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The statue is not only a piece of art or even just a tribute to the said Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.

“That statue had become a symbol: a symbol of hope, a symbol of inspiration, of the core values that were part of Jackie’s legacy. Those were fixtures here in the ballpark,� Kendrick said.

He said that made it difficult to explain the statue's theft to the 600 children who play in League 42, which was named after Robinson's uniform with the Brooklyn Dodgers, where Robinson broke Major League Baseball's racial barrier in 1947. Kendrick and others worried the children might lose faith in humanity.

That is until people from across the country stepped up to help replace it six months after thieves

“It reminds us that there has always been more good people in this world than bad people,� Kendrick said. “The minute that you’re ready to give up on people, what happens? The good people in this case literally stepped up to the plate. And it renews your faith in people.�

Little League players and former Major League Baseball players, including All-Stars and Dellin Betances, were set to gather for a ceremony Monday evening to unveil an identical statue now standing in the park where League 42 plays.

The league was met with an outpouring of support and hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations after news of the stolen statue shocked the community and spread across the country. The donations helped fund the replacement statue, as well as improvements to the plaza where it stands, the nonprofit league’s facilities and its programming, said Bob Lutz, its executive director.

The rebuilt statue is identical to the original because the mold was still viable. Dedicated in 2021, it was created by artist John Parsons, a friend of Lutz's who died in 2022.

Firefighters found burned remnants of the original statue five days it disappeared. One man and will spend about 15 years in prison, although most of that time is related to a burglary that happened a few days after the

Ricky Alderete was to 18 months and ordered to pay $41,500 restitution for stealing the statue, an act he said stemmed from his addiction to fentanyl.

The of the original found a new home at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Robinson played for the Negro Leagues' Kansas City Monarchs before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers. His impact was felt beyond sports; he galvanized the . He died in 1972.