Major League Baseball and its 30 member clubs will work together to replace a statue of Jackie Robinson that was stolen from a youth baseball park in Kansas last week.
The statue, which stood outside of McAdams Park in Wichita, was stolen last week and found on fire at a nearby park on Tuesday. The Wichita Fire Department responded to the report of a trash can fire and discovered the statue ablaze. Wichita police spokesperson Andrew Ford said the statue was “not salvageable.”
Bob Lutz, the executive director of the League 42 youth baseball league , announced on Tuesday that Major League Baseball and its clubs would replace the statue.
“It will be a joyous occasion – unlike today, unlike the past five days,” Lutz said.
League 42 was founded in 2013 and is a league for baseball players ages 5-14 from urban areas around Wichita, according to MLB.com . The league serves nearly 600 youth players on 46 different teams.
The statue outside of McAdams Park will be present once again in the near future and will stand as a reference to young players of the impact that Robinson made on and off the field.