Somebody explain this to me. On April 15th, 1997, Major League Baseball honored Jackie Robinson by retiring the number 42 forever. Apparently, "forever" means "exactly ten years", because this Sunday, pretty much everybody will be wearing the number 42.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's doing the exact opposite of what we all did ten years ago to honor the man in the first place.
The number is retired, people. When you retire, you're not supposed to go back to work, because you've retired. That would be like 75 year old Dex - retired for ten years from doing work - being celebrated by being forced to go back to work.
"What's Dex doing back here? Isn't he retired?"
"We're choosing to honor him by making him work today."
"Why not just send him flowers?"
The honor in having your number retired is that nobody else can match what you've done and therefore doesn't deserve to wear the number you wore, because no matter what happens in the future, you'll never be surpassed. Now, Major League Baseball is basically saying everybody is fit to wear that number. Really? Does that make sense? Am I the only one who thinks this is kind of a backwards tribute?
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MLB honors Jackie Robinson by doing exact opposite of how he's already being honored
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Dex