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Re: how will Jackie Robinson Day jerseys be sold?
probably for some of the same reasons columbus is given credit for discovering america or edison for inventing the light bulb.
the immensely unpopular and risky decision to actually "break the barrier" was made by dodgers president branch rickey. it was made irrespective of robinson. it had to have been given that robinson had no authority to make such a decision; he was playing in the negro leagues when rickey got the idea and subsequently signed him to the dodgers' farm team with the intent to use him to eventually break the barrier. had robinson not even existed, it still would've been broken that year as rickey was intent on it and certainly had no shortage of highly talented black players to choose from at the time. rickey simply would've found another player to do it. on the other hand, had rickey not existed, it wouldn't have been broken that year and may not have been for many years to come.
none of this is meant to take away from robinson's impressive accomplishments or the struggles he overcame. it'd simply be nice for the MLB to give an ounce of credit to the man who actually came up with the idea and implemented it rather than seemingly given the entire credit to robinson. while robinson certainly took more lumps for it, the actual decision to cross that threshold was rickeys' so in my mind he deserves most of the credit.
rudy.
probably for some of the same reasons columbus is given credit for discovering america or edison for inventing the light bulb.
the immensely unpopular and risky decision to actually "break the barrier" was made by dodgers president branch rickey. it was made irrespective of robinson. it had to have been given that robinson had no authority to make such a decision; he was playing in the negro leagues when rickey got the idea and subsequently signed him to the dodgers' farm team with the intent to use him to eventually break the barrier. had robinson not even existed, it still would've been broken that year as rickey was intent on it and certainly had no shortage of highly talented black players to choose from at the time. rickey simply would've found another player to do it. on the other hand, had rickey not existed, it wouldn't have been broken that year and may not have been for many years to come.
none of this is meant to take away from robinson's impressive accomplishments or the struggles he overcame. it'd simply be nice for the MLB to give an ounce of credit to the man who actually came up with the idea and implemented it rather than seemingly given the entire credit to robinson. while robinson certainly took more lumps for it, the actual decision to cross that threshold was rickeys' so in my mind he deserves most of the credit.
rudy.
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