MLB and clubs will replace the broken-down Jackie Robinson statue
Last week, someone stole a statue of Jackie Robinson from a park in Wichita, Kansas. On Tuesday, it was found burned and broken down. Major League Baseball and the 30 clubs will replace it.
The Robinson statue was set up in front of McAdams Park in 2021. League 42, a local young baseball league, plays its home games there.
The news that MLB and the clubs would be replacing the statue was shared by Bob Lutz, the president of League 42, on Wednesday, which is also Robinson’s 105th birthday.
People also gave a lot of money after Lutz set up a GoFundMe page this week. The fundraiser had raised more than $156,000 by Wednesday night.
Lutz told reporters on Tuesday that the original mold would be used to make a new statue of Robinson. “It will be a happy event—not like today or the last five days,” he said Tuesday.
MLB and the clubs in question will not only pay for a new statue, but they will also give money to League 42’s programs to help it reach its academic and on-field goals.
Early Thursday morning, someone stole the statue of the baseball Hall for Famer and civil rights leader.
The theft made national news and caused a lot of anger. Two people were seen moving the statue into a shiny silver pickup truck in the dark on surveillance video. Thieves cut the statue’s legs off to take it away, leaving just its feet behind.
The Wichita Fire Department was called to a nearby park on Tuesday morning to a report of a trash can fire.
When they got there, they saw pieces of the bronze sculpture. Andrew Ford, a spokesman for the Wichita Police Department, said it was “not salvageable.”
League 42 is a local youth baseball league for kids ages 5 to 14 who mostly live in cities. It was named after Robinson’s number when he played for the Dodgers.
The league began in 2013 and now has 46 teams with more than 600 kids. Their practices and games are held at McAdams Park. It additionally offers programs for learning.
Not only for baseball but also for the fight for civil rights, Jackie Robinson was a big star for many people.
A lot of things were made to make the Dodgers of Los Angeles and then the Brooklyn Dodgers famous forever.
The statue by League 42 at Wichita’s McAdams Park stood out. Sadly, it was smashed on January 24 by a group of unknown vandals. People in the surrounding area have been thinking of ways of replacing the statue of the MLB legend.
People used GoFundMe and other methods to try to get money to pay for the statue. But none of them were quite enough yet. The Major League Baseball took notice, and they did a nice thing for League 42.
30 Clubs and the office of the league commissioner have said they will pay for the new Jackie Robinson statue to be put in McAdams Park.
The League 42 Foundation’s Bob Lutz said that they will do more than just fix up the Dodgers legend’s figure. They will also help the league in other ways.
The money from MLB will be added to the more than $150,000 that has been donated to the program through its GoFundMe page as of Wednesday evening.
The program’s original goal was already well above that amount of money. However, the extra money will be utilized to “ramp up the pavilion area, where Jackie stood before and will stand again, with more security measures and more.”
The city first thought the damage to the Robinson statue would be $75,000, but it was cut down between its ankles and taken away the night of January 24.
The statue was found Tuesday when police were called to Garvey Park in North Wichita for a dumpster fire after asking for help finding the statue.