Great read, I encourage you to read “I Never Had It Made,” the autobiography of Jackie Robinson.