Preview, #12: Arizona Diamondbacks @ Los Angeles Dodgers

Always a day to think back - not just about Jackie Robinson and what he means to baseball, but also what baseball means to America. It's probably significant that there is no Kenny Washington day in the NFL, and I had to flat-out Google the name of the first black player in the NHL (Willie O'Ree). The arrival of Robinson in the major leagues was, I suspect, simply more of a landmark moment, we will likely never see again. Maybe when a woman reaches the major-leagues? You could perhaps argue for the first openly gay player, I suppose, but I suspect that will be a nine days' wonder, and we'll then go back to normal.

For in that area, society is likely ahead of baseball, which wasn't the case back when Robinson made his debut. We were still almost two decades before the abolition of the Jim Crow laws in the south. It's basically impossible for us to imagine what life then must have been like, and I think that's perhaps the primary importance of Jackie Robinson Day. Not just to honor him - though that alone would be more than enough - but so that subsequent generations are reminded of what he had to go through, simply to play the game he loved, and how intolerable it was. It's something we should never forget.

And that's enough Scotsplaining,. I suspect. :) As for the game, we'll be looking to bounce back and Arizona to find the bats which have notable by their absence on this road-trip. So far, the Diamondbacks are batting a woeful .192 over those four games, with an OPS on the road of just .538, which is a massive 335 points down on what they managed over the opening seven contests at Chase Field. They have hit one home-run over 143 PAs and scored a mere eight runs - and it would have been fewer than that, save for some help from the Giants defense, in the only game won in San Francisco. We'll need to do better, if we're going to turn this trip around.