"But most Black people didn't know anything about Gandhi," Edwards said. "For them, Jackie Robinson was America's Gandhi model."

In 1969, Edwards asked Robinson if he believed King and the civil rights movement appreciated what Edwards called the "monumental debt" owed for his contributions to social change on and off the field.

"In a profoundly modest, unassuming and almost self-effacing tone and countenance, he turned to me," Edwards said, "and said, 'Yes, I think they knew we were traveling the same path.'

"The fact, of course, is that Jackie blazed and paved that path."

Edwards was one of the first to turn the study of sport into a legitimate academic discipline. In 1987, after former Dodgers general manager Al Campanis said on national television that Black people "may not have some of the necessities" to become a manager or general manager, the team promptly fired Campanis.

Peter Ueberroth, then the baseball commissioner, called Edwards for help. Edwards reached out to Campanis, to enlist him in developing a pipeline of Black prospects for the jobs of manager and general manager. The first name Campanis suggested: Dusty Baker, now a potential Hall of Fame manager.

Almost four decades later, on this Jackie Robinson Day, MLB had one Black general manager and two Black managers.

"That isn't progress," Edwards said.

Neither is this: Since the year Campanis spoke, the percentage of Black major leaguers has fallen from 18% to 6%. The reasons are many — spiraling costs, fewer neighborhood facilities, and the increasing popularity of other sports among them — and Edwards offered another.

"They offshored player development," he said, "to academies in places like the Dominican Republic." (This year, Latinos make up 30% of Major League Baseball players, and the league has a record six Latino managers.)

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