Darryl Strawberry has some phrases for the individuals making an attempt to erase Jackie Robinson‘s legacy. To place it merely, they need to be ashamed.
“Shame on them,” the previous Mets outfielder mentioned Thursday at Citi Area.
Robinson’s heroic legacy of breaking MLB’s colour barrier has been near-university lauded for many years, with the league yearly celebrating the day he performed his first Main League Sport. Jackie Robinson Day got here and went Tuesday, with the identical fanfare it at all times comes with. Each participant wore No. 42 and tribute movies had been performed on stadium scoreboards.
However it comes at an inflection level for the nation. Abruptly, race isn’t a consideration within the celebration of a participant who was, for years, excluded from Main League Baseball due to his race.
MLB’s press launch concerning the day didn’t include the phrase Black. Final month, the Protection Division took down Robinson’s bio earlier than reinstating it, with the federal government telling ESPN it was a part of the Trump administration’s push to take away references to DEI.
Actions like this have been seen by many as makes an attempt to rewrite the narrative round one among baseball’s cultural heroes, if not outright eradicate it.
“Shame on them if they do that,” Strawberry mentioned. “Disgrace on them as a result of [he was] an individual that needed to combat so arduous. Not solely was he combating for himself, he was combating for any participant of colour that placed on the uniform. From black gamers to Latin gamers, and no one among colour places on a uniform had it not been for him, and a door open for him to do this. It could be a disgrace if they’ll’t preserve that proper, preserve it the best way it ought to be as a result of it represents one thing; one thing greater than you possibly can most likely ever think about. The typical individual most likely couldn’t have carried out what he had carried out at that specific time…
“I know I couldn’t.”
Strawberry was at Citi Area for the Mets’ Black Legacy Sport, a sport that honors the historical past of gamers like Robinson and those he blazed a path for when he grew to become the primary Black participant to play in a Main League sport.
Born in Los Angeles, the identical space Robinson referred to as residence, Strawberry was influenced by Robinson, however wasn’t essentially conscious of all that he needed to endure. Strawberry grew up in South Central, an inner-city neighborhood the place he performed baseball with and in opposition to different Black children.
Within the minor leagues, that each one modified. He was in small cities within the South — cities that weren’t so pleasant to Black individuals within the 19080s. He gravitated towards pitching coach Al Jackson, who had been round baseball shortly after integration. Jackson helped Strawberry understand the burden that was positioned on Robinson and so many different gamers.
Then Strawberry went to Lynchburg, Virginia, and was confronted with racial taunts, discrimination and hateful rhetoric. It had the Mets’ all-time residence run chief contemplating leaving baseball behind at 19 years outdated.
“My manager, Gene Dusan, used to tell me, ‘Just don’t look up there,’” Strawberry mentioned. “I was struggling that year, and I came close to quitting baseball, but he helped me get through that season. I think he figured, if I looked up there — up in the crowd where they were calling me a ‘boy’ and the N word, I probably would have took my Louisville Slugger and went up there and eliminated somebody. But Gene Dusan kept me together. I am grateful for that.”
Dusan, who was white, grew to become a father determine to Strawberry. Chuck Hiller, his first coach in Kingsport, was as nicely. Lloyd McClendon was an older brother of kinds, one other Black outfielder who was a number of years older and capable of assist inform him of what he was going up in opposition to.
The internal metropolis baseball fields Strawberry performed on haven’t fairly disappeared, however they’re dwindling. The NBA is the extra well-liked league amongst Black youth and the NFL is the preferred league amongst all younger American sports activities followers. Which is why it’s necessary for Strawberry to proceed to indicate up for video games just like the Black Legacy Sport and why it’s necessary that the legacy of Robinson is stored alive.
However the celebrations of April 15 are largely saccharine. Commemorative days are sometimes performative in nature, and with race dividing the nation greater than it has because the Civil Rights period, groups try to determine tips on how to sidestep any controversy.
However Robinson shouldn’t be a controversial determine. You possibly can’t focus on his legacy with out discussing race and the ugliness he confronted due to his race. It’s a part of his story, it’s a part of Hank Aaron’s story and it’s a part of Strawberry’s story as nicely.
“Jackie wasn’t just a player, Jackie was a man of true character,” Strawberry mentioned. “Whenever you examine him and also you study him, you study that his character was most likely simply as nice as his sport as a participant. That claims quite a bit when you need to endure a lot and must take a lot criticism and hatred in the direction of you, however nonetheless preserve the identical character…
“It’s a great legacy for what he stood for and how he stood up for it.”
