Dodgers, MLB To Commemorate 'Jackie Robinson Night'
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The Los Angeles Dodgers will join all of Major League Baseball in commemorating Jackie Robinson Night at Friday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals.
All uniformed personnel — including players, managers, coaches and umpires — throughout Major League Baseball will wear Robinson's No. 42 Friday. The number was retired throughout Major League Baseball in 1997 on the 50th anniversary of Robinson's breaking the color line. Friday marks the 64th anniversary.
Don Newcombe, a teammate of Robinson's with the Brooklyn Dodgers and now a Dodgers special adviser to the chairman, will throw out a ceremonial first pitch to outfielder Matt Kemp before the game at Dodger Stadium.
Dodger players will sign their jerseys which will be auctioned off a later date to benefit the Dodgers Dream Foundation and Jackie Robinson Foundation, which provides four-year college scholarships, graduate school grants and extensive mentoring to academically distinguished minority students with leadership capacity.
"Each year, Jackie Robinson Day is an occasion for us to pause and reflect on the game's proudest and most powerful moment," Commissioner Bud Selig said. "Jackie's legacy is as strong and vibrant as ever throughout Major League Baseball."
On April 15, 1947, Robinson — who was raised in Pasadena and attended Muir High School, Pasadena City College and UCLA — made his major league debut. He went hitless in four at-bats, but scored to be what proved to be the winning run in the Brooklyn Dodgers' 5-3 victory over the Boston Braves in front of a crowd announced at 25,623 at Ebbets Field.
Robinson played his entire major league career with the Brooklyn Dodgers, helping lead them to six National League championships during his 10 seasons, and, in 1955, their only World Series championship in Brooklyn.
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