A Life is Not Important Except the Impact it Has on Other Lives

Thinking about my dad today on the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's ground breaking introduction to the MLB. He, along with Pee Wee Reese (real name Harold) were my dad's favorite Dodgers. 

 

Jackie's impact on our society occurred EIGHT years before Martin Luther King emerged as the leader of nonviolent Civil Rights Movement efforts. He refused to sit in the back of a bus in 1944, 11 years before the courageous acts of Rosa Parks. A trailblazer in athletics, and business. 

 

Robinson also was the first black television analyst in MLB and the first black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock Full O'Nuts. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, (later Carver Federal Savings) an African-American-owned financial institution based in Harlem, New York. After his death in 1972, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his achievements on and off the field.

 

Dad's love of baseball was passed down to me, and we shared love of the Mets, and Tom Seaver, Mookie Wilson and Mike Piazza. All morning, I wanted to pick up my cell and call dad to tell him about the moving ceremonies to unveil the statue. I guess he had a bird's eye view. Love you dad and despite his late in life Marlin fandom, I know today he is saying "Let's Go Mets!!!!!!!"