On April 7, the Los Angeles Dodgers visited the White House to celebrate their 2024 World Series title with President Donald Trump. Just over a week later, they took the field wearing No. 42 for Jackie Robinson Day, honoring the former Dodger who famously broke baseball’s color barrier. In the span of eight days, the same team posed with a president who has championed policies that undermine diversity, equity and inclusion and then celebrated the life’s work of a man who embodied them.
“Jackie had an idea of what we had to confront,” Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said during Tuesday’s festivities. “We had to confront segregation. And in many ways, we’re still confronting it. But it’s worth it. And it certainly makes people respect us as a country when they see that there is some tension there, and good people are trying to do the right thing.”
It seems clear that the Dodgers are far from “trying to do the right thing” in representing Robinson and preserving his legacy. At the White House, it seemed as if recent controversy — an article about Robinson’s military history was temporarily erased from the Department of Defense’s website back in March — was the furthest thing from anyone’s mind. The Dodgers made no effort to bring these concerns to light when they had the chance; now, their Jackie Robinson Day celebrations appear performative and mostly inconsequential.
Members of the Dodgers organization were certainly aware of the irony, but some looked to push back on any scrutiny. “I don’t personally view it as talking out of both sides of our mouth,” manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday. “I understand how people feel that way. But I do think that supporting our country, staying unified, aligned, is what I believe in personally.”
Were it a situation with less at stake, Roberts might have a point. But there has never been a more important time to take a side. In accordance with Trump’s executive orders on DEI, MLB has recently removed all references to diversity — including their Diversity Pipeline Program, which was previously attacked by the Trump-aligned advocacy group America First Legal — from the “Careers Home” tab of the league’s website. This development came after MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred vowed that the league’s DEI policies would remain “unchanged” in the wake of Trump’s attacks.
MLB is a fairly multicultural league: On Opening Day in 2023, 40% of overall players on the rosters and inactive lists came from diverse backgrounds. Still, Black representation at various levels is somewhat sparse. Today, only 6% of players are Black. Roberts is one of only three Black managers in the league. If figures like Roberts and star outfielder Mookie Betts (who was present at the White House after skipping the visit when he won with the Red Sox in 2018) publicly associate themselves with individuals looking to destroy the league’s foundations of inclusion, they are setting a dangerous precedent.
I know it’s not my place to tell MLB figureheads how to support diversity (and I highly doubt Betts is reading this column anyway), but their current course of action still feels severely perfunctory. There is a time and a place for honoring tradition and celebrating a great achievement, but right now, there may simply be too much at stake.
With both Jackie Robinson Day and the White House visit, the Dodgers had an opportunity to make a difference. They failed. If MLB and its flagship franchises want to honor his legacy, they must do more than just wear No. 42 once a year.
