Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson's legacy on 78th anniversary of breaking color barrier

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jackie Robinson was the first to break baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers 78 years ago Tuesday. His legacy continues to inspire people inside the major leagues — and outside, too.

Players and staff from the Dodgers, including Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and rookie Roki Sasaki, and the Colorado Rockies surrounded Robinson’s statue in Centerfield Plaza hours before game time in Los Angeles on Jackie Robinson Day around the major leagues.

They were joined by Basketball Hall of Fame player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who turns 78 on Wednesday. He recalled wearing a Brooklyn baseball cap while growing up in the neighboring borough of Manhattan.

“I'd get in fights with people from the Giants, the Yankees, pretty often,” he said, “but I kept my cap on and nobody was able to knock it off. I was so tall.”

Abdul-Jabbar, then known as Lew Alcindor, followed in Robinson's footsteps as a sports star at UCLA, where he won three national championships under Hall of Fame coach John Wooden.

Robinson has continued to be a lifelong inspiration for Abdul-Jabbar.

“He meant excellence, giving your all, giving your best,” Abdul-Jabbar said, “and for all the detractors that are out there, just ignore them and keep on.”

Every team playing Monday wore No. 42 jerseys. It's the only number universally retired in the majors.

“It's not just a one-off day,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We understand what this man did for our world, our country. This is how you go about life. This is something for me, keeping his legacy burning.”

Roberts, Ron Washington of the Los Angeles Angels and Will Venable of the Chicago White Sox are only Black managers currently in the majors.

“One of the things Jackie obviously nailed is he realized from an early time that life was going to be hard,” Roberts said. “He was special and he was put in this certain position to rise above and know that it’s not just about the game of baseball. It’s bigger than him.”

The Dodgers and Rockies were joined by Sonya Pankey Robinson, the oldest grandchild of Jackie and Rachel Robinson and the only child of Jackie Jr., who was killed in a car accident in 1971 at age 24. Granddaughter Ayo Robinson, whose father is David Robinson, was on hand, too.

“He was so progressive in so many ways,” Pankey Robinson said of her grandfather. “When I think about him fondly, I just think about all of his contributions to society and to us as a family. I feel a real responsibility to uphold his values and I take that job very seriously.”

Robinson's 102-year-old widow marked the anniversary at the Jackie Robinson Museum in Brooklyn with Commissioner Rob Manfred.

“She is out looking great and greeting everyone,” Pankey Robinson said. “Not only did she instill the values that she knows my grandfather would expect us to uphold, but she had her own values and her own expectations of us early on to set goals for ourselves in life.”

Pankey Robinson lives near her grandmother in New York, saying, "We keep it close and tight.”

Robinson was in the news last month when a Defense Department page describing his military service was restored after it briefly went missing. The department has been removing content highlighting contributions by women and minority groups as part of a directive for President Donald Trump’s administration to delete material promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

“Disheartening but not discouraged because I think what he’s done is etched in history and it’s not anyone else’s place to remove that,” Pankey Robinson said after the ceremony. “His impact is large and we feel good knowing, that while disappointed, what he did mattered.”

The Angels' Washington learned about Robinson when he bought a book about him during a bus stop in Waterloo, Iowa, on a minor league trip in 1972.

“It impacted me tremendously to find out what he had to go through just to play the game of baseball,” Washington said, "and then you look back and say, ‘Wow, in this period could I have done that?’ I want to think I could, but I don’t know if I could.”

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone called Robinson “one of the most important figures in American history.”

"Obviously, he was part of integrating our sport, but part of further integrating America, and other sports. It’s so cool what we get to do today, and everyone wearing 42, bringing attention to it and just honoring what’s an amazing legacy.”

AP Baseball Writers Mike Fitzpatrick and Stephen Hawkins contributed to this report.

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Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, left, shakes hands with a member of the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium during an event to commemorate Jackie Robinson Day before a baseball game Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, left, hugs members of the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium during an event to commemorate Jackie Robinson Day before a baseball game Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Former NBA basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar speaks to members of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies to commemorate Jackie Robinson Day before a baseball game at Dodger Stadium Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani attends an event to commemorate Jackie Robinson Day before a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, center, and teammates listen to former NBA player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during an event to commemorate Jackie Robinson Day before a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The number 42 is placed on the outfield grass at Dodger Stadium to commemorate Jackie Robinson Day before a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

A statue of Jackie Robinson is seen at Dodger Stadium on Jackie Robinson Day before a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — Most contestants at the Eurovision Song Contest are seeking as much publicity as possible.

Israel’s Yuval Raphael is keeping a low profile.

The 24-year-old singer has done few media interviews or appearances during Eurovision week, as Israel’s participation in the pan-continental pop music competition draws protests for a second year.

Raphael was due to perform Thursday in the second semifinal at the contest in the Swiss city of Basel. Oddsmakers suggest Raphael, a survivor of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on a music festival in southern Israel that started the war, is likely to secure a place in Saturday’s final with her anthemic song “New Day Will Rise.”

But some would prefer she was not here. A handful of protesters attempted to disrupt a rehearsal by Raphael on Thursday with “oversized flags and whistles,” contest organizers said. Videos on social media appeared to show a large Palestinian flag being extended in the crowd across several people.

Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR, which is organizing the event, said “security personnel were able to quickly identify those involved and escort them out of the hall."

Israel has competed in Eurovision for more than 50 years and won four times. But last year’s event in Sweden drew large demonstrations calling for Israel to be kicked out of the contest over its conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza.

The Oct. 7 cross-border attacks by Hamas militants killed 1,200 people, and roughly 250 were taken hostage into Gaza. More than 52,800 people in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive, according to the territory’s health ministry.

About 200 people, many draped in Palestinian flags, protested in central Basel on Wednesday evening, demanding an end to Israel’s military offensive and the country’s expulsion from Eurovision. They marched in silence down a street noisy with music and Eurovision revelry.

Many noted that Russia was banned from Eurovision after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“It should be a happy occasion that Eurovision is finally in Switzerland, but it’s not,” said Lea Kobler, from Zurich. “How can we rightfully exclude Russia but we’re still welcoming Israel?”

Others have criticized hostility toward the Israeli contestant. Israel's public broadcaster KAN complained to Swiss police about an alleged threatening gesture made toward Raphael by a pro-Palestinian protester during the opening Eurovision parade on Sunday.

German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer told parliament on Wednesday that “the boycott calls, the threats, also the verbal attacks on the singer from Israel, who herself only survived Hamas’ mass murder at the Nova music festival because she hid under corpses, are from my point of view an intolerable scandal.”

Last year, Israeli competitor Eden Golan received boos when she performed live at Eurovision. Raphael told the BBC that she expects the same and rehearsed with background noise so she won't be distracted.

“But we are here to sing and I’m going to sing my heart out for everyone,” she said.

A demonstration in support of Israel and against antisemitism was held in central Basel on Thursday.

Anti-Israel protests in Basel have been much smaller than last year in Malmo. Another pro-Palestinian demonstration is planned for Saturday in downtown Basel, 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the contest venue, St. Jakobshalle arena.

But concern by some Eurovision participants and broadcasters continues.

More than 70 former Eurovision contestants signed a letter calling for Israel to be excluded. Several of the national broadcasters that fund Eurovision, including those of Spain, Ireland and Iceland, have called for a discussion about Israel’s participation.

Swiss singer Nemo, who brought the competition to Switzerland by winning last year, told HuffPost UK that “Israel’s actions are fundamentally at odds with the values that Eurovision claims to uphold — peace, unity, and respect for human rights.”

At Wednesday’s protest, Basel resident Domenica Ott held a handmade sign saying “Nemo was right.”

She said the nonbinary singer was “very courageous.”

“If Russia couldn’t participate, why should Israel?” she said.

The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, pointed out that Israel is represented by broadcaster KAN, not the government. It has called on participants to respect Eurovision’s values of “universality, diversity, equality and inclusivity” and its political neutrality.

Associated Press journalists Hilary Fox and Kwiyeon Ha in Basel and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

A protester raises a Palestinian flag, during the opening ceremony of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (Til Buergy/Keystone via AP)

Pro Palestinian protesters demonstrate, during the opening ceremony of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, May 11, 2025. Sign read, '11th Commandment: Israel is allowed to do everything.' (Georgios Kefalas/Keystone via AP)

Israel's Yuval Raphael poses for a photo, during the opening ceremony of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (Peter Schneider/Keystone via AP)

Yuval Raphael from Israel performs the song "New Day Will Rise" during the dress rehearsal for the second semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Yuval Raphael from Israel performs the song "New Day Will Rise" during the dress rehearsal for the second semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)