After Jackie Robinson statue is stolen, destroyed, neighborhood rallies round a baseball league

It was round midday final Thursday when Bob Lutz walked outdoors of his work and headed residence earlier than the beginning of his each day radio present. He appeared throughout seventeenth Street in Wichita, Kan., from the workplaces of League 42, the nonprofit baseball league he based in 2013. On a wet, overcast day, he gazed over towards the Jackie Robinson statue the league had erected in 2021. The statue was a logo of hope and resilience. Lutz, although, couldn’t see the bronze depiction of the person who broke baseball’s coloration barrier.

For a second, Lutz questioned if it was coated by fog. He blinked. Looked once more. Doubting himself, he referred to as an assistant out of the constructing to hitch him. The girl appeared and in addition couldn’t see the statue.

Soon they have been throughout the road, the place the odd hallucination of a lacking statue turned to actuality. Jackie Robinson was gone, minimize simply above his shoetops.

“The emotions,” Lutz mentioned, “were overwhelming.”

The story that adopted grew to become a nationwide headline. Surveillance video captured people coming into the Jackie Robinson Pavillion round midnight Thursday, eradicating the statue valued at $75,000 and inserting it in a truck. Wichita police held a news convention and pleaded for its return.

“I’m frustrated by the actions of those individuals who had the audacity to take the statue of Jackie Robinson from a park where kids and families in our community gather to learn the history of Jackie Robinson, an American icon, and play the game of baseball,” Wichita police Chief Joe Sullivan mentioned throughout a news convention Friday. “This should upset all of us.”

Lutz’s worst fears have been quickly realized. Tuesday morning, Wichita’s Fire Department responded to reviews of a trash can hearth at Garvey Park. The hearth was extinguished. Left in its ashes have been items of the Robinson statue.

Our statue was discovered, dismantled and burned, at Garvey Park in Wichita. A news convention will start shortly.

— Bob Lutz (@boblutz) January 30, 2024

Although it’s unclear whether or not the theft and destruction was racially motivated, the act struck deeply on the hearts of these invested in League 42 and the broader baseball neighborhood.

“I’ve been disappointed since it was stolen,” Lutz mentioned. “It’s incomprehensible that people would do this. But when people do something that dastardly, it can’t be a surprise when they’ve done something equally dastardly. I wasn’t shocked. I’m just sad about the whole thing. It’s too bad that people would desecrate our statue, especially a statue of Jackie Robinson.”

League 42 began in 2013 as Lutz’s brainchild. A longtime journalist and radio host and a lifelong lover of baseball, he was disheartened as he learn tales and noticed statistics in regards to the dwindling numbers of younger Americans taking part in baseball. Rising prices and the proliferation of journey ball tradition have made the sport much less accessible than ever.

“The idea was it bothered me that young kids, especially young kids of color, were being shut out of playing baseball,” Lutz mentioned. “I think every kid should have that opportunity.”

With the assistance of native companions, Lutz labored to begin an inexpensive league that expenses $30 per household. League 42 supplies uniforms and gear. It caps its enrollment at 600 youngsters, a manner of specializing in high quality over amount.

The league received its namesake within the early days, when Lutz and others have been assembly over the topic. A couple of folks threw out names. None of them caught. Finally, somebody within the group pitched the thought of honoring Jackie Robinson. Almost instantly, another person replied: “Why don’t we call it League 42?”

“It’s like a lightning bolt had struck,” Lutz mentioned. “It was the obvious name for us.”

As the league charted its path ahead and grew its enrollment, Lutz mentioned it tried to emulate Robinson’s legacy in a number of methods. The league supplies instructional packages and has taught the significance of Robinson’s trailblazing spirit within the face of racism, threats of violence and lots of of humanity’s worst impulses.

In 2014, the league began with 16 groups and 200 youngsters. By 2020, it had grown to 44 groups. In 2015, League 42 secured a $1.5 million contribution from the town to reinforce its services and add a 3rd taking part in discipline at McAdams Park.

Eventually, the league sought to erect a statue of Robinson as a logo of its values and its mission. League 42 consulted with title, picture and likeness attorneys and obtained permission from the Robinson household and the Jackie Robinson Foundation. The Wichita neighborhood rallied to boost cash for the statue and gave the fee to native artist John Parsons. The Robinson statue was erected in 2021.

The statue’s unveiling in 2021. (Courtesy of League 42)

Less than three years later, when that statue disappeared, the response was visceral.

“I feel like I have lost a close friend or relative and my anger is raging,” Lutz wrote that day on Facebook. “I honestly don’t know what to do.”

Lutz, although, was rapidly overwhelmed by an outpouring of help. People from Wichita and much past reached out. Community members gathered on the Jackie Robinson Pavilion as a type of vigil. They positioned roses and a pink hat with the quantity 42 the place the statue as soon as stood. A heart-shaped observe on the flowers learn: We miss you. They discovered the mildew from the unique statue remains to be viable, and a GoFundMe account raised practically $50,000 for a brand new statue in two days.

We had a pleasant, if not heat, gathering on the web site of our stolen Jackie Robinson statue. Thanks to everybody who got here out. It was good to be collectively, and particularly to see a great variety of our youngsters and gamers. I really like them. pic.twitter.com/3jHwUYfJJS

— Bob Lutz (@boblutz) January 27, 2024

Lutz additionally acquired phrases of encouragement from Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, Mo., who had visited League 42 in 2022 and brought an image with the Robinson statue. “We got your back,” Kendrick advised him.

“They’re doing tremendously valuable work in opening up opportunities for kids of all colors to play this game, which is something that the museum has as part of its mission,” Kendrick mentioned. “We’re here to preserve a precious piece of baseball americana and its past. We also have an important role in helping grow our game.”

The lack of the statue, Kendrick mentioned, can function an unlucky reminder of the hatred that also persists in society.

“With progress,” Kendrick mentioned, “comes that tendency to forget.”

In 2021, locals in Cairo, Ga., found a historic marker commemorating the place of Robinson’s delivery had been peppered with hearth from a shotgun. Authorities noticed heightened harm across the phrases “Negro American” and “baseball’s color barrier.” Major League Baseball responded with a $40,000 present to the Georgia Historical Society, permitting for a brand new marker and an endowment fund in Robinson’s title.

In Wichita, whereas police proceed their seek for the perpetrators behind the theft, the neighborhood continues to rally behind the group. It has left Lutz emotionally overwhelmed otherwise.

Observing from afar, Kendrick notes the parallels between League 42 and the person it honors.

“You can steal the statue, but you cannot steal the spirit of what Jackie represented,” Kendrick mentioned. “I think what you’re seeing from the public at large is a Jackie Robinson-like resolve for good to overcome evil. And so every time that you’re ready to give up on humanity — and we know we can’t give up on humanity — humanity steps up to the plate and reminds us of what we already know: There are more good people than bad people. Always has been, always will be.”

Since the theft of the statue, Lutz has been offering fixed updates on his Facebook web page. In a submit Tuesday, he vented in regards to the unknowable motives behind those that stole and burned the statue. Why did they do it? Have they felt any regret? Do they know of Jackie Robinson and why he stays such a poignant image of hope?

“I hope to learn more about the perpetrators in the coming days,” Lutz wrote. “If they were brought into my office at the Leslie Rudd Learning Center, I would not be angry. I would ask them the questions I’ve posed here. And I hope I would listen.”

(Top picture: Courtesy of League 42)