Jackie Robinson day and racism in sports

Jackie Robinson is a name everyone has heard of  unless you are completely tone deaf to anything sports talk.

On April 15, MLB players, coaches, fans etc. honor the ‘first’ African-American baseball player by wearing his number 42 as a tribute.

Commissioner Allen (Bud) Selig and MLB have celebrated Robinson’s legacy as the first African-American to break the color barrier by retiring his number throughout the League in 1997 and, since 2004, dedicating April 15 as Jackie Robinson Day in his memory.

Robinson played his first Major League game at Ebbets Field on April 15, 1947 as a first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

However, Robinson is actually not the first African-American to play baseball in America.

David Zirin of the Edge of Sports visits Towson University

The voice and mind behind “The Edge of Sports” radio and blog, David Zirin, gave a lecture at Towson University March 30 to a room full of students and faculty.

Zirin also published the book A People’s History of Sports in the United States in 2008 and it covers 250 years of politics, protests and people in the United States surrounding sports and games.

Zirin’s life growing up was centered on sports, so his current lifestyle is no surprise.

“Sports were my whole life, we are talking total sports geekdom. I used to memorize statistics, play strategic baseball–you know before computers–but that’s what we did; geek out on sports,” said Zirin.

Zirin joked with the full lecture hall about the different sports he played growing up.

“I was obsessed with sports and played everything. I was starting center for my basketball team but we sucked; it wasn’t pretty. We were the Friends Seminary Fighting Quakers–gives you an idea of what we were about,” said Zirin.

“I played every sport other than golf which I don’t view as a real sport because I don’t see anything where you can play while smoking and gaining weight as a real sport.”

An incident in 1996 drove Zirin to write his history of sports when it woke him up to the history behind our country and the sports games we play.