Quote:
By MIKE FITZPATRICK, AP Baseball Writer
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Rachel Robinson still has vivid memories of April 15, 1947, when her husband changed America forever...
"It was an exciting, exhilarating time — but it also was a stressful time," Rachel Robinson said.
Reform is rarely a breeze. Sustaining a legacy can be even more difficult.
As Major League Baseball prepares to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Robinson's landmark achievement on Sunday, there are growing concerns about the sport's racial makeup.
Only 8.4 percent of big league players last season were black — the lowest number in at least two decades. In 1995, 19 percent of major leaguers were black, according to Richard Lapchick, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports.
"Obviously, he would not be satisfied with where we are now," Rachel Robinson said, referring to the man she still calls Jack. "He would be disappointed, because he felt we were on the way toward some lasting change."
Has baseball betrayed Jackie Robinson?
"That's what it seems like to me — that all the work he's done is almost for nothing," Minnesota Twins center fielder Torii Hunter said. "Because look where we are. We should be progressing. We're regressing."
|
Rachel Robinson, who must be very elderly by now, gets a pass. Mike Fitzpatrick and Torii Hunter Hunter don't. They are idiots who have completely missed the point. Jackie Robinson paved the way for blacks to play Major League baseball
if they wanted to. It wasn't about getting a large number of blacks into MLB. It was about all people having the
oportunity to play there, if they had the desire and the necessary skills.
Has Baseball Betrayed Jackie Robinson?