Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Carl Crawford put his own personal spin on Jackie Robinson Day during a game against the San Diego Padres on Monday. As you can see from the photo above, he wore mismatched Jackie Robinson commemorative cleats.
Crawford wanted to show off both the blue and white Jordan PEs that he, Jimmy Rollins and CC Sabathia received with the No. 42 on the back to acknowledge the 66th anniversary of Robinson breaking down baseball’s color barrier. After seeing that Rollins had changed cleats before one of his at-bats on Monday, Crawford decided he would have a little fun with his new kicks. This did not please Major League Baseball.
According to ESPNLosAngeles.com, Crawford’s agent received a call from the league office telling him not to wear either the blue or the white special edition Nike Jordan PEs in a game again.
“I was like, ‘OK, he had a little fun with it, so let me have fun with it,'” Crawford explained. “The league doesn’t want us to have any fun, I guess.”
That’s exactly right. The league doesn’t want players to have any fun with their uniforms, just as the NFL didn’t want Lance Briggs paying tribute with this patriotic gear or Earl Bennett rocking his lucky orange cleats. Like it or not, that’s the way it goes in the world of professional sports. Crawford probably knew there was a risk going in and just didn’t care.
