LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jackie Robinson was the first to break baseball’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers 78 years ago Tuesday. His legacy continues to inspire people inside the major leagues — and outside, too.
Players and staff from the Dodgers, including Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and rookie Roki Sasaki, and the Colorado Rockies surrounded Robinson’s statue in Centerfield Plaza hours before game time in Los Angeles on Jackie Robinson Day around the major leagues.
They were joined by Basketball Hall of Fame player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who turns 78 on Wednesday. He recalled wearing a Brooklyn baseball cap while growing up in the neighboring borough of Manhattan.
“I’d get in fights with people from the Giants, the Yankees, pretty often,” he said, “but I kept my cap on and nobody was able to knock it off. I was so tall.”
Abdul-Jabbar followed in Robinson’s footsteps as a sports star at UCLA, then known as Lew Alcindor, where he won three national championships under Hall of Fame coach John Wooden.
Robinson has continued to be a lifelong inspiration for Abdul-Jabbar.
“He meant excellence, giving your all, giving your best,” Abdul-Jabbar said, “and for all the detractors that are out there, just ignore them and keep on.”
Every team playing Monday wore No. 42 jerseys. It’s the only number universally retired in the majors.
D-backs first baseman Josh Naylor is wearing custom Jackie Robinson Jordan 11 cleats tonight ? pic.twitter.com/LN3tESzkIi
— MLB (@MLB) April 16, 2025
“It’s not just a one-off day,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We understand what this man did for our world, our country. This is how you go about life. This is something for me, keeping his legacy burning.”
Roberts and Ron Washington of the Los Angeles Angels are only Black managers currently in the majors.
“One of the things Jackie obviously nailed is he realized from an early time that life was going to be hard,” Roberts said. “He was special and he was put in this certain position to rise above and know that it’s not just about the game of baseball. It’s bigger than him.”
The Dodgers and Rockies were joined by Sonya Pankey Robinson, the oldest grandchild of Jackie and Rachel Robinson and the only child of Jackie Jr., who was killed in a car accident in 1971 at age 24. Granddaughter Ayo Robinson, whose father is David Robinson, was on hand, too.
“He was so progressive in so many ways,” Pankey Robinson said of her grandfather. “When I think about him fondly, I just think about all of his contributions to society and to us as a family. I feel a real responsibility to uphold his values and I take that job very seriously.”
Robinson’s 102-year-old widow marked the anniversary at the Jackie Robinson Museum in Brooklyn with Commissioner Rob Manfred.
Jackie Robinson’s impact on our sport continues to this day. #Jackie42 pic.twitter.com/rx3Ic8eto5
— MLB (@MLB) April 15, 2025
Pankey Robinson lives near her grandmother in New York, saying, “We keep it close and tight.”
Robinson was in the news last month when a Defense Department page describing his military service was restored after it briefly went missing. The department has been removing content highlighting contributions by women and minority groups as part of a directive for President Donald Trump’s administration to delete material promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
Pages honoring a Black Medal of Honor winner and Japanese American service members were taken down.
“Disheartening but not discouraged because I think what he’s done is etched in history and it’s not anyone else’s place to remove that,” Pankey Robinson said after the ceremony. “His impact is large and we feel good knowing, that while disappointed, what he did mattered.”
Robinson’s historic achievement preceded President Harry S. Truman’s desegregation of the military in 1948. Robinson served in the Army for two years before his pro baseball career.
He made a cultural impact not only through his success on the field. His character and his belief in nonviolence in the face of harassment by fans and racist attitudes among fellow players won Robinson respect and admiration. After his career ended, Robinson campaigned for civil rights, was active in politics and spoke out about baseball’s lack of minority managers and personnel at MLB headquarters.
“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me,” he said. “All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”
On opening day this year, 6.2% of MLB players were Black, up from 6% in 2024 and the first year-over-year improvement since 2018, according to MLB.com.
The Angels’ Washington learned about Robinson when he bought a book about him during a bus stop in Waterloo, Iowa, on a minor league trip in 1972.
“It impacted me tremendously to find out what he had to go through just to play the game of baseball,” Washington said, “and then you look back and say, ‘Wow, in this period could I have done that?’ I want to think I could, but I don’t know if I could.”
To the strongest man to ever step on a diamond — thank you. It’s always an honor to wear 42. #JackieRobinsonDay
— Mike Trout (@MikeTrout) April 15, 2025
Robinson wore No. 42 during his playing days with the Dodgers. In 2009, every player, manager and coach began wearing the number to honor Robinson. The umpires also wear the number, the only one universally retired by all major league teams.
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