LOS ANGELES (KNX) — Speaking to the Los Angeles Dodgers Friday for “Jackie Robinson Day,” David Robinson said baseball is a great game, but for his dad it wasn’t just that. It was an opportunity to break boundaries. Robinson said his standing before the team 75 years after his father broke the color boundary, indicates that the goal was absolutely accomplished.
“But my father would say, as he always said, ‘Let’s reflect,’” Robinson said. “Let’s ask ourselves ‘Where have we come as a nation in these 75 years. Have we really brought ourselves together? Have we really created equality?... Are we unified as a nation, and made stronger by that union?’”
Robinson said his father would stand before the team, and Americans and ask, “What is the African American position?” and “What’s our plan for survival and self development” — because those are the challenges still facing Americans.
Friday, the L.A. Dodgers celebrated number 42, Jackie Robinson, a UCLA graduate, army veteran and baseball player who started in the Negro leagues before being accepted as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
That 1947 feat made Jackie the first Black player to join Major League Baseball.
Reminiscing on the day celebrating Jackie’s accomplishments, Dodgers’ third baseman Justin Turner said there’s “a lot of accountability” when you wear a Dodgers jersey, and he’s grateful that Jackie’s family continues his legacy with the team.
“You know, we hear a lot about Jackie,” Turner said. “But to hear it from his son, and hear about his family and what they went through, and what they endured…and what it takes to really completely change the course of a country…that stuff’s heavy, and definitely impactful.”
Robinson said he’s pleased that the MLB and the team’s commitment to his father’s legacy goes far beyond just one day each year.
“The Dodgers are continuing…and trying to foster a tradition of presenting human values to a baseball team so that we can potentially be more than just athletes and a national sport,” he said.
“So that we can help continue to change American attitudes and build American society.”
This season and those that follow, Robinson said he’s looking for a “winning baseball team and some winning humans on the field” to represent the values his father lived by and taught his three children.
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