This one’s pretty easy, because it says “Jackie Robinson Day, April 15, 2007” on the message board beneath the Wrigley Field scoreboard. Credit again goes to BCB reader Clark Addison.
In fact, it’s the very first Jackie Robinson Day, and Griffey was the player most responsible for making that happen.
April 15, 2007 was the 60th anniversary of Robinson’s MLB debut. Here’s how the honor for Robinson began:
Then Cincinnati’s right fielder, Ken Griffey Jr. asked then-Commissioner Bud Selig and Robinson’s
widow, Rachel, for permission to wear No. 42 on what was the 60th anniversary of Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
“I just called Bud and asked him if I could do it,” Griffey said back in 2007. “[Selig] made a couple of phone calls and said yeah. We had a good conversation. It was about me wearing it on that day, and only that day.”
Rachel Robinson gave her approval, and not only did Selig like Griffey’s idea, he encouraged other clubs to have their players wear No. 42 on Jackie Robinson Day. A couple of years later, every player on every club wore that number for one game only.
“He should be an inspiration not only to baseball players but to anyone who fights prejudice and hatred,” Griffey said of Robinson at the time.
In that 2007 game, Griffey was the lone Red to wear 42, while six members of the Cubs also wore it. They stood together at home plate during the pregame ceremonies. Griffey also wore No. 42 once before with the Mariners, on the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s historic debut.
So that’s exactly what we are looking at here — the six 2007 Cubs who wore No. 42 that day, plus Griffey. The Cubs pictured are, left to right: coaches Lester Strode and Gerald Perry and players Derrek Lee, Cliff Floyd and Jacque Jones.
You can see regular pitcher numbers on the board, not 42. No. 28 for the Reds was Kyle Lohse, and No. 30 for the Cubs was Ted Lilly.
The Cubs lost this game 1-0. Lilly threw a really nice game — six innings, two hits, one run, 10 strikeouts. But Lohse was better — eight innings, four hits, 12 strikeouts. Not only was that a career high in K’s for Lohse, it was the only game in his career where he struck out more than nine.
It all happened on a sunny, but chilly (50 degrees) afternoon at Wrigley Field, Sunday, April 15, 2007.
