Jackie Robinson Movie '42' Expected to Increase Interest in Baseball Nationwide

With the african-american presence in "America's Game" dwindling by the year, the new Jackie Robinson movie entitled "42," which is set to be released nationwide this weekend, is expected in increase interest in baseball, not just in the african-american community, but across the country.

Being black in a white game, he didn't know it then, but he was living one of the most influential lives in American history.

"Before Martin Luther King Jr., before the Civil Rights movement and Rosa Parks and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, there was Jackie, artfully living one of the most important and influential lives in history. In baseball, out of baseball, anywhere." stated CBS Sports.

"What he's responsible for ... he deserves more, in my opinion, than what he has already," says Don Newcombe, the former Dodgers pitcher and Robinson teammate, reported CBS Sports.

He added, "I think Jackie is entitled to and should have a national holiday for what he did to make things right in this world. Especially for black people."

To celebrate Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier 66-years ago, Major League Baseball will hold its 5th annual Jackie Robinson day, today, April 15, when the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres open a three-game set.

All players and on-field personnel will wear the Hall of Famer's No. 42 and it won't just be in Los Angeles, where the Dodger moved to from Brooklyn in 1957, it will be a league-wide, as "all uniformed personnel throughout baseball were asked to wear Robinson's number 42...starting with the first game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park," according to Associated Press.

"Jackie Robinson running onto Ebbets Field is not only the most important and powerful moment in Baseball history, but it also changed the course of American history," said MLB commissioner Bud Selig. "Jackie's courage and perseverance made it possible for African Americans and players of all races and ethnicities to compete on the same field," reported Fox News.