Today, April 15, is celebrated in Major League Baseball as Jackie Robinson Day, commemorating the first day of the 1947 season, when Robinson became the first player to break baseball's color line when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Instituted as a baseball tradition in 2004, the day is one on which every baseball plater, coach and umpire takes the field wearing Robinson's number, 42 - a number that has been retired throughout the sport.
- KC's View:
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I've always believed that Robinson was not just one of the greatest men ever to play baseball, but actually was one of the most important people of the 20th century. He accomplished something that had extraordinary importance beyond the lines of the baseball diamond, and did so under almost unimaginable pressure.
