The trophy won’t be arriving until April 15, but Stephen Francis’ phone has been ringing off the hook for weeks.
With the Atlanta Braves’ 2021 World Series trophy scheduled for a stop in town coinciding with Jackie Robinson Day, the birthplace of that Major League Baseball giant is gearing up for a special celebration.
“Since January, and really recently, we’re getting a lot of these calls from everywhere,” said Francis, director at the Jackie Robinson Boys & Girls Club. “Carrabelle, Tallahassee, Valdosta, Albany, Camilla, the Moultrie area. They’re calling from all over the place, and we’re having to explain over and over and over.
“My phone’s ringing off the hook. A lot of people are excited to have the trophy come to little old Cairo. We’re thrilled to have the trophy come to the Jackie Robinson Boys & Girls Club on Jackie Robinson Day.”
The day honoring the baseball pioneer is a big event each year celebrating his Major League debut in 1947, and in 2019 Boys Club members from Cairo got a chartered bus ride to a Braves game for the event.
“It was incredible,” Francis said. “We’ve had a relationship with the Braves for years. We have formed a relationship with the Braves to the point they were kind enough not only to bring the trophy to Cairo, but to the Boys & Girls Club.”
That link was temporarily disconnected after COVID struck, but the Braves reached out last year and asked what the club’s three wishes were to further the relationship. The team also was supportive after a historic marker honoring Robinson in Grady County was riddled with bullets in February 2021.
Francis said he couldn’t reveal one of those wishes, but “one was (that) the Braves win the World Series and the trophy come here, the other was the kids sing the National Anthem at a game.”
The second wish he related will come true on April 22, and $4 of the price of tickets purchased through a special link for that game against the Miami Marlins will go to the Boys & Girls Club.
On April 15, there will be a private event from 3-4 p.m. for club members and families, staff, local officials and law enforcement, and from 4-7 p.m., the public will have a chance to view the trophy at Jackie Robinson BallPark next door.
“The Braves will set up out there,” Francis said. “There will be a red carpet, the World Series trophy, there’s going to be food. It’s going to be great.”
To purchase tickets for the April 22 game and have $4 donated to the club, visit fevo.me/forty-two.
Credit: Albany Herald
Credit: Albany Herald
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