Early April Memories

by Lou Parrotta

April provides every baseball fan with a new beginning to a new season. It also provides some wonderful memories of seasons past. Two special anniversaries happening this year include the 55th Anniversary of the breaking of baseball's color barrier and the 40th Anniversary of the birth of the New York Mets.

Jackie Robinson, as everyone on earth should know by now, broke the color barrier by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Signed by Branch Rickey, general manager of the Dodgers, Robinson faced what seemed to be insurmountable obstacles. He faced each of those obstacles, turned them into simpler challenges, and met each of those challenges with true valor.

During that monumental first year, Robinson excelled in all he did, and earned the very first Rookie of the Year honors bestowed in Major League Baseball. He became an integral part of the great Brooklyn championship teams of the late 1940s, all the way through the 1957 season when the Dodgers would vacate the spacious Ebbetts Field for the warmer climates of Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles.

He earned a spot in Cooperstown, and five years ago Major League Baseball honored him once again by officially retiring his number. This honor, not given to anyone else in the long and storied history of America's Pastime, meant that every team would be forbidden to issue the number 42 jersey to anyone not currently wearing it. Also, once those players who were currently wearing the uniform were no longer on the team, the number would have to be officially retired for all of eternity. This was a tremendous gesture and befitting honor by baseball to one of the greatest trailblazers of all time.

Forty years ago, five years after Robinson's Dodgers left town, a brand new team suited up in New York City. On April 11, 1962, the New York Mets were officially born. Managed by the legendary Casey Stengel, and stocked with people like Don Zimmer and Roger Craig, the Mets began what would become a horrendous season. The Mets gave their fans few reasons to cheer in that first year as they went on to win a grand total of 42 games while losing an amazing 120. It was a terrible beginning, but over the course of 40 years, they have turned their hapless first year into a long line of wonderful seasons.

They would win the World Series seven short years later in 1969, defeating the dominating Baltimore Orioles and earning them the lasting nickname "Amazin' Mets". They would win again in 1973 and once more in 1986, led by recent heroes Gary Carter and Keith Hernandez, and finally appearing in a Subway Series with the cross-town rival New York Yankees in 2000; the first such World Series since the old Brooklyn Dodgers were in town.

As you can see, April provides many wonderful anniversaries. Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, the New York Mets entering baseball, and one more event I hold dear to my heart ­ my mom's 60th anniversary on earth. Happy Birthday, mom! I love you.