OPINION
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Remember 42
Regarding Kevin B. Blackstone’s April 7 Sports column, “Dodgers’ visit to White House goes against Robinson’s legacy”:
As reported in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Dodgers accepted an invitation to visit the White House to recognize their 2024 World Series championship.
To me, the Dodgers’ management accepting this invitation is a disrespectful slap to Jackie Robinson, the first African American player to sign with and play in the major leagues, with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
How could the Dodgers, the team who made this courageous decision and commitment to bring Robinson into the major leagues, take such a backward step?
In his book “October 1964,” David Halberstam’s shared a story from Robinson’s time playing for the Kansas City Monarchs, a successful team in the Negro Leagues:
“There was a place in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where they had always gassed up, but where the owner never let them use the rest rooms. Robinson had not known that, so when the bus pulled in, ready to fill up its twin fifty-gallon tanks, he got out to go to the men’s room. “Where you going, boy?” the owner said, and Robinson answered that he was going to the men’s room. “No, you’re not,” the owner said. Robinson never hesitated. “Take the hose out of the tank!” he said immediately, and that was no idle threat, for one hundred gallons of gas was a big sale, a fair percentage of the amount of money the man might make on a given day. The man looked at Robinson and saw the anger and the strength on his face. He was not the first, and certainly not the last, white man to see that conviction, and he immediately backed down. “You boys can use the rest rooms,” he said. “Just don’t stay there too long.”
How can the Dodgers’ management be so blind by comparison?
Has fear of retribution from a vengeful president caused the Dodgers’ management to ignore the significance of the legacy of its 1947 signing of Robinson? Where is the “anger and strength” of the team’s integrity to turn down this shameful invitation?
According to Forbes, the Dodgers are valued at $6.8 billion.
Are the Dodgers more loyal to the preservation of those billions than to Robinson’s groundbreaking achievement?
Unfortunately, the answer seems to be yes.
Bill Pike, Richmond
Note from the author: Friends, I was honored to have my letter to the editor published in the Washington Post today, Saturday, April 12, 2025.
might be baloney 