jackie robinson

His prestige has only grown since then.

"That speaks volumes," Sharon said, "[about] how far the players have come in terms of understanding the legacy and what an important contribution he made to society."

Friday was what Sharon called "a wonderful work day," as she made a stop at a Brooklyn middle school to talk about Jackie, appeared at a Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (R.B.I.) clinic in Newark, N.J., checked in at the MLB Fan Cave, then was introduced at Yankee Stadium along with her mother and Robinson's widow, Rachel.

There, she saw Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano -- who was named after the Hall of Famer and for some reason always plays well on April 15.

She saw Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson -- one of the finest African-American players in baseball, and someone who knows his Robinson history as well as anyone.

And she saw Yankees closer Mariano Rivera -- the only man who still wears No. 42 regularly.

"It's a privilege, an honor to wear No. 42," Rivera said. "Especially because of what Jackie represents for us."

For this one day, Rivera wasn't alone.

Every team -- except the Braves and Mets, who were rained out in Atlanta -- celebrated Robinson's impact with special guests, video tributes and unique festivities in the eighth annual Jackie Robinson Day.

A life-sized, hand-carved wood statue of Robinson was on display in Ashburn Alley in Philadelphia; the Astros had former Negro League and Major League star Monte Irvin on hand; and the Royals presented Frank White with the Negro League Baseball Museum's Jackie Robinson Legacy Award for lifetime achievement.

"He really just set the stage for guys, that if you had a dream and you were a minority, follow that dream," Kansas City's former second baseman said about Robinson. "One of the main things about him, and he said it himself, is [former Dodgers executive] Branch Rickey said he wanted to find somebody that wouldn't fight against prejudice and so forth, and Jackie was saying, 'I had a problem figuring out why he didn't want me to fight.'"

Rickey didn't want him to fight because that's the only way this crazy experiment would work.

Sharon touched on that while speaking with kids at John Wilson Middle School on Friday morning, pointing to an inaugural meeting between the two, when Rickey yelled racial slurs at Jackie to see how he would react on the field as the only black player.

Robinson wasn't afraid to fight, but the only way to successfully serve as a bridge to so many historic African-American players was to sit on his hands and take the discrimination, hatred and abuse.

He withstood plenty of it.

"What he went through," Rays center fielder B.J. Upton said, "I don't think a lot of us today could deal with what he dealt with."

"Jackie paved the way with his sweat, his blood, his tears, all the adversity he had to face in a trying time in U.S. history, and it's amazing that he was able to gather the strength to deal with all the hatred that the world showed, even Major League Baseball," Blue Jays outfielder Rajai Davis added. "I can only imagine how difficult it was, but yet he kept persevering."

Robinson, born in Georgia and raised in California, played for the Negro Leagues' Kansas City Monarchs before spending all 10 of his eventual Hall of Fame seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He won baseball's first Rookie of the Year Award, was named Most Valuable Player in 1949, and went on to compile a .311 batting average, 1,518 hits and 197 stolen bases.

Without him, there is no Hank Aaron or Willie Mays or Ryan Howard -- or maybe even Roberto Clemente or Ichiro Suzuki.

"I've been living the dream," Cubs bench coach Pat Listach said, "and thanks to Jackie Robinson, a lot of us are living the dream."

"He did a lot of work," Astros center fielder Michael Bourn added. "You overlook it sometimes and take it for granted, but if you were in his shoes, you would recognize what he had to do to pave the way, and all the criticism he had to take and all the hard work he had to put in."

MLB is more diverse than ever these days, but the percentage of African-American players in the Majors has declined in recent years. It reportedly stood in the 20s during the 1970s. But in 2010, that percentage was 9.1, and it hasn't gone any higher than 15 percent since 1997, according to the University of Central Florida's Racial and Gender Report Card.

To try to combat that, the league has implemented R.B.I. and the Urban Youth Academies, and it has celebrated African-American history with the Civil Rights Game -- scheduled to be played in Atlanta on May 15, between the Phillies and Braves -- and Jackie Robinson Day.

Baseball is trying to get more blacks in the game, but realizes it'll be a while before change is noticeable.

Thanks to Robinson, though, that opportunity for African-Americans -- and anyone who wasn't born in the U.S., really -- exists in abundance.

"He touched lives off the field," Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols said. "Baseball was an outlet for him to be able to do that, and he had some special talent to go through what he did and still set an example for others. You can't replace it."