Jackie Robinson: Too Much Recognition?

This is a simple question coming from a simple place inside me. There are no deep racial overtones, nor is there any animosity whatsoever.

Does Major League Baseball delve in a small portion of overkill when it comes to celebrating the great, black trailblazer?

I don’t think the question is absurd, outlandish, or disrespectful.

In my humble opinion, too much “respect” or attention is shown to the late second baseman.  He was a terrific (not great) baseball player, a deserved member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. However, would it have been more accurate to enshrine him as a “Pioneer” than a player?  Just asking.

Why, then, would I ask a question as this about a man I admire so much?

Every player on every team in MLB wore Jackie’s No. 42 in memoriam. I have no clue what the cost of an authentic MLB shirt is, but to wear it once and then put it in moth balls seems absurd to me.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson broke through the racial barrier in baseball in 1947, at the “not so young” age of 28. He was pummeled with racial slurs, threats of violence, ridicule, and humiliation, yet he performed admirably.

Jackie responded by winning the National League Rookie of the Year Award and leading the league in stolen bases with 29.  He batted .297 and hit 12 HR with 48 RBI. He scored 125 runs.

His career numbers include a BA of .311, 137 HR, 734 RBI, 1518 H, and 947 runs scored in a 10-year career. His career included a Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, when he batted a league-leading .342.

I believe a less-expensive, more traditional display would have been an armband with the No. 42.

I was watching the Reds-Brewers game on television last night and at times had trouble knowing who was who. Everybody on both teams wore No. 42 with no names on their backs. It was very distracting.

No other baseball player in the history of the game is posthumously treated to such adoration. I guess, in that regard, it makes Jackie the Martin Luther King, Jr. of Major League Baseball.

Great performances and careers are worthy of all the accolades that can be amassed. But, with all due diligence and respect to Robinson, I say too much is made of the anniversary of the first black player in history. No offense is intended, and no malice is felt toward Jackie.

We don’t celebrate the “barrier” of any other race or ethnic group, such as Latinos, Japanese, Dutch, etc.

I can only imagine that records will be next.  I hear it already, “Joe Blow has the record for the most HR on Jackie Robinson Day.”

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