Harry Reid pays tribute to Jackie Robinson

Thursday, March 3, 2005 | 9:30 a.m.

SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., sought relief from boredom on the radio during his hardscrabble, small-town boyhood. His program of choice: baseball. Reid adopted the Cleveland Indians as his favorite team in part because it was one of the teams featured in broadcasts that made it Searchlight.

"As a kid growing up, there wasn't a lot for me to do in Searchlight," Reid said. "No parks. No high school. No movie theater. But we did have our radios and the baseball 'Game of the Day.' "

Reid said he still cherishes memories of specific games, and among the stars he remembers most is Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodger who broke baseball's color barrier nearly 60 years ago.

On Wednesday Reid, commissioner Bud Selig and President Bush were among those who honored Robinson in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, awarding him a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal. The award is the highest Congress can bestow on a civilian and has been given to the likes of Rosa Parks and Mother Teresa. The award was presented Wednesday to Robinson's widow, Rachel Robinson.

Robinson stood for more than winning baseball games for the children who grew up listening to them, Reid said.

"Jackie Robinson brought the civil rights movement to my hometown -- not with speeches or demonstrations -- but by example," Reid said in remarks at the ceremony. "While he was playing second base 2,500 miles away in Brooklyn, he was also opening minds and reshaping attitudes in rural Searchlight and towns just like it across America."