{"id":25740,"date":"2015-04-15T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T05:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=25740"},"modified":"2015-04-16T08:43:39","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T15:43:39","slug":"42-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=25740","title":{"rendered":"42"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jackie_Robinson_Day_Logo<\/a>When most people in the United States think of April 15th, the first thing that comes to mind is “tax day”. But there is a much bigger reason to remember the day, which is Jackie Robinson Day across the country, celebrating the man who broke the color barrier in baseball, and in a larger way, in society. The number “42” is of course, the number that Jackie wore, and a number that has been officially retired by every major league team in baseball. But on April 15th, the number is worn in his honor by players selected by their teams to do so. <\/p>\n

Jackie Robinson Day is a special one here in Los Angeles, as it was the Dodgers with whom Jackie made his debut. His ties to Los Angeles run deep, as he also attended UCLA where he starred for the baseball team before heading off to minor league stops along the way, including Montreal.<\/p>\n

Seattle area fastball pitcher and player Ryan Divish is now the beat writer for the Seattle Mariners at the Seattle Times, and will be in attendance, covering the Mariners at Dodger Stadium, Wednesday April 15 for the celebrated “Civil Rights Game”. He wrote about the upcoming game in his Tuesday column at the Seattle Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, MLB will celebrate Jackie Robinson Day all over baseball with players wearing the No. 42. It will be extra special for the Mariners since they will be playing the Dodgers \u2013 the franchise that Robinson broke baseball\u2019s color barrier with. Seattle has baseball\u2019s only African-American manager in Lloyd McClendon and Taijuan Walker, whose father is African-American, will get the start.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot to me,\u201d Walker said. \u201cThe fact that I get to pitch on Jackie Robinson Day and I get to wear 42 on my back is something I\u2019ve wanted to do for a really long time \u2013 since I started playing baseball. So it\u2019s definitely a great honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker was a late comer to baseball and didn\u2019t know about Robinson\u2019s legacy until he started playing in high school<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I think I was maybe in eighth grade,\u201d he said. \u201cI really wasn\u2019t playing baseball and I didn\u2019t know anything about the history for baseball. When I got to high school, that\u2019s when I started learning more about it and learning about Jackie Robinson. What he went through just to play baseball. All he wanted to do was just to play the game and everything he had to go through to play. I thought it was incredible how he never gave up. He kept fighting. He kept going.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The visit to Dodger Stadium is the first for fastballer\/sportswriter Divish, and figures to be remembered as a special one. An in person greeting with Vin Scully today, and a chance Wednesday to meet Dodger legend Sandy Koufax while taking in the Jackie Robinson Day festivities. All in a days work — if you’re lucky.<\/p>\n

Men’s fastpitch, like baseball is open to all, regardless of race, and like baseball, can thank pioneers like Jackie Robinson for opening that door. Aaron, Mays, Clemente and so many more. To think what we would have have missed.<\/p>\n

From Wikipedia<\/a>, a bit more about Jackie Robinson Day:<\/p>\n

\n

The first Jackie Robinson Day was on April 15, 2004. That day was a start to an annual tradition throughout Major League Baseball and an inspirational reminder about what happened on that day exactly fifty-seven years earlier when Jackie Robinson became a Major League Baseball player.[4] The day would be the first official league-wide Jackie Robinson Day, having festivities taking place at all 13 ballparks where Major League games were scheduled to be played.[5] Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig made the announcement with Sharon Robinson (daughter of Rachel and Jackie Robinson).<\/p>\n

“I have often stated that baseball’s proudest moment and its most powerful social statement came on April 15, 1947 when Jackie Robinson first set foot on a Major League Baseball field”, said Selig. “On that day, Jackie brought down the color barrier and ushered in the era in which baseball became the true national pastime. Fifty years after that historic event, in April 1997, I was proud to join Rachel Robinson and President Bill Clinton at Shea Stadium to honor Jackie by retiring his uniform number 42 in perpetuity. By establishing April 15 as ‘Jackie Robinson Day’ throughout Major League Baseball, we are further ensuring that the incredible contributions and sacrifices he made \u2014 for baseball and society \u2014 will not be forgotten.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When most people in the United States think of April 15th, the first thing that comes to mind is “tax day”. But there is a much bigger reason to remember the day, which is Jackie Robinson Day across the country, celebrating the man who broke the color barrier in baseball, and in a larger way, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25740"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25748,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25740\/revisions\/25748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}