Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to accept remnants of defaced Jackie Robinson statue
By Gabe Swartz
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KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KCTV) — The remnants of a defaced Jackie Robinson statue from a park in Wichita will find a permanent home in Kansas City on Thursday.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum said it will accept and give home to the bronze cleats that were a part of a Jackie Robinson statue at McAdams Park in Wichita. The cleats from the historic bronze statue will be added to the museum’s Jackie Robinson exhibit, where the museum said it will teach current and future generations about tolerance and acceptance.
NLBM president Bob Kendrick and League 42 Executive Director Bob Lutz will be on hand for a ceremony at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
A probable cause affidavit in February detailed the investigation that led Wichita police to arrest 45-year-old Ricky Angel Alderete after the statue was stolen from McAdams Park in the early hours of Jan. 25, 2024. KWCH reported that surveillance showed a truck pull up to the statue, push it over and load it into the bed of the truck.
When detectives interviewed Alderete he told them he was at a “drug house” on south Emporia the night of the incident (January 25, 2024), when a man named “Rory” came to the house and told him and the husband of the GMC Sierra’s owner, that he had a scrap metal job for them. Alderete described Rory as a white man with blonde hair and an Irish accent.
Alderete told police Rory brought a “large concrete saw” with him. He said Rory directed the driver to McAdams Park on 17th Street where the statue was located. Alderete said Rory used the saw to cut the statue at the legs, and he (Alderete) helped Rory push it over. The driver stayed in the truck.
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