What #42 Means To Me

Almost a century ago one of the greatest baseball players and an important figure in history is born, his name was Jack Roosevelt Robinson.  Today it is hard to imagine what our great sport was really like.  Without Jackie Robinson there is no doubt that Major League Baseball would have ended segregation, but would the process worked as well with anyone else?  This is more than just being the first African American to play for a MLB ball club, this is about changing a way of life and how people thought then.

Yesterday I was watching a baseball game with my 8 year old daughter when the broadcaster started talking about Jackie Robinson day.  She got all excited and shouted "we talked about him at school"!  I asked her what she knew of him, she said he was the first person who played baseball.  I responded to her to make sure she didn't say it wrong, "did you say he was the first person to play baseball"?  I explained how important he was to not only baseball but also to America.  I could tell that she didn't really understand how bad the relations of blacks and whites just 60 or 70 years ago.  After the short talk, she smiled and said "I use the same bathroom as my friend Cassie does".  I don't think our world will ever be without some form of racism because lets face it we are all different, and there will always be ignorant people.  I am proud that in 1997 that MLB retired the number 42 to not just remind us of the sacrifices that Robinson made in the past, but also to look at ourselves to see how much more progress we all can make in the future.  Number 42 is bigger than just Robinson, it also carries all the stories and the struggles of everyone before him that had a dream to one day to maybe be a Major League player.  Thank you Mr. Robinson!

MY JACKIE ROBINSON CARD COLLECTION 

Here are my favorite of my Robinson cards in my collection, mostly all my cards are 1980 or newer, and one patch.