I wrote recently about an important perspective on work. Work matters. It’s a continuation of God’s work in the world. Good work makes a difference for A LOT of people.
But we also serve at our work, and I was just reminded of a well-known example with which you’re familiar if you’ve seen 42, the movie about Jackie Robinson, the first black player in Major League Baseball.
Here’s the story as told by Bob Green in the Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2025, The Man Who Stood by Jackie Robinson:
In 1947, when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and became the first black player in the major leagues, he faced raw hostility everywhere he turned. Some baseball fans cursed him and mailed threats. Many players, some on his own team, made it clear they felt there was no place for him in the big leagues. It was an awful time for Robinson. The sportswriter Jimmy Cannon, covering the Dodgers, wrote: “He is the loneliest man I have ever seen in sports.”
During one road game—most likely in Cincinnati’s Crosley Field in 1947, but some accounts place it elsewhere, in 1948—hecklers were casting particularly vile comments. Pee Wee Reese, the Dodgers’ shortstop, a white man born in rural Kentucky, heard the words. Then he did something seemingly simple, yet profound.
He walked over to Robinson and stood beside him. He met the gaze of those doing the taunting. He didn’t have to say a word. The message was clear: Jackie Robinson is not alone. I am his friend. We are Brooklyn Dodgers.
There’s a statue commemorating the event outside a minor league stadium on Coney Island.
Later in the article, Mr. Green includes this observation:
Reese died in 1999. Although the Dodgers are long gone from Brooklyn, the Cyclones, affiliated with the New York Mets, maintain the sculpture outside their ballpark as a lesson, especially for children: All it takes to overcome cruelty and ugliness is one person standing beside you, someone who cares.
All it takes is…one person standing beside you, someone who cares.
Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me…no one cares for my soul. (Psalm 142.4, ESV)
As [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. (John 9.1, ESV)
I think Robinson was from Palmdale, CA or ended up there. It was not far from where we lived in Lancaster. If we went the back way to Riverside or a farmer’s market we liked, we drove by the Jackie Robinson Memorial Park and Memorial Field.
He was well-loved in Palmdale, at least by the 1990s. Apparently, in Pasadena there are two enormous bronze heads of Jackie and Mack Robinson in front of City Hall! Was he still playing for the Dodgers when they moved to Los Angeles??