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Jackie Robinson Day Throughout The Years With the Rays

Steve Carney
Tampa Bay Rays logo

Today is the 74th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball, called “baseball’s finest moment” by John Chancellor in the Ken Burns film Baseball, “when a black man wearing the number 42 trotted out to first base” at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, “and baseball truly became what it had always claimed to be: the national pastime.”

Robinson’s number 42 has been retired throughout baseball since 1997, the year before the Tampa Bay Rays played their first game in Major League Baseball, and every year the Rays have marked the occasion by having every player wear the number 42.  They’ll do so tonight as they look to end a two-game skid against the Texas Rangers

In 2017, some of the players talked about the importance of Robinson’s struggle.

And before the game players wore a special t-shirt commemorating the day.  Here’s outfielder Mallex Smith modeling it.

In 2019, outfielder Tommy Pham spent Jackie Robinson Day at Tropicana Field talking with students from the Poynter Institute’s Write Field program, which focuses on helping African-American and Hispanic-American boys by teaching writing, public speaking and critical thinking.  The program was overseen by former Tampa Bay Times columnist and editor Earnest Hooper.

Rays outfielder Tommy Phan speaks with students in Poynter Institute's Write Field program on Jackie Robinson Day in 2019

Rays outfielder Tommy Pham speaks with students in Poynter Institute’s Write Field program on Jackie Robinson Day in 2019 (photo: Will Vragovic/Tampa Bay Rays)

And even in the middle of a global pandemic in 2020, when baseball was not being played in order to keep people safe, the Rays made sure that the day was honored by showing some of the groups they have worked with to help better communities on both sides of Tampa Bay.

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