It was around noon last Thursday when Bob Lutz walked out of work and headed home before the start of his daily radio show. He looked down 17th Street in Wichita, Kan., from the offices of League 42, the nonprofit baseball league he founded in 2013. On a rainy, overcast day, he looked toward the statue of Jackie Robinson that the league had erected in 2021. The statue it was a symbol of hope and resilience. Lutz, however, could not see the bronze depiction of the man who broke baseball’s color barrier.
For a moment, Lutz wondered if the fog covered it. He blinked. Look again. Doubting himself, he called an assistant out of the building to join him. The woman looked and also could not see the statue.
They soon found themselves across the street, where the strange illusion of a missing statue turned into reality. Jackie Robinson was gone, cut right above his shoes.
“The emotions,” Lutz said, “were overwhelming.”
The story that followed made national headlines. Surveillance video captured people entering the Jackie Robinson Pavillion around midnight Thursday, removing the $75,000 statue and placing it in a truck. Wichita police held a press conference and asked for her return.
“I am disappointed by the actions of those individuals who had the audacity to remove the statue of Jackie Robinson from a park where children and families in our community gather to learn the story of Jackie Robinson, an American icon, and play the game of baseball. Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan said during a news conference Friday. “This should upset us all.”
Lutz’s worst fears were soon realized. On Tuesday morning, the Wichita Fire Department responded to reports of a dumpster fire in Garvey Park. The fire was extinguished. Pieces of Robinson’s statue remained in his ashes.
Our statue was found, dismantled and burned, in Garvey Park in Wichita. A press conference will begin soon.
— Bob Lutz (@boblutz) January 30, 2024
While it is unclear whether the theft and destruction were racially motivated, the act struck a deep chord in the hearts of those invested in League 42 and the larger baseball community.
“I’ve been disappointed since it was stolen,” Lutz said. “It’s incomprehensible that people would do this. But when people do something so naughty, it can’t be a surprise when they’ve done something equally vile. I wasn’t shocked. I’m just upset about the whole thing. It’s too bad that people desecrated our statue, especially a statue of Jackie Robinson.”
League 42 started in 2013 as Lutz’s brainchild. A longtime journalist and radio host and lifelong baseball fan, he was heartbroken as he read stories and saw statistics about the declining number of young Americans playing baseball. Rising costs and the proliferation of travel ball culture have made the game less accessible than ever.
“The idea was that I was bothered by the fact that young kids, especially young kids of color, were being shut out of baseball,” Lutz said. “I think every kid should have that opportunity.”
With the help of local partners, Lutz worked to start an affordable league that charges $30 per family. League 42 provides uniforms and equipment. It limits its enrollment to 600 children, a way of focusing on quality over quantity.
The league got its namesake in the early days when Lutz and others met on the subject. Some people threw names around. None of them stuck. Eventually, someone on the team suggested the idea of honoring Jackie Robinson. Almost immediately, someone else responded: “Why don’t we call it League 42?”
“It’s like lightning struck,” Lutz said. “It was the obvious name for us.”
As the league charted its path forward and grew its enrollment, Lutz said he tried to emulate Robinson’s legacy in a number of ways. The league provides educational programs and has taught the importance of Robinson’s 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, it had grown to 44 teams. In 2015, League 42 secured a $1.5 million contribution from the city to improve its facilities and add a third field at McAdams Park.
Eventually, the association 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 came together to raise money for the statue and commissioned local artist John Parsons. Robinson’s statue was erected in 2021.
The statue will be unveiled in 2021. (Courtesy of League 42)
Less than three years later, when that statue disappeared, the reaction was visceral.
“I feel like I’ve lost a close friend or family member and my anger is raging,” Lutz wrote on Facebook that day. “I honestly don’t know what to do.”
Lutz, however, was quickly overwhelmed by an outpouring of support. People from Wichita and far beyond reached out. Community members gathered at the Jackie Robinson Pavilion as a vigil of sorts. They placed roses and a red hat with the number 42 where the statue once stood. A heart-shaped note on the flowers read: We miss you. They found that the mold from the original statue is still viable, and a GoFundMe account raised nearly $50,000 for a new statue in two days.
We had a nice, if not warm, gathering at the stolen Jackie Robinson statue site. Thanks to everyone who came out. It was good to be together, and especially to see many of our children and players. I love them. pic.twitter.com/3jHwUYfJJS
— Bob Lutz (@boblutz) January 27, 2024
Lutz also received words of encouragement from Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, Mo., who had visited League 42 in 2022 and snapped a photo with Robinson’s statue. “We got your back,” Kendrick told him.
“They’re doing extremely valuable work opening up opportunities for kids of all colors to play this game, which is part of the museum’s mission,” Kendrick said. “We are here to preserve a precious piece of baseball americana and its past. We also have an important role in the development of our game.”
The loss of the statue, Kendrick said, can serve as an unfortunate reminder of the hatred that still exists in society.
“With progress,” Kendrick said, “comes this tendency to forget.”
In 2021, locals in Cairo, Ga., discovered that a historical marker commemorating Robinson’s birthplace had been riddled with shotgun fire. Authorities noticed increased damage around the words “Negro American” and “baseball’s color barrier.” Major League Baseball responded with a $40,000 gift to the Georgia Historical Society, enabling a new marker and an endowment fund in Robinson’s name.
In Wichita, while police continue to search for the perpetrators behind the theft, the community continues to rally behind the group. It has left Lutz emotionally shaken in a different way.
Watching from afar, Kendrick notes the parallels between League 42 and the man he honors.
“You can steal the statue, but you can’t steal the spirit of what Jackie represented,” Kendrick said. “I think what you’re seeing from the general public is a Jackie Robinson-like determination for good to overcome evil. And so every time you’re ready to give up on humanity—and we know we can’t give up on humanity—humanity steps up to the plate and reminds us of what we already know: There are more good people than bad. Always has been, always will be.”
Since the statue’s theft, Lutz has been providing constant updates on his Facebook page. In a post on Tuesday, he expressed the unknown motives behind those who stole and burned the statue. Why did they do it? Have they felt remorse? Do they know Jackie Robinson, and why does he remain such a poignant symbol of hope?
“I hope to learn more about the perpetrators in the coming days,” Lutz wrote. “If they brought them to my office at the Leslie Rudd Learning Center, I wouldn’t be mad. I would ask them the questions I asked here. And I hope to hear.”
(Top photo: Courtesy of League 42)
