Jackie Robinson

Who is Jackie Robinson? Wikipedia or google him if you want more information.

But briefly, Jackie Robinson is the first African-American player to ever play in the Major Leagues. Today, the entire sport of baseball honors him as the first player to break the color barrier, and play a game that pretty much had all white people until he came along.

I can only compare it to maybe Yao Ming on a smaller level. When Yao Ming came into the NBA, all the Chinese people (that means you probably) was like, "Wow, a Chinese player actually made it in the NBA."

Yao is an inspiration and a role model to so many Asian people. They think, "If Yao can make it, so can I."

(NOTE: Wang Zhi-Zhi was actually the first ever Chinese player to play in the NBA. But he was as good as I am in ballet, so I figured why mention him.)

That was the same way it was for Jackie Robinson and the African-American community.

But the reason there weren't that many Chinese in the NBA, if any, was, we just aren't that good to be in the NBA -- at least that's what I think.

Whereas black people back then were not even allowed to play baseball for the Major Leagues.

So Jackie Robinson became the first player to play, and people were not happy. A lot of the traditional baseball fans were outraged that a black person was playing a sport that they though should've been for white people only.

He faced discrimination, people taunted him, wrote him hate mail, had death threats, etc...But he still continued to play and had an incredible Hall of Fame career.

Maybe at your age, you don't fully comprehend or understand what a big deal it was, but it was and still is.

The #42 is no longer worn by anybody in the Major Leagues, except one player, because that jersey number is reserved for Jackie Robinson. #42 is Jackie Robinson.

And for today, every single player in baseball wears #42 to honor him.

How cool is that?