“the statue will be 9 to 10 feet tall”
Jackie was a giant.
“the statue will be 9 to 10 feet tallâ€Some people forget that if Buzzie Bavasi had had his way Jackie Robinson would have become a Giant for 1957.
Jackie was a giant.
Robinson had decided to retire and wrote a ghosted essay saying so for Life at about the same time Bavasi decided to trade him to the Giants. The story was published about the same time the deal was announced and Robinson was tempted not to retire---the Giants were said to be offering him very good money to play another year.
But when Bavasi made a wisecrack, "I know Robinson and he loves money, and now he'll play for the Giants so he can make even more money," Robinson decided the retirement had to stick because he didn't want to look like what he wasn't, a mere money grubber.
It's long lost, but there was said to have been a cartoon in one of the New York papers showing Jackie Robinson as a Giant batting against Sal Maglie as a Dodger.
(Maglie, remember, was a June 1956 pickup by the Dodgers from the Cleveland Indians, and he helped shore up the pitching staff and make the last Brooklyn pennant possible. At the time of the Robinson-to-the-Giants dustup, Maglie was still a Dodger; they'd move him to the Yankees during the 1957 season.)