Photos: Mets Honor Jackie Robinson; A-Rod Belts Out Two HR's [J. Mark English]

Your Late Night Fix 4.17.07 [J. Mark English]

• Following the tragedy of the massacre at Virginia Tech, all of sports at the University will be suspended, including the annual spring football game.

• Fox Sports has more on how the tragedy will affect the sporting world of Virginia Tech.
  

• To honor those who perished at Virginia Tech yesterday, the Washington Nationals wear VT hats during their game against the Atlanta Braves.
  

• Alex Rodriguez (and oh by the way he hit another HR tonight) leads the way of famous sports athletes to donate to the Rudy Giuliani presidential bid. Other baseball icons to donate to the Giuliani campaign are Keith Hernandez and George Steinbrenner.

• Tom Verducci of SI has reason to believe that the New York Mets' shortstop Jose Reyes is a true superstar in the making: Jackie Robinson would have loved Jose Reyes, the New York Mets shortstop whose mentor may be Rickey Henderson but whose dynamic energy on the field recalls Robinson. Baseball's tribute Sunday to the 60th anniversary of Robinson's debut was classy (thanks to Ken Griffey Jr.'s idea to honor Robinson by wearing his No. 42, an idea that spread with enthusiasm), touching (Andruw Jones giving the literal and figurative tip of the helmet to Robinson) and inspiring (C.C. Sabathia pitching with a higher purpose). Given Robinson's importance to American culture and society, Jackie Robinson Day should be part of our country's official calendar, not just the baseball season.

• In a classy move, the New York Yankees honored Jackie Robinson tonight by dedicating a memorial to him in Monument Park.
  

• The United States Supreme Court will hear a case concerning high school recruiting: The U.S. Supreme Court gets the case again Wednesday: Did a Tennessee high school football power violate recruiting rules or simply exercise free speech?

  The 10-year-old dispute pits Brentwood Academy, a wealthy private school in suburban Nashville, against the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, the state body governing high school sports.

  Brentwood Academy sent a letter inviting 12 eighth-graders to attend spring football practice in 1997. The students' parents already had signed contracts and paid deposits to attend the high school.

  But the athletic association said the letter violated rules against recruiting high school players, and it penalized the school with a $3,000 fine and four years' probation. School officials unsuccessfully appealed twice before suing.

  There have been three appeals to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court and one previous trip to the U.S. Supreme Court. Mediation ordered by a federal judge failed to resolve the case.

• The city of Chicago gets the nod from the United States Olympic Committee to have a chance to make a bid to host the 2016 Olympic games.

• The Philadelphia Eagles accidentally overspent $3 million dollars in a clerical error...

Happy Tax Day! Hope got your taxes in on time...

Reflections of Jackie Robinson [J. Mark English]

On this day, we remember the awesome legacy of Jackie Robinson. The enormity of the impact he left on the game of baseball, the sporting world as a whole, and the nation which in his time was stuck in a malaise of racial hatred.

Jackie Robinson was unique not because of his race, or because of tremendous skills as ball player. He was unique because of his dignity, integrity, grace and certitude. General Manager Branch Rickey sought out a player who could handle the pressures of being the "first". The second, was Larry Doby. It is fitting that he is not remembered as well as Robinson, because the label of the trailblazer makes you the constant target.

Rickey understood this, and he knew he needed not just a great player, but a saint with the foundation of a reserved warrior. Someone who could take the punches, the abuse, and not react. Robinson was such a person, and persons of this variety are very rare.

This is why we celebrate this man, who sacrificed much of himself to advance the opportunities of not just a race, but of a nation. Nearly 80 years before Robinson started for the Dodgers on April 15, 1947, President Abraham Lincoln waged a war to free the slaves in the Civil War. President Lincoln knew that this country could not accomplish what it was capable of without the painful expulsion of slavery. Jackie Robinson soaked in the pain and punishment that all of baseball should have absorbed.

In the Old Testament, in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter III, there is the well known passage:

For everything there is a season, and a time for very purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Jackie Robinson was every season. His purpose truly was the work from the heavens. He made the most of his time on this planet, and planted the seed of real change for our great country. He helped healed the wounds that were still very much open following our nations past of slavery and segregation. He gave black and white fans a chance to sit together and laugh at an error, mourn during a loss, dance in happiness in victory...he gave both races the opportunity to put aside senseless bigotry, and to form a common cause through baseball.

George Will of the Washington Post finished his column today with a fitting reflection on the impact of Robinson:

As Martin Luther King Jr., who was 18 in 1947, was to say, Robinson was "a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides." "Robinson," writes Eig, "showed black Americans what was possible. He showed white Americans what was inevitable."

By the end of the 1947 season, America's future was unfolding by democracy's dialectic of improvement. Robinson changed sensibilities, which led to changed laws, which in turn accelerated changes in sensibilities.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson's middle name was homage to the President who said "speak softly and carry a big stick."

His stick weighed 34 ounces, which was enough.

Photos: Honoring Jackie Robinson [J. Mark English]

Video: Rachel Robinson Remembers Her Husband [J. Mark English]

Rev. Jesse Jackson Eulogy of Jackie Robinson [J. Mark English]

On October 27, 1972, the Reverend Jesse Jackson gave a simple, but powerful eulogy to help put into words what Jackie Robinson's life meant to the game of baseball, but more importantly to our country as a whole. Here is some of what he had to say:

Today we must balance the tears of sorrow with the tears of joy. Mix the bitter with the sweet in death and life.

Jackie as a figure in history was a rock in the water, creating concentric circles and ripples of new possibility. He was medicine. He was immunized by God from catching the diseases that he fought. The Lord's arms of protection enabled him to go through dangers seen and unseen, and he had the capacity to wear glory with grace.

Jackie's body was a temple of God. An instrument of peace. We would watch him disappear into nothingness and stand back as spectators, and watch the suffering from afar.

The mercy of God intercepted this process Tuesday and permitted him to steal away home, where referees are out of place, and only the supreme judge of the universe speaks.

Videos: Remembering Jackie Robinson [J. Mark English]