Subject(s): Jackie Robinson, George Shuba Sport: Baseball Location: Wean Park, Youngstown, OH Unveiled: 17/7/2021 Sculptor: Marc Mellon Material: Bronze Status: In Situ Inscription(s): Inscribed on plinth: "A Handshake for the Century". Plaque: The handshake: It has long been a symbol of a business agreement, a popular greeting among friends and family, and in sports, a gesture of good sportsmanship. The handshake offered by Youngstown native George Shuba to Jackie Robinson after Robinson hit his first professional home run on April 18, 1946, in Jersey City, New Jersey, with the Brooklyn Dodgers top minor league team, the Montreal Royals, was the first time a white ball player congratulated a black teammate in professional baseball. It has been called “A Handshake for the Century.” Many do not know that the two players who were on base and scored on Robinson’s landmark homer did not wait for him at home plate. In an era of open racism, that was telling. So was this: The on-deck batter, Shuba, noticed the snub, so he stepped up to shake Robinson's hand, just as he reached home plate. That gesture marked a new era in baseball and much of American life. Robinson played in that historic game because Branch Rickey, a co-owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, had the courage to end Major League Baseball’s unwritten rule to ban black players from participating in the country’s national pastime nationwide. He selected Robinson, who was assigned to the Montreal club. Rickey later said, "There was never a man in the game who could put mind and muscle together quicker than Jackie Robinson.” This statue commemorates that seminal moment in time that paved the way for integration in professional sports, and it was made possible by the simple, yet powerful, gesture of a man who grew up on the city’s West Side. Robinson died Oct. 24, 1972. He was inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in July 1962. Every year, in April, Major League Baseball honors him with Jackie Robinson Day, where all baseball players wear his number 42. Shuba died Sept. 29, 2014. He played seven seasons for the Brooklyn Dodgers that included three World Series appearances as well as a World Series championship in 1955. As one local journalist wrote: “It seems surprising today that a handshake would be so significant, but it made a difference at the time. It causes me to reflect on how, by simple acts of respect and kindness, we might make differences in the lives of others beyond what we expect.” The Robinson-Shuba Commemorative Statue is a lasting monument to the values so many Americans espouse today: That no one should be judged because of the color of their skin, but rather by the content of their character. Youngstown is proud of its native son, George Shuba, and honored to be the first Ohio city to showcase a statue honoring Robinson. Links: Sculptor Project