Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier in 1947 when he became the first black man to play Major League Baseball. Robinson spent his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers ignoring racial slurs and living with physical threats. Baseball honored Robinson posthumously on the 50th anniversary of his first game by retiring the use of his number 42 for all MLB teams. I believe that was a great gesture to commemorate one of the most influential sporting feats of all time. I dare say that not only did major league baseball improve because of Robinson's efforts, but other college and professional sports reaped the benefits as well. I recently heard that USA Today conducted a survey to see what percentage of people would like to see Babe Ruth’s number 3 and Roberto Clemente’s number 21. The thought process was that Ruth had a greater impact than any other player on baseball’s early years, while Clemente is arguably the best Latino player of all time. Give me a break. It looks to me like the political correctness police are just trying to play affirmative action games to even the score. Don’t get me wrong. I believe Babe Ruth was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Often time people talk about Ruth’s 60 home runs in 1927 or his 714 career home runs and you get the idea that he was just a power hitter, but there was more to the “Sultan of Swat” than that. Ruth was a career .342 hitter with more than 2800 hits and 2200 RBI’s. The slugger was also a career .968 fielder and then for the part a lot of people forget, Ruth also pitched. In 10 seasons as a hurler, Ruth compiled a 94-46 record with a 2.28 ERA. Roberto Clemente played 18 major league seasons before having his life and career cut short when he died in an airplane crash in 1972. Clemente was en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua when the small plane he was on went down. Clemente was a lifetime .317 hitter that collected his 3,000 hit in what turned out to be the final at-bat of his career on the last day of the 1972 season. Clemente won four batting titles over his career and was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 1966. Clemente was a career .976 fielder and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1973. There is no doubt about it, Roberto Clemente was one of, if not the best, Latino player of all time. But, back to my original statement. Neither Ruth nor Clemente made the same impact on MLB (or other sports for that matter) as Jackie Robinson did. As a matter of fact, Clemente was probably able to play because Robinson opened the door for all minorities. To retire Ruth’s number because he might have been the greatest white man to ever play baseball or to retire Clemente’s number because he might have been the greatest Latino to ever play, is absurd. All that would do is “water down” Robinson’s accomplishment when no athlete has ever changed the landscape of sports the way Robinson did. Fuel Crunch Parting Shot Click Here to Go Back
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