Hundreds braved the Kansas heat as League 42 unveiled its new Jackie Robinson statue at its baseball fields Monday night.
Dozens of the league’s players, in uniform, unveiled the statue and stood proudly around it.
“Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play Major League Baseball, and he was one of the greatest players of all time, and he put a spark in all of us.” said Marcus Jones, one of the league’s 600 players, before the crowd Monday night.
The low-cost baseball league that serves Wichita’s core area is named after the number Robinson wore. He is best known for breaking baseball’s color barrier in 1947.
The bronze statue was stolen from McAdams Park, with only the feet at the base left, in late January. It was found partially burned and destroyed days later.
The replacement statue was made from the same mold that was used for the original. It was designed by local artist John Parsons, a friend of League 42 founder and executive director Bob Lutz. Parsons passed away in 2022.
Parsons’ wife, Carol, made the trek from Colorado to Wichita in a pickup, with the statue standing in the bed, before the ceremony.
“John was a nationally recognized sculptor, and he had pieces all over the United States, from California to Vermont, but this was the pinnacle of his career,” she said. “He was extremely proud.”
Representatives from Major League Baseball, including former pitcher CC Sabathia, were in attendance at the ceremony. The league donated $100,000 to help replace the statue.
The remains of the stolen statue now sit in the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, in an exhibit highlighting Robinson’s career.
“For those who do not subscribe in the belief that one individual can invoke change, you need to look no further than Jackie Robinson,” said Bob Kendrick, Negro League Baseball Museum president, during Monday’s ceremonies. “Because not only did he deal with tremendous social pressure, and that pressure was real, he also carried the hopes and aspirations of 21 million Black folks who he carried with him on the field.”
In the wake of the theft, hundreds of thousands of dollars flooded into League 42 to help replace the statue. In addition to funding the replacement statue and improving the area around it, the money will be used to upgrade the nonprofit’s academic programming and facilities.
“What matters from all of this, and the lesson that we can learn is: In this city, when bad things happen, we come together,” Wichita City Council member Brandon Johnson said.
The man who stole the statue, Ricky Alderete, was sentenced to prison last week for the theft. He’ll face 18 months for the statue theft, but was sentenced to 15 years overall for additional charges, including a battery that occurred days after the statue was stolen.
He was also ordered to pay $41,500 in restitution for stealing the statue.
