The legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson is once again getting the attention he deserves in a Kansas community. A stolen Robinson statue is getting replaced in Wichita, per ESPN. The statue replacement occurred after the person who stole the original was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The original statue was placed in a Wichita park by a youth baseball organization in the community. It is called League 42. The original was stolen at the beginning of the year. The new statue is located nearby.
“It's been a long six months,” said Bob Lutz, executive director of League 42, per ESPN. League 42 is named after Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers legend and civil rights advocate.
“And this is where we wanted it to get to. We feel like we, and so many others, have helped make the best of a terrible situation. And we hope to move forward with much more comfort now that we know we have this statue in place.”
A picture of the new statue was released to X, formerly Twitter. The new statue was paid for by MLB.
The Jackie Robinson statue saga
The original statue was stolen in January. Surveillance video showed three people working to remove it from its place, per ESPN. Pieces of the statue were found burned later. The only piece of the original monument that remained in place were Robinson's cleats. They were taken to the Negro Leagues baseball museum in Kansas City, according to the broadcast network.
Several hundred people came to the dedication ceremony of the new statue in Wichita. These included members of League 42, as well as former MLB baseball players.
“Jackie Robinson is a spark for the whole league,” League 42 member and 8-year-old Marcus Jones said at the ceremony, per ESPN.
The person who was convicted of stealing the original monument is 45-year-old Ricky Alderete, per ESPN. No other arrests have occurred. Alderete is headed to prison for 15 years due to the theft, as well as other charges that led to his conviction. His motivation for the theft is uncertain but Alderete admitted to having a drug problem that he couldn't control, per the outlet.
Robinson died in 1972. He played for the Dodgers in MLB from 1947-1956. Robinson also played for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues. He integrated the major leagues when he first played for Brooklyn in 1947.
Robinson is a Hall of Famer; he was inducted on the first ballot in 1962.
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