Tuesday, April 15, was Jackie Robinson Day. Just like it is every year in Major League Baseball.
As every active player in the league donned the No. 42, you couldn’t help but feel like something larger loomed over the brevity of the moment. That something larger was because of Jeff Passan. ESPN’s MLB insider had the gall to call out the “ghouls” in the Trump administration who removed an article on Jackie Robinson’s military service from the Department of Defense website.
After initially doubling down on the move with anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) rhetoric, the article was restored. Those within Donald Trump’s administration tried to play it off as a mistake, but Passan felt like they were telling on themselves. He wasn’t the only one, nor was it the only instance, trying to erase Jackie Robinson’s history from the military.
His biography was reportedly flagged for removal from the Naval Academy library in what was positioned as a new anti-DEI policy crackdown. That’s two strikes. And down 0-2, those like Jemele Hill were “disappointed” that the Dodgers visited the White House after anti-DEI efforts toward Jackie Robinson.
Passan isn’t here to lecture you about whether the Dodgers should or shouldn’t have gone to the White House. But he was on Chris Rose’s JM Baseball (Jomboy Media) podcast, and when he wasn’t taking deserving licks at Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting, he was sharing the importance of April 15.
“What I love about Jackie Robinson Day is for a sport that is so steeped in its history, it honors the most important thing that has happened,” Passan said. “And anyone that suggests that Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color barrier is not the seminal moment in Major League Baseball history, let alone the seminal moment in American professional sports, just doesn’t understand what it means. And we look at this through the lens of baseball, because that’s what we do all the time, because that’s how we operate, but Jackie Robinson debuting for the Dodgers was not something that was limited to baseball. This was American history, and an important part of American history.
“And I think it really opened a lot of people’s eyes in a vital time in United States history, that equality and giving Black people what everybody else has in America is something that was long, long overdue — and a great tragedy of America. And the fact that baseball was able to play that role to be a conduit to open America’s eyes, I think, is one of the reasons why the game is still today so important to people in the United States. Because football doesn’t have a moment like that. Basketball doesn’t have a moment like that. Hockey doesn’t have a moment like that. The closest thing I can think of is the Olympics, whether it’s Jesse Owens or in 1968, the track stars [Tommie Smith and John Carlos] and the Black power symbol.
“There’s moments that sports gives us that ties into the fabric of what this nation is supposed to be, and Jackie Robinson embodied everything that America is about and should be about.”
So when Passan speaks up, it’s not just about preserving a legacy — it’s about defending the truth from being buried under political convenience.
“Look, we’re not far removed from people trying to negate what Jackie Robinson did,” Passan adds. “From people in our government trying to erase what Jackie Robinson did. And they can say that it was a mistake, and you can believe them or not. But the reality is: you shouldn’t even be in a position to make mistakes with something as important as this. That’s the sort of thing, that’s the kind of history we should be looking to protect and to project and to educate everyone on, that this was a brave man, and the right man at the right time to bring America into a more modern place.”
Because if Jackie Robinson can carry the weight of a nation’s progress on his back, the least we can do is make sure no one quietly erases the path he paved.