Friday was Jackie Robinson Day around baseball, in which every player and manager wears No. 42 to honor the man who broke baseball’s color barrier. Prior to Friday’s game, manager Terry Francona discussed the trials and tribulations that Robinson and his family went through, and how absurd it was that something like that even had to happen.
“I think it’s so important to recognize and pay tribute to him, what he went through,” Francona said. “I think it goes beyond baseball. At times I hope that we’re celebrating the right things. The fact of what he had to endure is hard to imagine.