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Forty-two.

We never see it in baseball, except for one day, when it’s the only number we see.

It’s retired to honor the heroic Jackie Robinson — and it’s worn on Jackie Robinson Day to remind all of the doors he opened for current Major League Baseball players.

Tuesday was Jackie Robinson Day across MLB — honoring the 1947 day a Black man played in a MLB game for the first time. This annual MLB celebration is always a wonderful and inspiring event — all MLB players wear the Dodger-blue No. 42 on their jerseys, and some also wear socks and even shoes honoring the Cooperstown-immortalized Robinson. But I cannot stress how necessary a day like this is — an in-your-face reminder that America was a cruelly unfair place, and it took the bravery of Robinson, and those after him, to earn fairness and dignity.

As for Robinson, his story is history — not just Black history but also American history. As the first Black player in MLB, he faced merciless insults, heckling and racism. As St. Louis-based author Gerald Early wrote in “Play Harder — The Triumph of Black Baseball in America,� which will be released on April 28: “Playing under the restraints that (team executive) Branch Rickey put on him during his first three years with the Dodgers made him especially heroic. He was not permitted to retaliate in any way against the racist provocations from opposing teams or fans. Avoiding retaliation gave him the air of a martyr, but also prevented him from ever coming across as pathetic or downtrodden. Robinson’s ‘dynamic intensity’ combined with his controlled conduct during this time cloaked him with defiant dignity.�

The St. Louis Cardinals, who sometimes had seven or eight Black starters in 1990s games, have just a few Black players this season. Masyn Winn was raised on baseball history by his stepfather, who made Masyn and his youth teammates do reports on stars of the Negro Leagues. Victor Scott II was called up last year to join the Cards in the Alabama-based game the league billed as “MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues.� And Jordan Walker had cleats made for Tuesday that featured the No. 42 all over the sides.

“Just like every year, it’s an unbelievable (day),� Walker said. “I mean, he’s the reason I’m here. He’s the reason I’m playing baseball. It’s special to me. I’ll try to get some pictures from my family — my family’s super-excited about it. My dad for sure. Whatever merchandise they give me, I’ll package it all up and send it home. It’s truly, really a special day. ... It’s one of my dad’s favorite days and mine. I just like seeing my dad happy.�

On Sunday, two days prior, Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras entered the clubhouse wearing a baseball-themed sweatshirt ... featuring a Jackie Robinson patch.

“(It’s important) for every player to know who Jackie Robinson was and what he did for baseball,� Contreras said. “I think it’s amazing that MLB still has this every year — he opened a lot of doors.�

The first official celebration, in 1997, was on the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s first game — Boston Braves at Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Here’s hoping they’ll be celebrating Robinson in 2047 ... heck, in 3047.

As for the author Early, his new book features powerful prose and beautiful photography and art. Perhaps baseball fans remember Early from his interviews during Ken Burns’ “Baseball� documentary series. At Washington University, Early is the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in Arts & Sciences. He won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. He even has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Now, of course, 42 mattered in 2024. And in ’14 and in ’04. It’s always mattered. But there’s something about 42 in ’25. The significance of Jackie Robinson’s heroism — and the education of Jackie Robinson’s heroism — isn’t just important but also imperative.

“In our current political climate, I hope that (the book) ‘Play Harder’ reminds readers that Blacks have never wanted anything given to them that they did not earn through their own effort — Jackie Robinson and all the other great Black ballplayers exemplify that,� said Early, who worked on the book in conjunction with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. “I also hope that readers will learn how much Black Americans have believed in the promise and possibility of America, although they have had a lot of good reasons not to. …

“‘Play Harder’ is the most important book I have written. The subject matter goes to the heart of explaining Black people’s experience with being a part of America and apart from it. It also shows how playing a game did so much to change America. I truly believe that Black Americans playing baseball made the United States a better country.�

In 2020, a half-decade ago, as both St. Louisans and the St. Louis Cardinals stood up and spoke up for racial justice, I interviewed Early. We talked a lot that day about baseball and America and Black America. I’ve often thought of his thoughts. As I published in a Post-Dispatch piece, Early said: “Baseball makes a big deal about Jackie Robinson integrating the game, which baseball should. But it’s not some wonderful moment of inclusion. It’s actually an embarrassing moment about: How could this game had gone on this long and excluded people like this?

“It’s actually a tragic moment in America to think that Black people have had teams, Black people had leagues, so Black people were interested in playing this game for many years — and they were excluded. So there’s a certain kind of shame attached to the game. We had apartheid baseball for a lot of years!

“And you go out to the baseball game, they want to give you all this nostalgia crap and all this other kind of stuff, and they don’t seem to be ashamed about that. And if you’re a Black person, and you’re looking at all this stuff about, you know, 1941 and Joe DiMaggio — the game was segregated! But baseball wants to make this heroic moment — Oh, yes, we decided to have Jackie Robinson come in and play and everything in this great historic moment. And it turns out to be heroic moments because Jackie Robinson himself was heroic!

“It’s heroic because of the man himself, and his ability to withstand what was happening to him to be able to play the game. It’s not because baseball was heroic at this moment and baseball suddenly was more advanced than the rest of American society by allowing, you know, this one Black guy to play.�