The Los Angeles Dodgers and Major League Baseball held their annual celebration of Jackie Robinson on April 15, the anniversary of Robinson’s MLB debut when he became the first Black player in the league and broke the color barrier in 1947.
Every club around the league had their players wear a Dodger blue No. 42 instead of their traditional number, the caps featured a special patch, Breaking Barriers shirts were worn, and special lineup cards and bases were used.
Prior to each game, a tribute video was played at the ballparks, and it was also shown on social media. MLB partnered in volunteer events, set up a Jackie Robinson Day website with interactive content and stories from each club, and teams around the league also planned their own ways to celebrate the day.
For the Dodgers specifically, they joined with the Colorado Rockies to meet at the Jackie Robinson statue at Dodger Stadium to reflect on Robinson’s life and legacy, and invited Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to speak.
Everything done was great in itself, but the actions of both the Dodgers and MLB fall short and fail to truly honor the legacy of Jackie Robinson, given the surrounding circumstances.
On April 7, 2025, the Dodgers visited the White House and President Donald Trump to celebrate their 2024 World Series victory.
The visit came after the Department of Justice removed a story from their website about Robinson’s military service as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to remove content related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
The DOJ later reversed the decision and restored the story after significant public backlash, but the Dodgers and MLB were not among those who spoke out against the decision.
Both the Dodgers and MLB also remained quiet as the Trump administration ordered the Naval Academy to scrub their library of stories related to DEI, which led to Robinson’s biography being marked for removal.
Robinson’s biography did not end up being removed by the Naval Academy library, but many books and stories related to racism in sports and stories of other Black athletes were removed.
You can not honor the legacy of Jackie Robinson while erasing what he stood for. You can not honor Robinson’s legacy while remaining quiet as Black Americans and other people continue to deal with racist attacks.
“Trump wants to get rid of DEI,” Abdul-Jabbar said as he spoke to the Dodgers. “And I think it’s just a ruse to discriminate. So I’m glad that we do things like this, to let everybody in the country know what’s important.
“They also tried to get rid of Harriet Tubman. But that didn’t work. There was just uproar about that. But you have to take that into consideration when we think about what’s going on today.”
Wearing No. 42 on uniforms once a year and celebrating Robinson every April 15 fall short when you don’t continue to push back against the very thing he fought against.
By pretending racism does not exist, by erasing stories of diversity, equity and inclusion, you are deleting part of Robinson’s history and removing some of his impact. Robinson is a story of diversity, equity and inclusion, and that doesn’t change no matter who the president is.
For the Dodgers to celebrate with a man leading the charge to destroy the progress Robinson helped usher in, it’s hypocritical of them to claim they can also celebrate Robinson’s legacy and pretend everything is fine.
“I don’t personally view it as talking out of both sides of our mouth,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts answered when asked about the hypocrisy of their actions. “I understand how people feel that way, but I do think supporting our country, staying unified, aligned, is what I believe in personally.
“I just believe in doing things the right way. People can have their opinions on what we did last week, but I do know that we all stand unified, and we all have different stories, backgrounds, economic and political beliefs.
“I was proud we all stood together.”
Roberts is correct, the team did stand together. But they did not stand with Robinson’s legacy.
The Dodgers claimed it was not a political decision to attend the White House, saying their decision was made as a team to continue an honored tradition.
They are right, in some ways. Teams have been going to the White House since the 1980s, and it has never been a political event. Both Democrats and Republicans have hosted teams at the White House.
None of the presidents who previously hosted teams at the White House attempted to erase the legacy of that franchise’s most important player, and one of the most important figures in not just sports history, but also the Civil Rights Movement.
None of those presidents removed funding from universities for exercising free speech while claiming free speech from people he doesn’t agree with is terrorism. None of them have made plans to deport U.S. citizens to a foreign prison, none of them have taken away due process, a constitutionally protected right to everyone in the country, while ignoring court orders.
Believing in diversity, equity and inclusion for all people and being against racism should not be political. Unfortunately, it has become political due to the current presidential administration.
It is not normal, and the Dodgers pretending it is and going about things as if they are normal takes the stance that they are ok with it.
Roberts is a Black manager in MLB, one of just two, and that puts him in a difficult place to both protect his players from criticism, while also standing up for what he believes in.
“I’d like to think it’s a continued wake-up call for everyone and to take a step back and appreciate what made our country, the people who shaped our country,” Roberts said.
“This country needs a wake-up call, and I kind of touched on it a little bit today. This is not a one-day situation. It’s Jackie Robinson’s day, breaking the color barrier, but this is an everyday mindset and appreciation.”
Roberts and Mookie Betts, the Dodgers’ only Black player, previously stated they would not visit the White House during President Trump’s first term.
But the political climate has changed. That was during a time of mass protests and what seemed like an awakening in the United States about racial injustice. That time has passed, and any semblance of progress that was made during that time has since been lost.
If either of them had not gone, it would have become a bigger story and more of a distraction to the team than actually going.
This is not to criticize Betts or Roberts for their decision to attend. Both put the team first, but it was an organizational failure as a whole.
If they decided not to attend the event, they would not have been the first person on the Dodgers to skip. In 2021, Blake Treinen decided not to attend the White House when they were invited by President Joe Biden.
Treinen has been open about his conservative political beliefs, just as Betts has previously been open about his more liberal views.
Treinen has that right, but he made a political decision because it has become a political event.
For the Dodgers to pretend it’s not political is clueless at best, but this is not a clueless organization, leaving questions about their true motivations and beliefs.
The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) does a lot of great work in the community, and one of its main claims is working for social justice. They act independently from the Dodgers organization, but it does raise the question: do the Dodgers support LADF’s efforts because they believe in the causes, or because it’s good PR and provides them tax benefits?
It’s hard to say they believe in the cause with their current actions and failure to stand up for Jackie Robinson.
However, just as the Dodgers failed to honor Robinson’s legacy, MLB also joined in with President Trump’s agenda. After commissioner Rob Manfred stated the league would not change its values on diversity amid the Trump administration’s attacks, they folded.
MLB ended up removing references to diversity on their careers page. They also removed their Diversity Pipeline Program, which was created to help add diversity to leadership roles on teams across the league.
“I think he would say we need to do better,” Roberts answered about the lack of diversity among MLB managers. “Frank Robinson was a friend of mine, and I was fortunate enough to hear Jackie’s stories. I think he would be heartbroken to see all the sacrifices he made, to see that we’re still here.”
In their press release to announce plans for Jackie Robinson Day, MLB changed the line that stated they were working to “support communities and meaningfully address diversity and inclusion at all levels of our sport” to “communicating his message at all levels of the sport.”
MLB has also failed to mention why Robinson’s legacy is important, deciding not to include the words and phrases breaking the color barrier, race, racism or Black.
If MLB is no longer concerned with diversity and inclusion, they have no place pretending to honor Jackie Robinson.
Fan perspective
Whether you are liberal, conservative, progressive, or hold any other political belief, companies and corporations will more often than not let you down if you look for them to make the morally correct decisions. Their only goal is to make a profit, and nothing more.
But for an organization that has long prided itself as a leader on social justice issues, as the organization of Jackie Robinson, Fernando Valenzuela and many other people of color, that celebrates different cultures and hosts pride nights, they can’t continue to act as if they are above politics.
The Trump administration stands against the values they claim to hold, it stands against the values of Jackie Robinson and social justice; it stands against diversity, equity and inclusion.
The Dodgers can’t continue to thread the needle. They need to be the organization that supports positive social change, or they need to be the organization with no political stances. They can’t be both, it’s hypocrisy.
Fans deserve better from the teams and leagues they support.
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