NNOB for the Jays?

[Buster]

I just want to know why no one ever celebrates Larry Doby. He was just as impactful as Robinson on the social side of things (since we're recognizing race, not actual baseball talents with this promotion). He WAS a 7-time All-Star himself and debuted as the AL's first black player just after Robinson, yet no one mentions him, except for the teams he was connected to.

[IceCap]

I just want to know why no one ever celebrates Larry Doby. He was just as impactful as Robinson on the social side of things (since we're recognizing race, not actual baseball talents with this promotion). He WAS a 7-time All-Star himself and debuted as the AL's first black player just after Robinson, yet no one mentions him.

Second comes just after first!

[Buster]

I think pretty much everyone that had 42 on when they crossed it off across th board are all out of the game now. I think a simple ceremony before the game and hte number 42 somewhere on the field is just as good

Do all the Yankees wear 42 on Jackie Robinson day? Next April 15th I'm going with a "Mariano Rivera Day" Banner.

Why do you have to be a racist?

[Buster]

I just want to know why no one ever celebrates Larry Doby. He was just as impactful as Robinson on the social side of things (since we're recognizing race, not actual baseball talents with this promotion). He WAS a 7-time All-Star himself and debuted as the AL's first black player just after Robinson, yet no one mentions him.

Second comes just after first!

American League's first doesn't count for anything?

It doesn't really bother me, I could live with or without any of these "Appreciation" days, but it's just interesting how Doby gets the shaft. I bet the majority of today's baseball fans never even heard of Doby and the guy was a legitimate star (over 100 RBIs many years, All Star most years, manager with White Sox) aside from his "social" impact. He was also the first Negro League player to go straight to the Majors, something Jackie Robinson did not do.

[AnythingChicago]

Wait - toasters? Seriously? They sell team toasters? That's just sad.

Who doesn't want a giant TB on their toast?

[Evil Doctor]

Wait - toasters? Seriously? They sell team toasters? That's just sad.

It looks like it's made by the same company that made this....

New BSG Cylon Toaster

When I saw this originally on The Big Bang Theory, I just assumed it was just a clever fanboy joke. Until I saw the baseball toasters, I had no idea the thing was even real...

[McCall]

Wait - toasters? Seriously? They sell team toasters? That's just sad.

Who doesn't want a giant TB on their toast?

Toasted Bread. How appropriate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RSi1NS7SLo

[ESTONES6]

Nothing says honor like over-saturation (yes, that was intentional redundancy).

[IceCap]

I just want to know why no one ever celebrates Larry Doby. He was just as impactful as Robinson on the social side of things (since we're recognizing race, not actual baseball talents with this promotion). He WAS a 7-time All-Star himself and debuted as the AL's first black player just after Robinson, yet no one mentions him.

Second comes just after first!

American League's first doesn't count for anything?

It doesn't really bother me, I could live with or without any of these "Appreciation" days, but it's just interesting how Doby gets the shaft. I bet the majority of today's baseball fans never even heard of Doby and the guy was a legitimate star (over 100 RBIs many years, All Star most years, manager with White Sox) aside from his "social" impact. He was also the first Negro League player to go straight to the Majors, something Jackie Robinson did not do.

Fact is that today the vast majority of fans don't consider the AL and NL separate entities like they did back then. So "first in the AL" after a guy already did it in the NL is seen as, well, second.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

Jackie Robinson Day dude.

Every team is doing it.

And it's the dumbest promotion ever!

I would agree with that whole-heartedly.

It is great that there is such a thing as a Jackie Robinson Day, to inspire people that it is always right to oppose racist oppression. But I really dislike the leagues-wide retiring of the number.

The retiring of the number across the Majors was unwise for two reasons. For one, it deprived individual players, such as Mo Vaughn and Butch Huskey, of the opportunity to choose the number, and to thereby make a statement. (In probably half of the at-bats that I ever saw of Mo Vaughn, an announcer mentioned his no. 42, and also Robinson. This raises consciousness in a way that a contrived, organised event can never do.)

And, furthermore, the retiring of the number for all teams set an unfortunate precedent. There are now many people who, citing the Robinson case, want no. 21 to be retired for all teams, in honour of Roberto Clemente. People who now feel insulted because this has not been done! And from here is born all manner of unfortunate discussion: about whether Latin players suffered, and how much as compared to non-Latin black players; discussion about the racial identities of various Latin players; and so forth. That entire topic, hashed out in any mainstream-America-type setting, gets pretty ugly pretty fast.

So, I'd say that, apart from the Dodgers, teams should never have taken no. 42 out of circulation. Let future Mo Vaughns do their thing.

All the players' wearing of the number is distasteful to me. I don't like it because it is self-congragulatory; it amounts to Major League Baseball praising itself, which blurs the reality of Robinson's fight against the racial hatred that is engrained not only in baseball but in all our society's institutions. Right now, it is as though baseball is saying: "Remember that whole nasty racism thing from way back? Good thing we helped end it. See how moral we are?" In this ahistorical narrative, baseball, rather than Robinson, becomes the hero; and racism becomes a vanquished thing of the past.

Every April, baseball should honour Robinson with a simple, diginified patch. And, most important, the tenor of the day should be very different to what it is now. Instead of the self-congratulation, the take-away message should be along the lines of: racism is real, deep-seated, pervasive, and ever-present in our society; and we (baseball), have been part of the problem, as has been every other institution.

If this is a day to remember Jackie Robinson, then we need less of the "patting oneself on the back for a job well done"-type of vibe; we need a lot more humility about the enduring reality of racism, about the complicity in it by "ordinary folks" and by mainstream institutions, and about the enormous amount of societal change that would still have to take place before we could pretend to have a just society.

[omnivore]

The retiring the number thing was symbolic. I don't think people should see it as anything but. Could there have been better gestures? Sure. But I think Jackie is the positive model symbol for the blight over the game for so long. Unlike other major sports now, baseball was the top dog and king of the sports world at that time. Those franchises still exist and the vestiges of their actions certainly caused a great deal of problems.

It's an American history that Latins who didn't grow up here or don't know the history well -- and call for Clemente's number to be retired -- or others who say it was overkill just don't get. I don't think every team needs to wear it, but that only happened as a widespread league thing because specific players appealed the commissioner for permission to wear his number on his day and as such, it became leaguewide. It's a progressive move given that it'd never been done in any other sport up to that point. Hockey's doing it for Gretzky was pandering at best, but that's Bettman's NHL for you.

I think that while there's a lot that can be done to fight racism, the gesture goes beyond that and it's really a symbolic one. Plus debating the merit is moot. It's not going anywhere. It's like baseball's own national holiday and I'm fine with that.