page_title: Jackie Robinson
section_title: Awards and recognition
hierarchical_section_title: Jackie Robinson / Awards and recognition
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking northwest across Varick Street at the future Jackie Robinson Museum on the north side of Canal Street on a cloudy afternoon.
context_page_description: Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first African-American Major League Baseball player of modern times. Robinson broke the baseball color barrier when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He was the first black man to openly play in the major leagues since the 1880s. He had a big role in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball. Up to that point, African-Americans could only play in Negro leagues for six decades. His character and skills challenged the usual basis of segregation. At the time, this basis was part of many other pieces of American life. Robinson and his abilities contributed a lot to the civil rights movement.
  Apart from his cultural impact, Robinson had an overall good baseball career. Over ten seasons, he played in six World Series and helped in the Dodgers' 1955 World Championship. He was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games from 1949 to 1954. Robinson received the first MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947. He also won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949. He was the first black player to win this award. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
context_section_description: According to a poll conducted in 1947, Robinson was the second most popular man in the country, behind Bing Crosby. In 1999, he was named by Time magazine on its list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. Also in 1999, he ranked number 44 on the Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. He was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team as the top vote-getter among second basemen. Baseball writer Bill James, in The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, ranked Robinson as the 32nd greatest player of all time based on his performance on the field.  James noted that Robinson was one of the top players in the league throughout his career. Robinson was among the 25 first members of UCLA’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 1984. In 2002, Molefi Kete Asante included Robinson on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans. Robinson has also been honored by the United States Postal Service on three different postage stamps, in 1982, 1999, and 2000.
  The City of Pasadena has recognized Robinson in several ways. Brookside Park, located next to the Rose Bowl, has a baseball field and stadium named Jackie Robinson Field. The city's Human Services Department owns the Jackie Robinson Center, a community outreach center that provides early diabetes detection and other services. In 1997, a $325,000 bronze sculpture by artists Ralph Helmick, Stu Schecter, and John Outterbridge showing oversized nine-foot busts of Robinson and his brother Mack was put up at Garfield Avenue, across from the main entrance of Pasadena City Hall. A granite footprint lists multiple donors to the commission project, which was organized by the Robinson Memorial Foundation and supported by members of the Robinson family.
  MLB has honored Robinson many times since his death. In 1987, both the National and American League Rookie of the Year Awards were renamed the "Jackie Robinson Award" in honor of the first to receive the award (Robinson's Major League Rookie of the Year Award in 1947 encompassed both leagues). On April 15, 1997, Robinson's jersey number, 42, was retired by Major League Baseball. No future player on any major league team can wear it. The number was retired in ceremonies at Shea Stadium to mark the 50th anniversary of Robinson's first game with the Dodgers. A few players who wore number 42 as a salute to Robinson, such as the Mets' Butch Huskey and Boston's Mo Vaughn, were allowed to continue to use the number by means of a grandfather clause. The Yankees' Mariano Rivera is the last player in the major leagues to wear jersey number 42 on a regular basis.
  As an exception to the retired-number policy, MLB has recently begun honoring Robinson by allowing players to wear number 42 on April 15, Jackie Robinson Day. For the 60th anniversary of Robinson's major league debut, MLB invited players to wear the number 42 on Jackie Robinson Day in 2007. The gesture was originally the idea of outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr..  He asked for Rachel Robinson's permission to wear the number. After receiving her permission, Commissioner Bud Selig not only allowed Griffey to wear the number, but also gave an invitation to all major league teams to do the same. In the end, more than 200 players wore number 42, including everyone on the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, and Pittsburgh Pirates. The tribute was continued in 2008, when, during games on April 15, all members of the Mets, Cardinals, Washington Nationals, and Tampa Bay Rays wore Robinson's number 42. On June 25, 2008, MLB installed a new plaque for Robinson at the Baseball Hall of Fame commemorating his off-the-field impact on the game as well as his playing statistics. In 2009, all uniformed personnel (players, managers, coaches, and umpires) wore number 42 on April 15.
  At the November 2006 groundbreaking for a new ballpark for the New York Mets, Citi Field, it was announced that the main entrance, modeled on the one in Brooklyn's old Ebbets Field, would be called the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. The 
caption: Headquarters of the Jackie Robinson Foundation and future home of the Jackie Robinson Museum and Learning Center
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