A stolen and destroyed statue of Jackie Robinson in Wichita, Kansas will be replaced by MLB and its 30 clubs.
Bob Lutz, the founder of the League 42 baseball program that built the statue, announced on social media Wednesday that MLB has promised funding to replace the statue, which has since been found burned beyond repair.
How about this? Amazing, huh?
— Bob Lutz (@boblutz) January 31, 2024
During this emotional week, we are proud to report some great news. @MLB, which has been in touch with @League42ICT from the moment this tragedy became public, has formalized their support for our youth.
We are grateful for their contribution to our mission of celebrating Jackie’s legacy through the youth of Wichita.
— Bob Lutz (@boblutz) January 31, 2024
Per MLB.com, the league will also provide funding for the broader goals of League 42, which was named after Robinson and aims to provide an affordable baseball league for children in the Wichita area.
MLB's funding is in addition to the money the program has pulled in via its GoFundMe, which had exceeded $150,000 in donations as of Wednesday evening. That was already well above the program's original goal, but the organizers said in update the extra money will be used to "ramp up the pavilion area, in which Jackie stood before and will stand again, with added security measures and more."
The Robinson statue was cut down at the ankles and hauled away the night of Jan. 24, with the city initially estimating damages at $75,000. Local police requested help in finding the statue, which was located on Tuesday when officers were called to the scene of a dumpster fire at Garvey Park in North Wichita.
The fire was extinguished, leaving the charred remains of the statue.
This is all that's left of the Jackie Robinson statue. 😠 https://t.co/cgPGwb3jJe #KAKEnews pic.twitter.com/gp9snHmI3r
— KAKE News (@KAKEnews) January 30, 2024
The statue was sculpted by hand by the late artist John Parsons, who required two years to create it. A mold remains of the work, which will obviously help replace it.
The investigation into the theft remains underway. Surveillance video was released last week showing what appears to be two people and a driver cutting down the statue and loading it into a pick-up truck, which was later found abandoned:
From Wichita's KMUW:
"There will be arrests, but we're going to make sure that when we do, we will have a solid case," Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan said.
"So for those of you who are in any way involved in this — that means whether you are involved with stealing the statue, whether or not you accepted the statue, you recorded the destruction of the statue — it is only a matter of time. It would be in your best interest that you simply turn yourself in."
