Jaimarius Barnes, an 11-year-old in the Wichita, Kansas-based League 42 baseball organization, planned on suiting up for games this season just feet away from a Jackie Robinson statue.
“He really inspires me because he played baseball and I now play baseball,” Jaimarius said in an interview. “It means a lot. He’s a person you can look up to.”
Standing 6 feet tall and weighing 265 pounds, the bronze monument outside the McAdams Park backstop represented hope for Jaimarius and other Black children looking to learn the game.
But back in January, those dreams were dashed. The statue of the legendary Brooklyn Dodgers player and civil rights icon, who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, was chopped off at the feet and days later found smoldering in a trash can. Local authorities said there was no evidence of a hate crime and added that the statue appeared to have been stolen to sell off its metal.
News of the incident sparked national outrage.
Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, said the incident “hits you in your gut.”
Last week, Ricky Alderete, 45, pleaded guilty to helping steal the statue — along with charges of aggravated burglary, aggravated criminal damage to property, interference with law enforcement, criminal damage to property, making a false writing and identity theft. He could face more than 19 years in prison when he’s sentenced July 1, according to ESPN.
But his punishment goes only so far. League 42 needed to replace the monument. And thanks to supporters around the country, that’s exactly what’s happening.
At the time of publication, nearly $200,000 has been donated via a GoFundMe page to raise money for a new statue that is expected to be completed by August. The original sculptor, John Parsons, died in June 2022, but League 42 was able to find the mold he used to build…
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