Major League Baseball did something great and noble when it retired Jackie Robinson's famous No. 42 a decade ago.
Now, with the 60th anniversary of Robinson's arrival in the majors a week away, baseball should seriously think about un-retiring the number.
Not for one day. For good.
Next Sunday, 60 years to the day after Robinson debuted at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers, baseball will permit one player from each team to wear No. 42 in honor of Robinson.
Ken Griffey Jr. came up with the idea, received the OK from the commissioner's office, and soon baseball was encouraging every team to have one of its players wear the number in tribute to Robinson for a day.
Mets Manager Willie Randolph was so enthusiastic about the idea that he half-jokingly said he'd fight anyone for the number. Every member of the Dodgers, Robinson's old team, will wear it for a day.
Jimmy Rollins will wear it for the Phillies. Derrek Lee for the Cubs, Torii Hunter for the Twins, Coco Crisp for the Red Sox and Orlando Hudson for the Diamondbacks. All are African American. All know the significance of the honor.
"I wouldn't be here without Jackie Robinson," Lee told Chicago reporters. "It's my way of saying thank you."
Hudson, the always colorful Arizona second baseman, usually wears No. 1.
Next Sunday, he'll really wear No. 1, so to speak.
"Jackie Robinson is a guy who not just African Americans but everybody should admire," he told Arizona reporters.
"It's beyond making an All-Star Game. It's beyond winning a Gold Glove. It's beyond 500 homers. It's a chance to wear the number of the first black who ever got to do it in a white man's game at that time.
"I just want to steal home."
Who says present-day big-leaguers don't appreciate the past? Robinson was known for that daring, bygone play, and it's nice to see that Hudson has an appreciation for it.
Now back to the retiring of Robinson's number. Baseball did that in April 1997. Mariano Rivera and Mo Vaughn were allowed to continue wearing it because they had established themselves with the number on their backs. Vaughn would have fought anyone who tried to take it away from him. He wore the number in honor of Robinson long before baseball even began thinking of ways to mark the 50th anniversary of Robinson's arrival.
Rachel Robinson was so touched by Vaughn's remembrance of her husband that she wept when she heard about it and hugged Vaughn when she first met him.
