Robinson's legacy important to Cardinals

ST. LOUIS -- The Cardinals will celebrate Jackie Robinson Day in Milwaukee on Tuesday. The significance of the day is not lost on the team's players.

"I think Jackie Robinson Day is a real special day for all of baseball," center fielder Jon Jay said. "He broke the color barrier, for Latin players, for all sorts of different players. As a Latin player I think it's something that's big where he really paved the way for us and we owe a lot to him. If it wasn't for him a lot of us wouldn't be playing in the Major Leagues right now."

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny has experienced Jackie Robinson Day as a player and as a manager.

"I think the league does a great job of stopping and slowing down and really pointing out the importance of what Jackie Robinson did," Matheny said. "And I think it's great for our game. I think it's great for our country just to acknowledge the heroes and what he did was heroic. I think some of the movies and books and things that have been written have all done a real nice job of talking about the courage it took to stand up and to be a pioneer in this game, and it's definitely been for the good of our game and for our country too."

Rookie second baseman Kolten Wong can't wait to put on that legendary number.

"You always watch on TV all the guys wearing 42," Wong said. "You always want to be able to do that one day and I'm excited to be able to do that."