On what would have been Jackie Robinson’s 88th birthday, the Boston Red Sox threw a party yesterday for local students to remember the legendary Hall of Famer who broke baseball’s color barrier 60 years ago.
Fenway Park’s State Street Pavilion was filled with mostly black middle school students from the Boston area, who joined former professional players, the Red Sox poet laureate and Robinson’s daughter for the fifth annual celebration of the former Brooklyn Dodger’s life.
Speakers focused on the magnitude of Robinson’s contributions to baseball and the civil rights movement in general.
Red Sox Executive Vice President of Public Affairs Charles Steinberg said Robinson’s story — which he called the most important development in baseball’s history — has a lot to teach students about self-esteem.
“There’s nothing you’re not allowed to pursue,” he told the group. “You’re permitted to go after whatever you want, largely through what Jackie Robinson did for you [and] for us all.”
Peter Roby, the director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University, said Robinson provided a lesson in seizing opportunities when he became the first black Major League Baseball player in 1947.
“It’s one thing to get an opportunity. It’s another thing entirely to take full advantage of it,” he said.
Roby said Robinson, who was drafted from the University of California, Los Angeles’s baseball team, is an example to emphasize the importance of an education.
“Jackie Robinson was a college man,” he told the students. “UCLA helped him fully prepare himself, so the next time your teacher challenges you, say ‘thank you.'”
Many students who attended the celebration were Red Sox Scholarship recipients — “academically talented” and “financially challenged” middle school students whom the Red Sox each awarded a $5,000 college scholarship, according to the team’s website.
Tommy Harper, a former left fielder and Red Sox coach, reminded the audience of the racism black players faced on the road in the South. One time on the road, Harper said he was forced to eat alone outside for three days after he was denied service at restaurants with his white teammates.
“My first year was tough,” he said. “I wanted to quit, but I was going through what I had to go through to get to the next level.”
Robinson’s example helped him persevere, Harper said.
“I kept telling myself, this isn’t as hard as what Jackie Robinson went through,” he said.
Robinson’s daughter Sharon, who serves as vice president of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, noted the trail her father blazed for later players.
“When you’re first at something, you want to know something is coming behind you – that you’re changing something,” she said.