By now, most baseball fans are well aware that this past Monday, January 31, would have been Dodger great Jackie Robinson‘s 103rd birthday. Robinson, who achieved baseball immortality when he was enshrined into the sacred Halls of Cooperstown in 1962, will forever be remembered and loved as the man who broke baseball’s color barrier when he made his Major League debut with the (then) Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947; a date which is recognized and celebrated annually by all of baseball – and the entire world – as Jackie Robinson Day. Robinson finished his brilliant 11-year MLB career in 1956 with a remarkable slash line of: .313/.410/.477/.887, with 141 home runs, 761 RBI, and 200 stolen bases.

Robinson died of a heart attack at his home in North Stamford, Connecticut on October 24, 1972. He was 53 years old.

On Monday, the (now) Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated Robinson’s birthday by hosting 60 students from the baseball and softball teams of John Muir High School in Pasadena, CA – Robinson’s alma mater. The event, which was broadcast live on Zoom, was hosted by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and included Robinson’s youngest and only surviving son David Robinson, himself now 69 years old, on a large monitor, also via Zoom.

In addition to a generous donation to John Muir High School by the Dodgers, the event allowed students to ask questions of David. And though all of the questions asked were great, perhaps the best was this one:

Question: “What was the most important thing your father taught you?”

David Robinson: “The most important thing my father taught me was the value of service.“

Wow.

Thank you, David Robinson.

…and of course, Jackie.

Play Ball!

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