jackie robinson became rookie of the year in 1947.
when did jackie robinson became rookie of the year?
in 1947
major league baseball has honored robinson many times since his death. in 1987, both the national and american league rookie of the year awards were renamed the "jackie robinson award" in honor of the first recipient (robinson's major league rookie of the year award in 1947 encompassed both leagues). on april 15, 1997, which coincidentally was the fiftieth anniversary of robinson's major league debut, his jersey number 42 was retired throughout major league baseball, the only time any jersey number had been retired throughout one of the four major american sports leagues. under the terms of the retirement, a grandfather clause allowed the handful of players who wore number 42 to continue doing so in tribute to robinson, until such time as they subsequently changed teams or jersey numbers. this affected players such as the mets' butch huskey and boston's mo vaughn. the yankees' mariano rivera, who retired at the end of the 2013 season, was the last player in major league baseball to wear jersey number 42 on a regular basis. since 1997, only wayne gretzky's number 99, retired by the nhl in 2000, has been retired league-wide. there have also been calls for mlb to retire number 21 league-wide in honor of roberto clemente, a sentiment opposed by the robinson family. the hispanics across america advocacy group wants clemente's number set aside the way the late robinson's no. 42 was in 1997, but sharon robinson maintained the position that such an honor should remain in place for jackie robinson only.
jackie robinson
in march 2004, baseball commissioner bud selig announced that major league baseball would honor robinson on april 15 as "jackie robinson day". he made the announcement with sharon robinson, the daughter of jackie robinson. the first jackie robinson day was on april 15, 2004. that day was a start to an annual tradition throughout major league baseball and an inspirational reminder about what happened on that day exactly fifty-seven years earlier when jackie robinson became a major league baseball player. the day would be the first official league-wide jackie robinson day, having festivities taking place at all 13 ballparks where major league games were scheduled to be played.
jackie robinson day