The Daily Bruin writer David Gottlieb recently wrote an op-ed that College Baseball should retire Jackie Robinson’s number 42 like Major League Baseball has. This came into discussion after he witnessed Texas Longhorn’s Kacy Clemens wearing it during the 2017 NCAA Tournament.
Kacy Clemens, the son of seven-time Cy Young Award-winner Roger Clemens and an eighth-round pick in the MLB Draft, wore it during his three years for the University of Texas. He homered in UCLA’s second-to-last game of the season.
When asked about his decision to wear it, he said nothing about Robinson. Clemens said he initially wanted to wear his father’s No. 21, but couldn’t because the Longhorns had retired his number. So he picked the number that almost all of baseball retired instead.
“I actually was the last freshman to get to pick their jersey – there were like four or five jerseys left,” Clemens said. “I picked 42 because my brother wore it in high school football. It was just a family number, and I’ve kind of turned it into my favorite number now.”
But the problem isn’t that Clemens picked the jersey out of the few that remained. The jersey shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
The NCAA needs to join the rest of baseball in honoring Robinson’s legacy and stop allowing baseball players to wear the No. 42.
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