Across MLB, Jackie Robinson's 'strength, courage' hailed on his day - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — Major League Baseball marked the 77th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the sport's color barrier on Monday.

Robinson started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, marking the end of the racial segregation that had relegated Black players to the Negro Leagues for decades.

«Jackie Robinson became the most vilified, targeted subject of verbal abuse and malicious treatment in the sports arena since Jack Johnson had the audacity to become heavyweight champion of the world in 1908,» sociologist and civil rights activist Harry Edwards said at Dodger Stadium. «Like Jack Johnson, Jackie Robinson stood alone.»

Members of Robinson's family, including his 101-year-old widow, were at ballparks from coast to coast to honor him.

At New York's Citi Field, Rachel Robinson rode in a golf cart to the Mets dugout, where she was given flowers by manager Carlos Mendoza and retired players Mookie Wilson and Butch Huskey — the last Met to wear Robinson's No. 42.

«She's the legacy of perseverance,» said David Robinson, the youngest son of Jackie and Rachel Robinson.

The Robinson family is in attendance for a very special day