It was around noon last Thursday when Bob Lutz left work and headed home before the start of his daily radio show. He looked across 17th Street in Wichita, Kansas, from the offices of League 42, the nonprofit baseball league he founded in 2013. On a rainy, cloudy day, he looked up at the statue of Jackie Robinson that league had erected in 2021. The statue was a symbol of hope and resilience. Lutz, however, was unable to see the bronze representation of the man who broke baseball’s color barrier.
For a moment, Lutz wondered if he was covered in fog. He blinked. He looked again. Doubting himself, he called an assistant out of the building to accompany him. The woman looked and she couldn’t see the statue either.
Soon they were across the street, where the strange hallucination of a missing statue became reality. Jackie Robinson was missing, with a cut just above the toe of his shoes.
“The emotions,” Lutz said, “were overwhelming.”
The story that followed became a national headline. Surveillance video captured people entering the Jackie Robinson Pavillion around midnight Thursday, removing the $75,000 statue and placing it on a truck. Wichita police held a news conference and called for his return.
“I am frustrated by the actions of those who had the audacity to remove the statue of Jackie Robinson from a park where children and families in our community gather to learn the story of Jackie Robinson, an American icon, and play tag. baseball game,” Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan said during a news conference Friday. “This should bother us all.”
Lutz’s worst fears soon came true. On Tuesday morning, the Wichita Fire Department responded to reports of a trash can fire in Garvey Park. The fire was extinguished. Pieces of Robinson’s statue remained among his ashes.
Our statue was found, dismantled and burned in Garvey Park in Wichita. A press conference will begin shortly.
—Bob Lutz (@boblutz) January 30, 2024
Although it is unclear whether the theft and destruction was racially motivated, the act struck deeply in the hearts of those involved in League 42 and the baseball community at large.
“I’ve been disappointed since it was stolen,” Lutz said. “It is incomprehensible that people do this. But when people do something so cowardly, it can’t be a surprise that they did something equally cowardly. I wasn’t surprised. I’m just sad about the whole thing. “It’s a shame that people desecrated our statue, especially a statue of Jackie Robinson.”
League 42 began in 2013 as the brainchild of Lutz. A longtime journalist and radio host and longtime lover of baseball, he became disheartened as he read stories and saw statistics about the dwindling number of young Americans playing baseball. Rising costs and the proliferation of travel ball culture have made the game less accessible than ever.
“The idea was that it bothered me that little kids, especially kids of color, were excluded from playing baseball,” Lutz said. “I think every child should have that opportunity.”
With the help of local partners, Lutz worked to start an affordable league that charges $30 per family. League 42 provides uniforms and equipment. It limits its enrollment to 600 children, a way to focus on quality over quantity.
The league received its name in the early days, when Lutz and others met on the subject. Some people threw out names. None of them stayed. Finally, someone in the group proposed the idea of honoring Jackie Robinson. Almost immediately, someone else responded: “Why don’t we call it League 42?”
“It’s like lightning struck,” Lutz said. “It was the obvious name for us.”
As the league charted its path forward and increased its enrollment, Lutz said he tried to emulate Robinson’s legacy in several ways. The league offers educational programs and has taught the importance of Robinson’s pioneering spirit in the face of racism, threats of violence and many of humanity’s worst impulses.
In 2014, the league started with 16 teams and 200 kids. By 2020, it had grown to 44 teams. In 2015, League 42 secured a $1.5 million contribution from the city to upgrade its facilities and add a third playing field at McAdams Park.
Ultimately, the league sought to erect a statue of Robinson as a symbol of its values and mission. League 42 consulted with name, image and likeness attorneys and obtained permission from the Robinson family and the Jackie Robinson Foundation. The Wichita community came together to raise money for the statue and commissioned local artist John Parsons. The Robinson statue was erected in 2021.
The statue will be unveiled in 2021. (Courtesy of League 42)
Less than three years later, when that statue disappeared, the reaction was visceral.
“I feel like I’ve lost a close friend or relative and my anger is raging,” Lutz wrote on Facebook that day. “I honestly don’t know what to do.”
Lutz, however, was quickly overwhelmed by an outpouring of support. People from Wichita and many places beyond came forward. Community members gathered at the Jackie Robinson Pavilion as a vigil of sorts. They placed roses and a red hat with the number 42 where the statue once stood. A heart-shaped note on the flowers said: We miss you. They discovered that the mold of the original statue is still viable, and a GoFundMe account raised nearly $50,000 for a new statue in two days.
We had a pleasant, if not warm, meeting at the site of our stolen Jackie Robinson statue. Thanks to everyone who came. It was good to be together and, above all, to see a good number of our children and players. I love them. pic.twitter.com/3jHwUYfJJS
—Bob Lutz (@boblutz) January 27, 2024
Lutz also received words of encouragement from Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, who visited League 42 in 2022 and took a photo with the Robinson statue. “We have your back,” Kendrick told him.
“They’re doing tremendously valuable work opening up opportunities for kids of all colors to play this game, which is something the museum has as part of its mission,” Kendrick said. “We are here to preserve a precious piece of American baseball and its past. “We also have an important role in helping to grow our game.”
The loss of the statue, Kendrick said, can serve as an unfortunate reminder of the hatred that still persists in society.
“With progress,” Kendrick said, “comes that tendency to forget.”
In 2021, residents of Cairo, Georgia, discovered that a historical marker commemorating Robinson’s birthplace had been shot with a shotgun. Authorities saw increased damage around the words “American Negro” and “baseball color barrier.” Major League Baseball responded with a $40,000 donation to the Georgia Historical Society, allowing for a new scoreboard and an endowment fund in Robinson’s name.
In Wichita, as police continue to search for the perpetrators of the robbery, the community continues to support the group. It has left Lutz emotionally overwhelmed in a different way.
Kendrick watches from afar and sees the parallels between League 42 and the man he honors.
“You can steal the statue, but you can’t steal the spirit of what Jackie represents,” Kendrick said. “I think what you’re seeing in the general public is a Jackie Robinson-style determination for good to overcome evil. And so, every time we are willing to give up on humanity (and we know we can’t give up on humanity), humanity steps up and reminds us of what we already know: there are more good people than bad. . Always has been, always will be.”
Since the statue was stolen, Lutz has been providing constant updates on his Facebook page. In a post on Tuesday, he discussed the unknown motives behind those who stole and burned the statue. Why did they do it? Have you felt any remorse? Do you know Jackie Robinson and why he remains such a touching symbol of hope?
“I hope to learn more about the perpetrators in the coming days,” Lutz wrote. “If they were brought to my office at the Leslie Rudd Learning Center, I wouldn’t be mad. I would ask you the questions I have asked here. And I hope I can listen.”
(Top photo: Courtesy of League 42)
