He will, like every player in the big leagues Saturday, honor Jackie Robinson by exchanging his usual jersey for one bearing No. 42.
The difference for Cameron Maybin, though, is that his usual jersey already honors the man who, 70 years ago, broke the sport’s color barrier.
After being traded to the Angels in November, Maybin initially thought he’d request No. 17.
But, one day, he and his wife, Courtney, were watching the movie “42” – “For probably like the 100th time,” Maybin said – when Robinson was depicted playing for a minor league team wearing No. 9.
“I thought, ‘Cool, that’s it! That’s my number!’ ” Maybin said. “I thought it’d be tight.”
Though the details are sketchy, it is generally believed Robinson wore No. 9 during spring training with the Montreal Royals in 1946, the year before he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
So here’s a player, a Hall of Famer, a pioneer, an American icon whose impact remains so profound that he’s still being celebrated with a current jersey number – 20 years after all of baseball retired 42.
Even on Jackie Robinson Day, a day seems hardly sufficient.
“This is special,” Maybin said. “But he’s somebody we in the African-American community celebrate every day. He broke a barrier for so many people to open their eyes and their hearts and accept someone who might not look like them.”
Larger than life, Robinson was and still is now, the Dodgers prepared to unveil a statue of a 5-foot-11 ballplayer sculpted into a figure who, if standing upright, would measure 8 feet tall.
Instead, the bronze artwork captures Robinson sliding during a steal of home, something he did 19 times in his career, including once in the 1955 World Series, a play that resulted in Yankee catcher Yogi Berra famously going bonkers.
“That’s what he brought to Major League Baseball and what he learned from the Negro Leagues,” Robinson’s daughter, Sharon, said, “to be a more aggressive baserunner.”
There are seven other statues of Robinson, from Pasadena to Daytona Beach to Stamford, Conn., no other American athlete is thought to be so recognized more often.
Robinson is, among other poses, shown in a batting stance, playing defense and interacting with children.
The subject of his Dodger Stadium statue was intended to define, as much as the player, the man.
“It took certain qualities – courage, focus and precise timing – in order for someone to steal home plate,” sculptor Branly Cadet said. “Similarly, those qualities are required in anyone trying to break the color barrier.”
The statue – on the reserve level, along the left-field line – will be dedicated Saturday afternoon, the reverence of the occasion such that it is invitation-only, the significance such that Sandy Koufax will be among the attendees.
Robinson’s 94-year-old widow, Rachel, also is scheduled to be there, along with Sharon and David, the Robinsons’ son. An estimated 200 people are on the family’s guest list.
“My dad was a humble person,” Sharon said. “Here it is, 70 years later and he’s still being recognized. He used to come home and say, ‘I got a standing ovation today.’ He’d be shocked. I don’t know what he would think about what’s going on now.”
This will be the first statue at Dodger Stadium, which opened in 1962 and has been home to four World Series champions.
Just for the sake of comparison, Staples Center, which opened in 1999, last month welcomed its eighth statue, a dunking Shaquille O’Neal.
The idea of honoring Robinson with a sculpture began two years ago and came from Mark Walter, the Dodgers chairman and controlling owner.
The end product is the result of the artist and the Robinsons working with the very unity Jackie embodied.
“Just meeting the family was a great honor,” Cadet said. “As an African-American, their actions and choices in life have an impact on my life. … It’s not every day you meet people who are on the front lines of social changes.”
Cadet’s work is so impressive that this statue actually speaks. It is inscribed with three Robinson quotes, none of which involve baseball but instead reference things such as respect and freedom.
“A life is not important,” one of the quotes reads, “except in the impact it has on other lives.”
On Saturday, Robinson’s impact will be celebrated throughout baseball, from special lineup cards to jeweled bases to some players wearing commemorative cleats.
All the matching No. 42s running around – a tradition that began in 2009 – will be a reminder not only of Robinson but of the continuing movement for each of us to be more like him in other ways, too.
“Days like this one should just inspire people to be open about change,” the Angels’ Maybin said. “We should all be thankful that we have the opportunity to carry on his legacy.”
And carry it on they will, today just like – in the case of the Angels’ left fielder – every other day.
