Phillies, Braves give it up for Jackie Robinson one more day
Jackie Robinson Day is turning into Jackie Robinson Weekend.
Phillies and Braves players wore No. 42 again on Saturday afternoon.
Usually, teams wear No. 42 only one day per season, on Jackie Robinson Day. That was Friday around Major League Baseball.
Apparently sometime between the end of Friday’s games and the start of Saturday’s schedule, players around the league asked if they could wear Robinson’s number throughout the weekend. The Players Association and MLB both approved the move and left the final call up to individual teams.
Phillies and Braves players made the call to wear No. 42 sometime Saturday morning. The Phillies had been scheduled to wear their cream-colored uniforms so the equipment staff had to hustle to get the pinstriped 42s ready on short notice. The scoreboard operations staff was unaware of the change until players started taking the field shortly before the game. All players are announced and displayed on video boards as wearing No. 42 on Jackie Robinson Day. The folks in the Citizens Bank Park scoreboard room pulled it off without a hitch.
It’s not surprising that players chose to continue to wear No. 42 one more day. It honors baseball’s racial pioneer and these are times of great awareness on that important subject. Earlier this week, several teams, including the Phillies, chose not to play a game as a show of unity against racial and societal injustice.
Seeing No. 42 on the field again Saturday was also poignant after the news Friday that Chadwick Boseman had died of cancer at age 43. Bozeman is the actor who brilliantly portrayed Robinson in the movie 42.
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