Number 42: How Jackie Robinson's Number Was Retired Across Baseball

By 4Baseball Staff · November 5, 2026 · 9 min read

How Jackie Robinson's number 42 was retired by every major-league club in 1997, how Jackie Robinson Day began in 2004 and became a league-wide tribute, and what Robinson's own numbers say about the player.

Every year on April 15, every player, manager, coach and umpire in a major-league game wears the same number: 42. It is the only number retired by every club in baseball, and it belongs to one man, Jackie Robinson, who walked onto the field at Ebbets Field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, and became the first Black player in the modern major leagues. The date, the number and the ceremony are a good example of baseball turning a historical fact into a ritual, and the ritual itself has a history worth telling.

This article explains how the retirement happened in 1997, why it was unusual, what Jackie Robinson Day became after 2004 and what changed again in 2007 and 2009. It also looks at Robinson's own record, using the historical record through the 2025 season, because the tribute is more meaningful when you know what the player actually did. The story of the second Black player in the majors, who debuted in the American League that summer, is in our article on Larry Doby.

The short version: the Dodgers retired 42 for their own club in 1972, Major League Baseball retired it for all clubs in 1997 on the 50th anniversary of his debut, players who already wore it were allowed to keep it, the last of them retired after the 2013 season, and a yearly Jackie Robinson Day began in 2004. That is the bare outline. The details are what make it interesting.

Where the number started: the player behind it

Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, and died on October 24, 1972, in Stamford, Connecticut. He attended UCLA, where he played several sports, and before he reached the majors he played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro leagues in 1945. The historical record includes that season: 36 games, 129 at-bats, 50 hits, four home runs, 30 runs batted in and a .388 average. The Negro leagues portion of the database has partial coverage, so treat that line as a sample, not a complete record.

His major-league career ran for ten seasons, all with Brooklyn, from 1947 through 1956:

He won the Rookie of the Year award in 1947, when it was given for the first time, and the National League Most Valuable Player award in 1949, when he hit .342 with 203 hits and 124 runs batted in. The Rookie of the Year award has carried his name since 1987, the 40th anniversary of his debut. For his career he hit .313, with a .410 on-base percentage and a .477 slugging percentage (a .887 OPS), 1,568 hits, 141 home runs, 203 stolen bases and 756 walks against only 291 strikeouts. A hitter who walked more than twice as often as he struck out was extraordinary in any decade.

The Dodgers reached the World Series in six of his ten seasons (1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1956) and won it once, in 1955, the franchise's only title in Brooklyn. Robinson was on the roster for all six. His postseason line across those six appearances is 38 games, 137 at-bats, 32 hits and two home runs. His final regular-season game was on September 30, 1956.

Why a league-wide retirement was unusual

Clubs retire numbers all the time. A club's decision is a decision about its own history: the Dodgers retired 42 in 1972, along with the numbers of Sandy Koufax and Roy Campanella, a few months before Robinson died. It was a recognition of a Dodger.

What happened in 1997 was different. Major League Baseball took the number out of circulation for every club, so no one else on any roster could wear it again. That was a statement that Robinson's significance was larger than any single franchise, because his breaking of the color line affected every one of them. At the time it was the only such decision in baseball, and it remains so. In North American team sports, the hockey league's retirement of Wayne Gretzky's 99 in 2000 and the basketball league's retirement of Bill Russell's 6 in 2022 are the other league-wide retirements.

There is also a historical reason that fits the league-wide approach. Integration did not happen everywhere at once: Robinson debuted in 1947, Larry Doby followed in the American League that July, and clubs signed their first Black players over the next dozen years, with the Boston Red Sox the last to do so, in 1959. Every club therefore has its own part in the story, even those that came late to it, and a league-wide number lets each of them acknowledge that part on the same day.

The distinction matters because it changes what the honor means. A club retirement says "no Dodger will wear this again." A league retirement says "no one in the sport will." In practice that meant a rule that had to deal with players already wearing 42 in 1997, which is where the grandfather clause comes in.

April 15, 1997: the 50th anniversary

The ceremony took place on April 15, 1997, at Shea Stadium in New York, 50 years to the day after the debut. Commissioner Bud Selig announced that 42 would be retired throughout baseball, and Robinson's widow, Rachel Robinson, was present, as was President Bill Clinton. The announcement came during a game between the Mets and the Dodgers, and it was the centerpiece of a season-long celebration of the anniversary.

The decision came with a practical rule. Players who were already wearing 42 could keep it for the rest of their careers, so the number would disappear from the game gradually as they retired. Every other player was barred from taking it, and new players were not issued 42. The effect was a slow fade: by the mid-2000s only a handful of players wore it, and by the early 2010s there was one.

The grandfather clause was a practical answer to a real problem. Taking a number away from a veteran who had worn it for years would have turned a tribute into a penalty, and it would have meant asking players to give up something that, for many, was tied to their own identity on the field. Letting the number fade out naturally cost the sport nothing and avoided that argument.

The last man to wear 42: Mariano Rivera

The final active player to wear 42 was Mariano Rivera, the Yankees closer, who kept it through his last season in 2013. Rivera's historical totals with the Yankees are 652 saves, 1,115 games and a 2.21 earned run average, the lowest of any Yankees pitcher with 1,000 or more innings. He is the all-time saves leader, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2019 on the first ballot, and the Yankees honored his 42 with a ceremony of their own in 2013.

The sight of Rivera in 42 gave the 1997 decision a second life. For 16 more seasons, the number was both a sign of Robinson's legacy and a personal identity for the all-time saves leader. When Rivera retired, the grandfathering ended, and 42 was no longer worn by anyone in regular play.

Jackie Robinson Day begins: 2004

In 2004 Major League Baseball began observing April 15 as Jackie Robinson Day. The first observance was a ceremony at which clubs honored Robinson's legacy, and a series of activities with the Jackie Robinson Foundation, an organization founded by Rachel Robinson in 1973 to provide scholarships. The tone in the early years was reflective: a moment of recognition, a video, a pregame ceremony. Not every player wore 42, because the number was still retired.

The date is the anniversary of his debut, and the 1997 ceremony used the same one. It falls in the first weeks of the season, when fans are paying close attention, and that timing is one reason the day has grown.

2007 and 2009: everyone wears 42

The change that made Jackie Robinson Day visible to casual viewers came in 2007. the Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. asked for permission to wear 42 on April 15 as a personal tribute, and the commissioner's office agreed. Other players followed, and on April 15, 2007, a large number of players around the league put on the number, a voluntary gesture that had no precedent.

By 2009 the practice was formalized. Since that season every player, manager, coach and umpire in uniform wears 42 on April 15, regardless of club. The effect on a broadcast is striking: for a day the numbers on the backs of the shirts lose their usual function of identifying individuals, and the entire sport marks one name instead. It is a case where a single uniform decision does more to communicate a message than a speech could.

What the day is for

The day has three purposes that are worth separating.

1. Remembrance. It marks the date of a specific event, the first game, and gives fans a reason to recall what the color line was and what ended it.
2. Education. MLB and the Jackie Robinson Foundation use the day for programs aimed at young people. The Foundation's scholarship program supports students, and MLB's RBI program (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities, founded in 1989) is the league's long-running effort to bring baseball and softball to young people in cities.
3. Accountability. The day is also a prompt to ask how the sport is doing, and the answer is mixed. The share of Black players in the major leagues has declined from its peak in the decades after integration, and the league and its critics both treat that as a live issue. MLB publishes diversity data, and we recommend checking the source at MLB.com rather than relying on a number repeated in an article.

The history of the sport's other barriers and entries is told in several of our articles: Latin American players, Asian players and the history of the Negro Leagues. In December 2020 Major League Baseball announced that it would treat the Negro leagues of 1920 through 1948 as major leagues, and the historical record follows that decision; our explanation of how those statistics were added describes the work.

Reading Robinson's numbers in context

A few of his figures deserve a second look, because they show why a hitter who played only ten seasons is in the Hall of Fame and has a league-wide number.

• He started late. His first major-league game came at age 28. Most future stars reach the majors in their early twenties, so he lost years of production in which he might have added to his totals.
• He walked far more than he struck out. 756 walks against 291 strikeouts is a ratio of about 2.6 to 1. In 1949, a season in which he hit .342, he had 203 hits and 124 runs batted in.
• He stole 203 bases in an era when the stolen base was much less common than it is now.
• He was elected on the first ballot. The Baseball Writers' Association of America voted him in in 1962, with 124 of 160 ballots (120 were needed), about 77.5 percent.
• He played in six World Series. The Dodgers won one of them.

The historical record does not have wins above replacement, so we do not quote it; the numbers above are the career line, and they stand on their own. The historical record lists seven All-Star selections for him, one of them in his Negro leagues season of 1945.

Common questions

Why 42? It was the number on Robinson's Dodgers uniform. Numbers on baseball jerseys are assigned by clubs, and he wore 42 for his entire major-league career.

Can anyone wear 42 now? On April 15, everyone does. On every other day the number is not issued, and the last player to wear it regularly was Mariano Rivera.

When did Jackie Robinson Day start? In 2004. It was originally a ceremonial observance, and it became a league-wide uniform tribute in 2009.

When did Robinson play? From 1947 through 1956, all with Brooklyn. His final regular-season game was on September 30, 1956.

Is a number retired league-wide in other sports? Yes, in a few cases. Wayne Gretzky's 99 (hockey, 2000) and Bill Russell's 6 (basketball, 2022) are the other well-known league-wide retirements.

Where to go next

If you want to follow the 1947 season in context, start with the American League side of the story in Larry Doby and the color line, and read how the MLB postseason works for the World Series that Robinson reached six times. For the sport's modern history, the history and Hall of Fame topic page collects current coverage, and the players section lets you look up today's stars.