Braden Bishop Auctioned Jackie Robinson Day Bat to Benefit Teachers

Seattle Mariners outfielder Braden Bishop auctioned an autographed copy of his Jackie Robinson Day bat to benefit the Zinn Education Project’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle campaign.

Bishop announced the highest bidder on Sept. 22. The funds will be used to purchase copies of Teaching for Black Lives for classroom teachers.

Thank you for everyone who participated in the auction for my Jackie Robinson Day bat. The highest bid was $1000.07 which will buy 34 copies of “Teaching for Black Lives”. This is going to make a difference getting these books into our teachers and students hands @ZinnEdProject

— Braden Bishop (@bradenbishop7) September 23, 2020

Here are some of the tweets from the days of the auction.

Auction for my Jackie Robinson day bat is LIVE! Go bid now. All proceeds go to buying “Teaching For Black Lives” and giving to schools involved with @ZinnEdProject. Please RT this so we can get books into the hands of our teachers!

— Braden Bishop (@bradenbishop7) September 15, 2020

Teaching for Black Lives co-editor Jesse Hagopian tweeted to thank Bishop for supporting the campaign and putting the Rethinking Schools guide into more teachers’ hands.

🔥🔥Yooo! @bradenbishop7 is auctioning off his Jackie Robinson Day bat to support the book I co-edited, https://t.co/V4lLJHwO7C

I hope folks will bid on this beauty and help us teach the real history of Black folks to kids who too often get denied the truth. https://t.co/cYGIheSDLN

— Jesse Hagopian (@JessedHagopian) September 15, 2020