TOO MANY MINUTES FOR 60?

Oh boy am I going to get in trouble with this one.

There is no way anyone can underestimate how much Jackie Robinson and his breaking of the color barrier defined the game of baseball. MLB should continue to honor his memory and stress his impact to future generations.

However, I don’t really understand why the 60th anniversary of his breaking the color barrier was such a big deal. You know how they say something can be all sizzle and no steak? This was more like a three-alarm inferno and a single strand of hamburger.

Maybe it’s just the way that ESPN crammed it down my throat and everyone else’s to the point where I couldn’t watch Sportscenter Sunday night, but I still am not seeing the reason this was such a big deal.

I was always taught that among marriages and relationships, five, 10, 25, 50, 75…these are big anniversaries. Nowhere in that is 60 a humongous deal. Are we going to celebrate 61 next year? Or every other year that ends in a “-7”?

I can see it now in the year 2077—“ESPN 18 will honor the 130th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier by nauseating you with commemoration”.

I have a hard time believing I am the only one, as some bad press surfacing within days of the weekend’s celebrations indicates.

Articles in several papers on Sunday (JR day across the game) cited the lack of black players in baseball and how the number is declining. On a day to celebrate black involvement in the game, it can’t be good to show that this is happening…saying under the surface that Robinson’s heroics might be approaching a level of meaninglessness.

Even in that case, talented black players in the game such as Minnesota’s Torii Hunter aren’t doing the effort any cause.

On ESPNews last week, Hunter, who was “honored” by the Twins as being chosen to wear Robinson’s No. 42 on Sunday (each team selected a player they believed represented JR’s ideals), blasted the idea, saying that Robinson was probably “rolling in his grave.”

When one of the game’s most noticeable black players is trashing honoring blacks in baseball, something must be up.

My theory: ESPN made the event into a big deal because it is afraid that inaction would tick off its black audiences, which as we saw with Don Imus over the last few weeks is not a place big business wants to go.

Should ESPN and MLB have acknowledged the anniversary? Absolutely. Talk to Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow, and maybe have her throw out a first pitch? Why not. But to promote the 60th anniversary more than the 50th is untraditional and unnecessary if you ask me.
In no way am I saying Jackie Robinson shouldn’t be honored, but I tend to agree with Hunter—even he would probably have stopped watching ESPN last week