Bob Lutz walked out of his workplace around noon last Thursday and headed home before his daily radio show. He looks across 17th Street in Wichita, Kan., from the offices of 42 League, the nonprofit baseball league he founded in 2013. On a rainy day, he gazed at the Jackie Robinson statue that the league erected in 2021. The statue is a symbol of hope and resilience. However, Lutz couldn’t see the bronze statue of the man who broke baseball’s color barrier.
For a moment, Lutz wondered whether this place was shrouded in fog. He blinked. Watched it again. He became suspicious of himself and called an assistant from the building to join him. The woman looked and couldn’t see the statue.
Soon they were across the street, and the strange hallucination of the missing statue became a reality. Jackie Robinson was missing, cut above the upper.
“The emotion is overwhelming,” Lutz said.
What followed made national headlines. Surveillance video captured someone entering the Jackie Robinson Pavilion around midnight Thursday, removing the $75,000 statue and placing it in a truck. Wichita police held a press conference pleading for the car’s return.
“I am dismayed by the actions of those who dared to take away the Jackie Robinson statue from the park where children and families from our community gathered to learn about the history of the American icon Jackie Robinson and play “Jackie Robinson” “game. Baseball,” Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan said at a news conference Friday. “This should be disturbing to all of us.”
Lutz’s worst fears soon became reality. The Wichita Fire Department responded to a report of a trash can fire in Garvey Park Tuesday morning. The fire was put out. Fragments of Robinson’s statue were left among the ashes.
Our statues were found, torn down and burned in Wichita’s Garvey Park. The press conference is about to begin.
— Bob Lutz (@boblutz) January 30, 2024
While it’s unclear whether the theft and vandalism was racially motivated, the act deeply touched the hearts of those invested in League 42 and the broader baseball community.
“I’ve been disappointed since it was stolen,” Lutz said. “It’s incomprehensible that people would do this. But when people do such despicable things, it’s not surprising when they do equally despicable things. I’m not shocked. I’m just dissatisfied with the whole thing It’s sad. People are desecrating our statues, especially Jackie Robinson’s, and it’s too bad.”
League 42 was launched in 2013 as the brainchild of Lutz. As a longtime journalist and radio host, and a lifelong fan of baseball, he became dismayed when he read reports and statistics about the declining number of young Americans playing baseball. Rising costs and the proliferation of travel ball culture have made the game more accessible than ever.
“It bothers me the idea that young kids, especially kids of color, are being excluded from playing baseball,” Lutz said. “I think every kid should have that opportunity.”
With the help of local partners, Lutz is working to create an affordable league that costs $30 per family. League 42 provides uniforms and equipment. Enrollment is capped at 600 children, an approach that focuses on quality rather than quantity.
The league got its name from early meetings between Lutz and others on the subject. Several people spit out names. None of them stuck. Finally, someone in the group came up with the idea of honoring Jackie Robinson. Almost immediately, someone else responded: “Why don’t we call it League 42?”
“It was like a lightning strike,” Lutz said. “It was an obvious name for us.”
Lutz said as the league charts a path forward and increases enrollment, it seeks to emulate Robinson’s legacy in several ways. The alliance provides educational programs and teaches Robinson the importance of a 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 children. By 2020, the number of teams has increased to 44. In 2015, League 42 received a $1.5 million donation from the city to improve 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 rallied to raise funds for the statue, which was commissioned to local artist John Parsons. The Robinson statue was erected in 2021.
The statue will be unveiled in 2021. (Provided by League 42)
When the statue disappeared less than three years later, the reaction was visceral.
“I feel like I’ve lost a close friend or relative and my anger is boiling,” Lutz wrote on Facebook that day. “I honestly don’t know what to do.”
However, Lutz was quickly overwhelmed by the outpouring of support. People from Wichita and beyond reached out to help. Community members gathered at Jackie Robinson Pavilion as a kind of vigil. They placed roses and a red hat with the number 42 on it where the statue once stood. There is a heart-shaped note on the flower that reads: we miss you. They found that the mold of the original statue was still viable, and a GoFundMe account raised nearly $50,000 for a new statue in two days.
We had a pleasant, if not enthusiastic, gathering at the site of the stolen Jackie Robinson statue. Thanks to everyone who came out. It’s great to be together and especially see our kids and players. I love them. pic.twitter.com/3jHwUYfJJS
— Bob Lutz (@boblutz) January 27, 2024
Lutz also received encouragement from Bob Kendrick, director of the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, who visited the 42nd Union in 2022 and took a photo with the Robinson statue. “We support you,” Kendrick told him.
“They are doing very valuable work to provide opportunities for kids of all colors to play this game, which is part of the mission of the museum,” Kendrick said. “We are here to protect a treasured part of American baseball and its past. We also play an important role in helping grow our game.”
Kendrick said the loss of the statue may serve as an unfortunate reminder that hate still exists in society.
“With progress,” Kendrick said, “comes a tendency to forget.”
In 2021, locals in Cairo, Georgia, discovered a historical marker commemorating Robinson’s birthplace set ablaze with a shotgun. Authorities observed increased harm caused by words like “Black Americans” and “baseball’s color barrier.” In response, MLB donated $40,000 to the Georgia Historical Society to establish a new marker and an endowment in Robinson’s name.
In Wichita, the community continues to rally behind the group as police continue to search for those behind the thefts. This left Luz emotionally overwhelmed in another way.
Kendrick observed from a distance, noting the similarities between “42 League” and the men it commemorated.
“You can steal the statue, but you can’t steal the spirit that Jackie represents,” Kendrick said. “I think what you see from the general public is a Jackie Robinson-style determination of good to triumph over evil. So every time you’re ready to give up on humanity – and we know we can’t give up on humanity – humanity steps up and reminds us Something we already know: There are more good people than bad people. There always have been, there always will be.”
Lutz has been updating his Facebook page since the statue was stolen. In a post on Tuesday, he revealed the unknown motives behind those who stole and burned the statue. Why do they do this? Do they feel any remorse? Do they know Jackie Robinson? Why is he still a symbol of hope?
“I hope to learn more about the perpetrators in the coming days,” Lutz wrote. “If they were brought into my office at the Leslie Ladd Learning Center, I wouldn’t be angry. I would ask them the questions I asked here. I hope I would listen.”
(Above: Courtesy of League 42)
