Cleats left behind after Jackie Robinson statue was stolen to be donated to Negro League Museum

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH
Associated Press

The bronze Jackie Robinson cleats that were left behind when a statue of the first player to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier was stolen from a Kansas park are being donated to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Thieves cut the statue off at its ankles last month, leaving only the feet behind at a Wichita park where about 600 children play in a youth baseball league called League 42. It is named after Robinson’s uniform number with the Brooklyn Dodgers, with whom he broke the major leagues’ color barrier in 1947. The Negro League Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, has plans to incorporate the cleats in a display.