Remember Jackie Robinson

[blacksilverfan12]

As I'm sure everyone knows, today was the 61st anniversary of Jackie's debut. Even though it's 11:20 PM as I'm typing, and it will be the next day by the time most of you read this, I have a message for everyone. Think about Jackie and what he did, not just for baseball, but for our entire nation. To me, Jackie Robinson is one of the most important figures in American history, alongside Washington, Lincoln, and King. I ask you this not as a Dodger fan, but a fan of baseball, remember this great man and all of the courage he had to stand up to a world of racial predjudice and hatred and prove them all wrong

Thanks!

[Los Bravos]

Hear, hear :applaud:

[Old Sweater]

Great man, great player but MLB is using him as a marketing ploy every year now.

[whoisonit]

Jackie Robinson is the most important man to ever step on a baseball field. What this man did had a ripple effect in the course of American history. Honoring Robinson is not about baseball. It's about the unlimited, innate dignity and freedom of every man that this nation continues to display, generation after generation.

[bryanac625]

Great man, great player but MLB is using him as a marketing ploy every year now.

If this is true, I'll gladly buy whatever they're selling. Jackie Robinson is my hero.

[Dodgerfan1]

Great man, great player but MLB is using him as a marketing ploy every year now.

I agree, OS. Robinson was truly a great player, and a great man to have withstood all he was able to and still achieve what he did. He should definitely be honored for what he did, not only for his accomplishments in the face of amazing adversity, but especially for what he did for blacks in this country. No doubt about that. The reality as I see it, though, is that all this celebrating and honoring and remembering and endless media barrage is overkill. Baseball has been 'Jackie Robinson'd' to death. There are many who will no doubt think I am somehow attempting to downplay his importance to, not only baseball, but society, but nothing would be further from the truth.

I shouldn't have to preface my opinion by continually praising Robinson and his accomplishments, but I feel it's necessary in order to make those who would misconstrue my sentiments understand them. Yes, his legacy is awesome and one that deserves to be honored annually and never forgotten, but enough is enough already. Let's have a Jackie Robinson Day and move on.

This opinion will not be popular with everyone, but it is mine and I don't apologize for it. Some things get tiresome by receiving too much fanfare and hoopla and to me, his memory is becoming exploited as a marketing ploy more and more by MLB. To me, this is representative of the incredible media hype given events like the Super Bowl. Most sports fans will agree that the Super Bowl, as the championship game of football, is certainly worthy of hyperbole, but it gets ridiculous to the point of becoming tiresome. Absurd, even. I don't want the legacy of Jackie Robinson to become over-hyped, like the Super Bowl, but I'm afraid it already has.

DF1

[whoisonit]

He should definitely be honored ... especially for what he did for blacks in this country.

Dodgerfan1, I chose this sentence to quote because I think this is what so many people think of as his real achievement. It is not. Jackie's real achievement was what he did for whites. He faced their closed minds and pried them open. He faced their ignorance and enlightened them. He faced their comfort zone and expanded their horizons.

When we celebrate Jackie Robinson, we're not celebrating a black milestone. We're celebrating a human milestone. While on the Forth of July we remember our nation's declared independence, every April 15 we're remembering the day our minds began to think independently, free of traditional ignorance.

America is all about money my friend. There's not an historical figure that's not cashed in on. Ever buy a car at a Presidents Day sale ? An appliance at a Columbus day sale ? Pay addmission to a July 4th fire works display ? Robinson is all about America, why shouldn't people and buisnesses make money off him ?

It's the American way.

[Dodgerfan1]

America is all about money my friend. There's not an historical figure that's not cashed in on. Ever buy a car at a Presidents Day sale ? An appliance at a Columbus day sale ? Pay addmission to a July 4th fire works display ? Robinson is all about America, why shouldn't people and buisnesses make money off him ?

whoisonit, I get this sentiment and understand your meaning completely, however just because some things 'are' does not necessarily mean they should be. I'm a proud capitalist myself, but there are some things I would never exploit for money. Yes, just because I won't doesn't mean no one else will either, but it still doesn't make it right, IMO. Personally, I just get tired of the overkill and the over-hype of the whole thing. I guess that's the abbreviated version of my post. Far too much pomp and circumstance for my sensibilities.

[whoisonit]

whoisonit, I get this sentiment and understand your meaning completely, however just because some things 'are' does not necessarily mean they should be. I'm a proud capitalist myself, but there are some things I would never exploit for money. Yes, just because I won't doesn't mean no one else will either, but it still doesn't make it right, IMO. Personally, I just get tired of the overkill and the over-hype of the whole thing. I guess that's the abbreviated version of my post. Far too much pomp and circumstance for my sensibilities.

Completely undersand your sentements. The Robinson celebrations are still fairly new, only in their 11th year, so they still, in my opinion, care some punch. Eventually though, they will loose their meaning. How many people even know Memorial Day is to remember our dead American soldiers, without whom we wouldn't be enjoying our Memorial Day 3 day weekend barbeques ? Very few I'll bet, very few. Someday April 15th will be just another give-away day at the ballpark. We'll all go home with our 'Breaking the Barrier' seat cushion. What are you gonna do, right ?

I'm just glad he's a big deal now, because for so long he was virtually forgotten.

[Captain Cold Nose]

I'm still waiting for William Henry Harrison to be honored in any such manner.

Without the pomp and circumstance, the sales, the capitalism, the constant reminders and what goes with them, would Robinson be anything more than a footnote, like other athletes of the past? whoisonit is dead on here, all the overblown hype is keeping his memory alive, what he accomplished, not just as a black man but as a human. It makes him bigger than baseball because what he accomplished was bigger than baseball. It's very important to put a face on things in history, and all the hype keeps Robinson's face in the limelight. More than any statue or book reference could come close to doing.

Is it cheap and even sleazy? Perhaps. But it's the easiest way of keeping cold history, which all history essentially is, warm.

[whoisonit]

I'm still waiting for William Henry Harrison to be honored in any such manner.

I knew there was something wrong with you.

Is it cheap and even sleazy?

As Elliot Spitzer recently reasoned to his wife "Honey, please. Who among us is not cheap and even sleazy ?"

[Dodgerfan1]

I'm still waiting for William Henry Harrison to be honored in any such manner.

I like it....

[Baseball Guru]

If this is true, I'll gladly buy whatever they're selling. Jackie Robinson is my hero.

AMEN!

[bryanac625]

...The reality as I see it, though, is that all this celebrating and honoring and remembering and endless media barrage is overkill. Baseball has been 'Jackie Robinson'd' to death. There are many who will no doubt think I am somehow attempting to downplay his importance to, not only baseball, but society, but nothing would be further from the truth.

I shouldn't have to preface my opinion by continually praising Robinson and his accomplishments, but I feel it's necessary in order to make those who would misconstrue my sentiments understand them. Yes, his legacy is awesome and one that deserves to be honored annually and never forgotten, but enough is enough already. Let's have a Jackie Robinson Day and move on.

I understand, and I agree that it is overdone. Jackie Robinson is my hero, and it can get old for me. But can we do much about it? As you said, so much in American society (eg. the Super Bowl) is overhyped. So the best you can do is to take what you like and move on for yourself. It's not like we don't know when JR Day is; just a suggestion, but maybe next year, you should not turn on the TV or radio, pick up a newspaper or go to MLB.com on 4/15. And, like you, I DO NOT offer these suggestions here to say "What?!? How could you not fall in step and honor Jackie Robinson Day and embrace EVERY moment??? Are you a racist???" If I were you,I'd take as much as you can take and leave the rest. As they say these days, "It is what it is."

BTW- when I think about it, I'm not sure I see much difference in the honoring of Robinson than that of Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle. If anything, maybe it's because so much is put into one day.

[sturg1dj]

originally I was going to write something about how we don't need to be told to remember Jackie Robinson because how could we forget...same as my 9/11 argument when someone says never forget...but then I remember how before MLB started to do all of the Robinson stuff a study came out showing how little players knew about Jackie Robinson. This is sad, and this showed me how important it truly is to keep doing these things. I forget that not all baseball fans are the rabid stat nerds and history buffs that many of us are.