42: Just a number until Jackie Robinson wore it

(CBS News) Today, in every major league ball park across America, every player will be wearing number 42 - Jackie Robinson's number.

Because today marks the 65th anniversary of the day that Jackie Robinson stepped out of the Brooklyn Dodgers dugout and became the first African American to play in baseball's major leagues.

They called it America's game, but until Robinson came along, only some Americans got to play at the top level.

A Brooklyn baseball executive named Branch Rickey changed that because he thought it would be good for the game.

He knew there would be fierce opposition, so he picked Robinson to break the color line - not because he was the best player in the old Negro League (he probably wasn't), but because he thought Robinson had the character and the courage to withstand the hatred the first black player was sure to face on and off the field.

And he was right. Some of Robinson's own teammates refused to play alongside him, and opponents were unmerciful.

But Branch Rickey was as good at judging character as he was at judging baseball talent. Robinson endured the hazing silently, and went on to be the National League's Rookie of the Year.

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It was good for the game, as Branch Rickey had hoped, but more than that, opening sports to all Americans made us a stronger and a better country.

Looking back, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig called it baseball's finest moment.

Let us never forget why 42 was just a number until Jackie Robinson wore it.

Forty two - Jackie Robinson's number.

[facelessdrone2005]

Just a number? Ridiculous. Everyone knows that "42" is the answer to the great question of life, the universe, and everything. LOL

[rmm26a]

Its time to forget Jackie Robinson, enough with the catering to black athletes. I know he broke the color barrier but now all the black players want to play in the NFL and NBA so what he did doesn't even mean a whole lot anymore so stop honoring him like he was some sort of baseball god. If you want to honor someone, have everyone wear Babe Ruth's number once a year, he did more for baseball than anyone in history. Fact.

[mick7744]

That was my first World Series game. I was a crazed, card-carrying Dodger fan at the time, a few years before the arch-fiend Walter O'Malley took them to LA...but he was out...no question.

But I kept quiet about it. My uncle had season box seats in the 1st mezzanine midway between home and first base so I had a great view of the play.

It just took several decades for me to get around to sharing that information with anyone...

It was truly the "Golden Age" of baseball. I was pretty old (7 or 8) before I learned that all World Series games were not played at The Stadium or Ebbets Field...because when I was a kid...they all were!

[anschwab1]

I just wanted to point out that Bob Schieffer this morning spoke about how baseball is America's game, only not all American's were allowed to play until Jackie Robinson, that once Robinson suited up we as a nation could stand behind this idea of it being America's game because all Americans could now play it. It's great and all that African-Americans were now playing, but MLB still leaves out a huge segment of Americans. The short lived AAGPBL excluded - which is not the same as the MLB - women aren't allowed to play in the big leagues. So, Mr. Schieffer, not all Americans can now play America's game, still only maybe half.
Combine that with your segments on the mommy wars, and the confusing array of "statistics" about women - you've got Romney quoting this 90%+ of jobs lost have been women's, and then another person touting what percentage of the overall workforce is women - is this percentage before or after so many were laid off in the last 3 years? And how does no one say that the cause of women being laid off is clearly a systemic national sexism, instead of blaming the actions of basically all employers on the president? I don't know who is writing the show, but it seems like you all are just blindly going on auto-pilot. Wake up please, pay attention to what you are saying.

None of this is to detract at all for the tremendous courage of Jackie Robinson and the enormous step in the right direction racial desegregation of the majors was and continues to be. I'd also like to recognize all the amazing players from the negro leagues that never got the chance to play the majors due solely to the color of their skin, not their ability to play the game.

[slatep]

How much longer are these three same topics going to appear on this site.??

[tibiaornottibia]

Guess you'd be happier with a day to honor David Duke's birthday....

[ugacrew]

Sadly, Americans have refused the "lessons" they claim to have learned from this integration. The US military has further demonstrated clearly that when Americans work together and struggle together as a team to achieve a common goal, they are at their best and create a formidable force. That force can be just as positive as it can be negative, depending on its objective.

Allow me to post a paragraph from "A Testament of Hope," (The essential writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., page 61:

"There is no easy way to create a world where men and women can live together, where each has his own job and house and where all children reeive as much education as their minds can absorb. But if such a world is created in our lifetime, it will be done in the United States by Negroes and white people of good will. It will be accomplished by persons who have the courage to put an end to suffering by willingly suffering themselves rather than inflict suffering upon others. It will be done by rejecting the racism, materialism and violence that has characterized Western civilization and especially by working toward a world of brotherhood, cooperation and peace.

The number "42" is a clear result of one such effort.

[imtheotherkind]

42 means something else entirely to fans of Douglas Adams.

[hypnotoad72]

*zing*

You beat me to it. :)

[rcgorman]

I had been thinking exactly the same thing....