(NEXSTAR) — Every MLB player, regardless of team or position, will be wearing the exact same jersey number on Tuesday. So will their coaches and, undoubtedly, many fans.
Tuesday, April 15, is also the only day you’ll see players or coaches wearing this number: No. 42.
It’s all part of Jackie Robinson Day, which honors the day Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947 as he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. While those playing in the MLB weren’t even alive when Robinson made his debut, the league honors his legacy every year on April 15.
On Jackie Robinson Day, every player and on-field personnel dons the number Robinson wore, 42, which was retired by the league in 1997. Regardless of team color, the 42 will be Dodger blue.
The MLB notes that players, managers, coaches, and umpires will also have a “42” patch on their hats. If you’re attending any of the 15 games being played on Jackie Robinson Day, you may also notice players wearing Nike “Breaking Barriers” T-shirts during batting practice.
Jackie Robinson Day was formally established by the league in 2004.
Robinson passed away on October 24, 1972. He was born in Cairo, Ga., in 1919. He attended college at UCLA, where he was named to the All-American football team, but was forced to leave due to financial difficulties, the biography on his website reads. Robinson then enlisted in the Army, but his career was cut short after being court-martialed for objecting to “incidents of racial discrimination.” He ultimately left with an honorable discharge.
In 1945, Robinson played in the Negro Baseball League for the Kansas City Monarchs. Two years later, Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers.
After nine seasons with the Dodgers, Robinson retired following the 1956 season. He went on to work as the vice president for personnel at Chock Full O’ Nuts, a restaurant chain in New York, and became a Civil Rights icon, according to the Library of Congress.
Jackie Robinson Day comes at a contentious time: Last month, a Department of Defense webpage dedicated to Robinson’s military service was apparently taken down amid efforts to delete material promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, commonly referred to as DEI. When that webpage’s address was entered, a message showed up saying it “might have been moved, renamed, or may be temporarily unavailable.” The letters “dei” were also automatically added to the URL.
The webpage was restored a day later. The Department of Defense released a statement afterward.
“We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,” press secretary John Ullyot said. “In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.”
“Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others — we salute them for their strong and in many cases heroic service to our country, full stop,” Ullyot added. “We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex. We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like (every) other American who has worn the uniform.”
Thousands of pages honoring contributions by women and minority groups have been taken down amid the Pentagon’s DEI purge. Ullyot’s statement even referred to DEI as “Discriminatory Equity Ideology.”
“It is a form of woke cultural Marxism that Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
