King Kaufman's Sports Daily

At the Jackie Robinson tribute game, Hank Aaron's and Frank Robinson's stories have more to say than another bunch of speeches about No. 42 do.

Read more: Sports, Racial Issues, Baseball, TV, Race, Major League Baseball, King Kaufman, Sports Daily, MLB

April 16, 2007 | I'm usually not a fan of the celebrity visitor to the announcing booth during the broadcast of a game. Definitely not when it's some random actor hawking his latest movie or TV show during the action.

Even when it's a sports celebrity who happens to be in town, or wants to talk about his charity, it's not a big deal, and sometimes the interviews are nice, but I'd rather the focus stay on the game.

I have to give ESPN not just a pass but high marks, though, for its parade of stars during the Sunday night game because of the special event of Jackie Robinson Day at Dodger Stadium and the magnitude of the stars on hand. Rachel Robinson, Jackie's widow, sat with announcers Jon Miller and Joe Morgan for an inning or so, as did Henry Aaron and Frank Robinson. Off in another room somewhere, Stuart Scott talked to Don Newcombe and Dave Winfield.

The network had a fine line to walk, getting these interviews in and talking about Robinson, the clear focus of the evening, with every member of the Los Angeles Dodgers as well as San Diego Padres center fielder Mike Cameron wearing his No. 42, without ignoring the actual baseball game.

A better ballgame would have suffered for the treatment, being made to seem like an exhibition game, but ESPN caught a little bit of a break when the Dodgers jumped ahead early and stayed there, eventually winning a not terribly interesting contest 9-3.

Miller and Morgan were even able to comment that the Dodgers were playing a Jackie Robinson-style game after they stole five bases in the first four innings. Robinson led the league in stolen bases twice in his first three years and was known throughout his career as an aggressive runner.

Here's hoping ESPN remembers that this broadcast was a special event. It went well, but it shouldn't be seen as a blueprint for the future.

Unless you can get Henry Aaron and Frank Robinson every night.

Listening to Aaron tell stories of playing against Jackie Robinson was a treat, the kind of thing you used to get during rain delays, before standard procedure for a rain delay was to throw it back to the station for alternate programming, meaning listener phone calls on radio and "Cheers" reruns on TV. This was before my time. I've heard stories about it.

Aaron talked about a game in his first year in the big leagues when he was playing second base and Robinson scored from third on a pop-up that Aaron caught just beyond the infield. He also compared his swing with Robinson's, talking about how he derived his power from his wrists while Robinson had more of a sweeping swing.

And he recalled a little newspaper gamesmanship Robinson engaged in, threatening to talk about the Milwaukee Braves' "playboy" ways just before a crucial series, which Aaron said made the Braves nervous and threw them off their game.

Next page: Frank Robinson's low pay as the first black manager is the kind of tale that needs telling