Jackie Robinson Is Rebuilt in Bronze in Colorado After Theft of Statue From Kansas Park

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: US News and World Report/AP

May 25, 2024, 12:05 AM


LOVELAND, Colo. (AP) — As he coats a mold of Jackie Robinson with wax, metalsmith Alex Haines reflected on the extra importance of a project that will soon give the city of Wichita, Kansas, a replacement bronze statue of the baseball icon after thieves brazenly destroyed the original. “Many sculptures come through here,” said Haines at the Art Castings studio in Loveland, Colorado, where the original statue was cast. “Some are a little bit more important than others. And this is definitely one of them.”

It all started in January, when thieves cut the original statue off at its ankles , leaving only Robinson’s cleats behind at McAdams Park in Wichita. About 600 children play there in a youth baseball league called League 42. It is named after Robinson’s uniform number with the Brooklyn Dodgers, with whom he broke the major league's color barrier in 1947.

The news spread wide, and a national outpouring of donations followed that enabled Wichita to quickly reorder a replacement.

“There’s been a lot of serendipity when it comes to League 42 throughout our entire existence,” said Bob Lutz, who is executive director of the Little League nonprofit that commissioned the statue. “It’s almost like there’s somebody watching out for us. And certainly, in this regard, we feel like ... there was a guardian angel making sure that we could do this statue again.”

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/sports/articles/2024-05-25/jackie-robinson-is-rebuilt-in-bronze-in-colorado-after-theft-of-statue-from-kansas-park

[GreenWave]

1. Very feel good story. Humans coming together.

[hlthe2b]

2. We are very lucky to have the Loveland, CO sculptors who have the talents so many have lost today...

When I heard about the Robinson statue being destroyed, I thought who better to recast? While they are lucky not to have to start at square one here, there are several in that community quite capable of doing so, had they not been able to merely recast it. Lately, it seems so many statues are just plain awful (like the Princess Di one unveiled a year or so ago, but there are countless others). Ironically, all those Civil War Confederate statues that I celebrate going to scrap or museums are infinitely better artistically than 99% of what is produced today...

Good on the folks in Loveland...

[cab67]

3. Let's hope there's tight security around the replacement.

The shit-eaters who stole the first one will probably want to destroy this one as well.