Every April baseball honors Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color barrier.

No, that's not right. What is a "color barrier"? Makes it sound like he ran through some light device in a laboratory. Too trivial and too clincal a description by half.

Robinson ended baseball's segregation. That comes closer.

Jackie Robinson wasn't the first, because you can go back to Moses Fleetwood Walker in the 1800's, and several Latin American players managers somehow got in during the early days of the game. "But, you don't understand. He's Cuban."

Not the point, either. I don't believe Jackie Robinson got into baseball just to advance society. And I don't believe he would want to be remembered as merely a ground breaker. Robinson, from all I've read, wanted to be a baseball player because he was good at it. Like most of us, he sought in his work the fullest expression of who he was.

And found it.

Lost in the retelling of the Robinson story is who #42 was on the field. Gap power, great eye, smart hitter. Not so fast as Joe Morgan, but better power and got on base more consistently. A Hall of Famer not merely as an historical footnote, but as one of the best of his era.

Who would you compare Robinson to today? The only name that comes to mind is Brandon Phillips of the Reds. If fantasy baseball had been around in the 1950's (and as baseball crazy as the country was back then it's amazing it wasn't) Robinson would have been about a #8 pick in the first round, maybe higher.

As a fielder, harder to judge. All we have now from the record is range factor and double play stats. The double plays impress me, even if Robinson had the advantage of Pee Wee Reese beside him at shortstop. But logic says Robinson didn't move to third, first, and left field for no good reason. If he was a great second baseman those moves wouldn't have been made.

So here we are, sixty-one years on.

African-Americans can play the game, but don't in significant numbers. Major League Baseball has retired the number 42. And the player Jackie Robinson is almost forgotten.

Here's a video of Jackie Robinson in the 1955 World Series, stealing home against Whitey Ford. A great baseball brain marrying power and skill to a moment in time.

Enjoy the memory of Jackie Robinson. Second base, Brooklyn Dodgers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RUQflfZ3L4&feature=related