The baseball world celebrated Jackie Robinson Day on Wednesday to honor the 10-year career of the first African American professional baseball player. NASA astronaut Terry Virts paid his respects from the International Space Station.
Yesterday marked the 68th anniversary the Hall of Famer and Brooklyn Dodger debuted as a professional and broke the color barrier that for many years plagued baseball, but more importantly, society.
Virts, a NASA astronaut since 2000, has logged over 4,300 flight hours on more than 40 different aircraft and he's currently a member of Expedition 42/43 that is serving on the ISS. The 47-year-old is the Expedition's flight engineer and he's been in outer space since December 2014 with fellow astronauts Barry Wilmore, Alexander Samokutyaev, Anton Shkaplerov, Samantha Cristoforetti and Elena Serova.
As the ISS continued to orbit Earth on Wednesday, Virts sported a Dodgers jersey with Robinson's No. 42 and also a Brooklyn Dodgers cap to honor the historic date and legendary player, who he admired as kid.
"I can remember reading a book about Jackie when I was in the first grade," Virts said in a video via MLB.com, which you can see below. "Even at that young age, I was really impressed with what he did beyond baseball. Jackie, alongside his wife Rachel, opened up a world of opportunities that had been closed to so many Americans simply because of the color of their skin. What he did took courage, a lot of courage. He had to endure things that most of us could not imagine, and he had to do it while maintaining composure that most of us couldn't begin to muster."
Check Virts' outfit in a tweet he posted on Wednesday:
Honoring #JackieRobinson today! #42 pic.twitter.com/4VznEC204R
— Terry W. Virts (@AstroTerry) April 15, 2015
Robinson finished with a career stat line of .311/.409/.474 with 947 runs scored, 137 home runs, 734 RBIs and 197 stolen bases in 10 seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was also a six-time All-Star and won Rookie of the Year in 1947 as well as MVP in 1949.
