April 15 has become a special day around Major League Baseball. All throughout the league, players honor the accomplishments of Jackie Robinson by wearing his No. 42.
It is one of the great new traditions of the game.
So you can imagine the surprise on the faces of the Mets players when they arrived in the clubhouse at Coors Field on Thursday and found No. 50s in every locker?
The mix-up? Apparently a typographical error on a memo to clubhouse staff is to blame. A line that should have read "Honor J. Robinson" instead read "Honor D. Robinson." So instead of the No. 42s, uniforms bearing No. 50 were ordered to honor NBA great David Robinson.
The Mets public relations staff, who are used to these kinds of snafus, quickly went into action.
"While the incident is unfortunate, it does give us an opportunity to honor another great American: the Admiral," said one Mets exec. "The man was one of the greatest NBA players of all time, and he won a gold medal for the US with the Dream Team. Jackie Robinson never did that."
Another Mets employee added, "We are looking into the possibility that they may actually be related, though we have yet to come up with anything concrete on that front."
To make up for the mistake, the Mets are planning a Jackie Robinson night at Citi Field on Monday night.
Smokey Robinson has been invited to sing the national anthem.
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