Cleats from Jackie Robinson statue will be donated to Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
League 42 will donate the bronze cleats from its Jackie Robinson statue to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (Kansas City, Missouri), Bob Lutz, the founder and executive director of League 42, told ESPN on Friday.
The organization, which was founded in 2013 and named in Robinson's honor, was started by Lutz to promote the play of African American youths in baseball. Robinson's statue was erected in 2021 at a youth baseball field in Wichita, Kansas, and stolen in late January. The remains of the statue were discovered Jan. 26 in a trash can fire.
News of the theft spread throughout the baseball community, which led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from supporters, fans, players and eventually Major League Baseball. Community leaders and League 42 immediately promised the creation of a new statue.
The question then became: What to do with the feet of the desecrated statue?
Donating them to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum — the league Robinson played in before breaking MLB's color barrier — seemed like the most logical choice.
"We thought it was the absolute right thing to do," Lutz said. "It's looking like the cleats will be delivered by April 11, definitely before Jackie Robinson Day [April 15]."
Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, told ESPN that there will be a ceremony when the cleats arrive at the museum.
Kendrick said the museum already has a historical marker from Cairo, Georgia, Robinson's birthplace, and the cleats will likely go in that section of the museum. In 2021, the marker was shot at with guns and donated in the aftermath.
"We have a story to tell," Kendrick told ESPN.
The statue was stolen from McAdams Park, where League 42 plays its games, on Jan. 24. The remnants of the statue, which was valued at $75,000, were discovered about seven miles from the park.
