Yankees stars reflect on importance of Jackie Robinson

As the MLB lockout raged on in March, the very real threat that Friday’s scheduled baseball celebration could be canceled was not lost on today’s players.

Among the various public relations successes baseball would have absorbed without a resolution to its winter labor dispute, not being on the field on April 15 – the 75th birthday of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier with his first game for the Dodgers of Brooklyn in 1947 – would have been disastrous.

In addition to my duties covering the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. show Wednesday at the stadium, I asked a few Yankees to share their thoughts on baseball being back in time for Jackie Robinson Day, as well as the importance that everyone wear their uniform number that day. day every year, their love of the movie “42” charting its journey and the progress that is yet to be made in baseball and society.

“It’s one thing honestly that I was looking at the schedule during the lockout and trying to figure out what was going to happen,” Aaron Judge told Sports+ ahead of Wednesday’s loss to the Jays. “It was a day that I had definitely circled that we had to be back before that. I even thought for a while that maybe we would have an opening day on the 15th, and that would have been pretty special too, and a really big day, since everyone would be wearing 42s on opening day.