WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A rebuilt statue of Jackie Robinson in bronze will be welcomed home Monday by Little League players and former Major League Baseball All-Stars, just over six months after the original was destroyed by thieves.
The original sculpture of the baseball icon resting a bat on his shoulder was cut off at its ankles in January, leaving only Robinson’s cleats behind at McAdams Park in Wichita, Kansas.
An identical statue will return to the park, where about 600 children play in the urban youth baseball league called League 42, which was founded in 2013 and named after Robinson’s uniform number with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Playing for the Dodgers, Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s racial barrier in 1947.
The community is expected to be joined Monday by representatives of Major League Baseball and former players, including All-Stars CC Sabathia and Dellin Betances, according to League 42 posts on social media.
The nonprofit was met with an outpouring of support and hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations after news of the stolen statue shocked the community and spread across the country. Bob Lutz, League 42 executive director, said this year that the donations helped fund the replacement statue, as well as improvements to the plaza where it stands, the nonprofit’s facilities and its programming.
The rebuilt statue is identical to the original because the mold was still viable. Dedicated in 2021, it was created by artist John Parsons, a friend of Lutz, before he died in 2022.
Firefighters found burned remnants of the original statue five days after it disappeared. One man pleaded guilty and will spend about 15 years in prison, although most of that time is related to a burglary that happened a few days after the statue heist.
Ricky Alderete was sentenced Friday to 18 months and ordered to pay $41,500 restitution for stealing the statue, an act he said stemmed from his addiction to fentanyl.
The lonely cleats of the original found a new home at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, this year.
Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers, paving the way for generations of Black American ballplayers. He is not only a sports legend, but also a civil rights icon. Robinson died in 1972.