YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Efforts to raise money for a statue honoring Youngstown native George “Shotgun” Shuba and baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson received a boost after CBS Sunday Morning aired a segment this past weekend.
“We got a nice little donation (uptick) on Sunday from out-of-towners that we think were related to the show,” said Dan Pecchia of Pecchia Communications. He is helping promote the initiative on a pro bono basis.
The Robinson Shuba Commemorative Statue marks a simple but important gesture in American sports history. On April 18, 1946, Robinson hit a home run for the minor-league Montreal Royals in his debut after signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. As he rounded third, his waiting teammate Shuba shook his hand, congratulating him. It’s believed to be the first documented interracial handshake in professional baseball. The photo of the men at home plate is known as “A Handshake for the Century.”
It came at a critical time, as Robinson was poised to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball. A year later, he did that, with the Dodgers. He and Shuba eventually played together for several seasons, including the 1955 World Series-winning team.
Timing this week is serendipitous: George Shuba died Sept. 29, 2014. He was 89.
The committee is about halfway to its goal of $400,000, Pecchia said.
“We were very pleased with that because when we first started we got a lot of donations out of the box, then the Covid outbreak really shut us down,” he said. “We do need to round the final couple of bases to stay on schedule to dedicate the statue in April.”
The dedication is scheduled for April 18, 2021 - the handshake’s 75th anniversary.
The statue – by Connecticut sculptor Marc Mellon - will be in Wean Park, between Covelli Center and Youngstown Amphitheatre.
Video: Here’s CBS Sunday Morning’s video.
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https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2020/09/shuba-statue-donations-sees-uptick-after-national-tv-segment.html
2020-09-30 11:30:00Z
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