Today in major league baseball, every player on every team wore the number 42 somewhere on his jersey, in honor of the 62nd anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s playing debut for the Dodgers on April 15, 1947. You guys are too young to personally remember Robinson, but of course you know that he was the first black individual to play major league baseball. Heck, even I can’t really say that I remember seeing him play (I was maybe 6 or 7 when he retired from baseball).
Robinson was certainly a gifted athlete. But his courage far outdistanced even his athletic skills. Randy Pausch (author of The Last Lecture) wrote this about Robinson: “My favorite non-complainer of all time may be Jackie Robinson….He endured racism that many young people today couldn’t even fathom. He knew he had to play better than the white guys, and he knew he had to work harder. So that’s what he did. He vowed not to complain, even if fans spit on him [which they did]. There are no better role models than people like Jackie Robinson….”
