Anaheim Angels manager, and former Dodger, Mike Scioscia tried to defend his suddenly-controversial outfielder Garret Anderson, who last week told officials that he would not be wearing Jackie Robinson's number this Sunday to celebrate Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball. Anderson originally gave two excuses for dissing the dead Dodger by refusing to wear his number, 1) he said he wasn't going to do it because it was Ken Griffey Jr.'s idea and 2) he said that he wasn't the type of guy to follow what everyone else does.

Scioscia yesterday tried to instill some damage control into the situation, saying that Anderson has misunderstood what was going to happen. Scioscia said that Anderson thought that it was only going to be he and Griffey wearing the retired #42, when in fact at least one player from every MLB team will be donning the number, including every Dodger player.

April 15 will mark the 60th anniversary of the day Jackie Robinson broke into the major leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In honor of Robinson's feat, at least one player from each team will wear Robinson's No. 42, which is retired all throughout baseball. However, just because Angels left fielder Garret Anderson refused to do so when asked by Major League Baseball officials, Scioscia said that shouldn't be mistaken for a lack of respect.

"At the time, Garret thought that only Ken Griffey Jr. was going to wear it, and he didn't want to steal his thunder," Scioscia said. "That's why he passed on it, but Garret knows history and he knows who Jackie Robinson is and what he did for this game.

"He carries Jackie every day onto the field. All of us know who Jackie Robinson is, everybody in baseball should." - Whittier Daily News

Update: Garret Agrees With LAist, He's Not Worthy

photo via eBay where you can get a lot of 50 mint baseball cards of Anderson spanning his entire career, including his rookie card for just $.99. Over halfway over, the auction has gotten 0 bids for the cards of this amazingly popular player