‘We value what he represents’: MLB and baseball clubs will replace Jackie Robinson statue stolen and destroyed in Kansas

Major League Baseball and its 30 clubs will replace a statue of Jackie Robinson that was stolen, then burned and destroyed in Wichita, Kansas.

The statue was cut off on the ankles and stolen on January 25, then found in a garbage bin on January 30.

According to ABC News, officials are calling the theft of the statue a “heinous” act after it was stolen from McAdams Park and later found decapitated, burned and thrown right into a trash can. Surveillance video captured thieves entering the Jackie Robinson Pavilion around midnight and taking the statue right into a pickup truck after cutting it on the ankles.

Just a few days later, a statue of Robinson was found destroyed in Garvey Park, and Wichita Police Department spokesman Andrew Ford said the statue was on fire when it was found. According to ESPN, the damage is estimated at $75,000.

“Shortly after the fire was extinguished, the fire department saw what appeared to be pieces of the Jackie Robinson statue that cannot be salvaged at this time” – Ford he said CNN.

“It is truly disheartening to see the remains of the monument and the disgraceful way in which it has been disrespected,” he added. he said Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan. “This directly indicates the pressure that our investigators are putting on the perpetrators who committed this act.”

Robinson broke the colour barrier in baseball in 1947 when he became the primary black player to play in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues before joining the Dodgers. He was named National League MVP in 1949 and helped the team win the 1955 World Series. Robinson was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962, 10 years before his death. His number 42 was retired in 1997.

The Jackie Robinson statue was created by artist John Parsons.

Major League Baseball and Bob Lutz announced the substitute of the statue on January 31, the one hundred and fifth anniversary of Robinson’s birth. Lutz is the manager director of League 42, an area youth baseball league in Kansas, which funded the statue in 2021. Lutz began a GoFundMe after the statue was stolen. According to MLB, greater than $156,000 was raised. Lutz also announced that MLB will help support League 42 on the sphere in addition to its academic goals.

Lutz also said one among the most important donations, $10,000, got here from an anonymous former Major League Baseball player who won the World Series. Parsons has died, but Lutz says the mold used to make the bronze statue continues to be usable and he believes a substitute statue may be made.

“We value what it represents,” Lutz he said statue. “It is important that our 600 children understand what this means. We strive to educate our children about the role Jackie Robinson played in life and civil rights, in his life beyond sports. He is absolutely the best role model anyone could imagine.”

On January 29, Wichita police said that they had found the truck that stole the statue, but didn’t provide additional details concerning the thieves.

League 42 was founded in 2013 and accepts children ages 5 to 14 into the baseball league.

“We’re not just baseball” – Lutz he said Leagues 42. “We have after-school education, enrichment and tutoring.”

The league supports over 600 children on 46 different teams.