April 15, 1997: Jackie Robinson Night is held at Shea Stadium, on the 50th Anniversary of Jackie's major league debut. Commissioner Bud Selig announces that Jackie's Number 42 will be retired throughout baseball.
The players in Major League Baseball currently wearing the number are "grandfathered in," allowed to continue wearing the number for the rest of their careers. It is presumed that current Met Butch Huskey will be the last Met to wear Number 42. As it turned out, he wasn't: The Mets later acquired Mo Vaughn, then with the Boston Red Sox. In 2013, Mariano Rivera retired as the last active Number 42.
Among the 54,047 people attending are President Bill Clinton, several of Jackie's former teammates, and, thanks to my having won a radio contest, myself and my grandmother, Grace Golden. Although she saw a few minor-league games of her new "hometown" team, the Lakewood BlueClaws, from 2001 to 2005, her reluctance to go back to her hometown made this the last time She, a former member of the Ebbets Field faithful, set foot in a major league ballpark.
Oh yes, there was a game: The Mets won, 5-0. Armando Reynoso and Toby Borland combined on an 8-hit shutout, and Lance Johnson’s 2-run single in the 5th inning won it.
On April 15, 2007, the 60th Anniversary, Selig instituted an annual Jackie Robinson Day, on which -- or on the next available game, in the event of a postponement -- the retirement is completely reversed: All players on all teams wear Number 42, with no name on the back. The idea is "I am 42," that all of us owe a debt to Jackie Robinson.
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April 15, 1997, like the 1947 game it commemorated, was a Tuesday. Maisie Williams, best known for playing Arya Stark on Game of Thrones, was born. These other Major League Baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Anaheim Angels, 6-5 at Yankee Stadium. Only 16,944 came out, but that's less a sign that the Mets were more popular than the Yankees than that the Mets were honoring Robinson.
With a decent start by David Wells, the Yankees had a 5-3 lead going into the 8th inning, but Mariano Rivera, still adjusting to the closer role, blew the lead. Once-and-future Yankee Jim Leyritz hit a home run off Wells. Mark Whiten and Tino Martinez hit home runs for the Yankees. Derek Jeter went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and an RBI.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-2 at Fenway Park in Boston.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-4 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Barry Bonds went 1-for-3 with a walk.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-1 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken went 1-for-3.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-0 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. John Smoltz pitched a 6-hit shutout.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Florida Marlins, 9-3 at Pro Player Stadium in the Miami suburb of Miami Gardens, Florida.
* The Texas Rangers beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-2 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.
* The Montreal Expos beat the Houston Astros, 7-5 at the Astrodome in Houston.
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* The Kansas City Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-5 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre).
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Tony Gwynn went 2-for-4 with a solo home run. Rickey Henderson was with the Padres at the time, but did not play in the game.
* The Seattle Mariners beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-4 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland. Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.
* The Colorado Rockies beat the Chicago Cubs, 10-7 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. This was a rare day in 1969-onward baseball history when none of the Pacific Coast teams were at home.
Football was out of season. The NHL was between the end of the regular season and the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The NBA was wrapping up its regular season, and played 5 games that day:
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Atlanta Hawks, 109-101. It was the next-to-last regular-season game the Hawks played at The Omni, having moved in for the 1972-73 season. On April 19, they beat the Philadelphia 76ers. They beat the Detroit Pistons in the 1st round of the NBA Playoffs, then lost the next round to the Chicago Bulls, the Omni finale coming on May 11, 1997, an 89-80 loss. They spent 2 years at Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum (now named the McCamish Pavilion), and in 1999 they moved into a new arena on the site of The Omni, the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena).
* The Houston Rockets beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 123-119 at The Summit in Houston. Yes, in the 1970s, arenas had names like The Summit and The Omni. When the Rockets moved to the Toyota Center in 2003, televangelist Joel Osteen bought The Summit, and converted it into the Central Campus of his Lakewood Church.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Toronto Raptors, 92-85 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
* The Utah Jazz beat the Phoenix Suns, 127-122 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the San Antonio Spurs, 108-88 at the KeyArena in Seattle.
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