At speaking engagements over the years, Royals manager Mike Matheny has typically turned to a favorite quote:

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

Those are Jackie Robinson’s words. And they have taken on added gravity in a summer of social unrest in the United States and on Major League Baseball’s celebration of Jackie Robinson Day on Friday. In the midst of a national conversation about social justice and police brutality and in the wake of multiple MLB teams postponing games in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Wisconsin, the importance of making an actual impact has resonated with many in the league.

“OK, we’re acknowledging [inequality], so now what are we going to do, besides just taking a stance?” Matheny said Friday. “What can be done?”

Collectively, players around the league are trying to answer that question. Prior to Friday’s game against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field -- a game in which all players and personnel wore Robinson’s No. 42 -- the Royals held a team meeting to create an open forum about the issue. The game went on, but so will the conversation.

The Royals do not have an African-American player on their active roster. But outfielder Nick Heath (who is on the taxi squad while working his way back from a hamstring issue), hitting coach Terry Bradshaw and first-base coach Damon Hollins, all of whom are Black, played a major role in Friday’s meeting.

“It wasn’t them just standing up there and speaking to us,” Whit Merrifield said. “It was a conversation. ‘What can we do? Is there anything we do blindly that makes you guys uncomfortable?’”

Merrifield believes baseball’s ability to bring people from various countries and cultures together for a common cause can have a role in America’s healing. With Robinson’s arrival, the sport played a major role in integration. But there is an opportunity to play a role in equality.

“Maybe some solution,” Merrifield said, “is to grow the game of baseball in different ways and communities so that people from all different walks of life get to know each other.”

MLB chose to celebrate Jackie Robinson Day on Aug. 28 because it is the anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, which the Robinson family attended, and it also is the date in 1945 when Robinson and Branch Rickey met to discuss his future as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In conjunction with the celebration, MLB announced a partnership extension with the JRF Scholarship Program, the Jackie Robinson Museum and the annual JRF ROBIE Awards. The extension is through 2023 and includes a $3.5 million commitment on behalf of MLB.

To celebrate Jackie Robinson Day, the Kansas City MLB Urban Youth Academy and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City hosted 42 young athletes to watch the movie “42,” which chronicles the racial integration of MLB. Following the movie shown on one of the fields at the KCUYA, the kids watched the Royals’ game. Royals Charities partnered with Slim Chickens to provide dinner for the kids as they learned about Robinson’s legacy.

That legacy has long been honored annually in MLB. But events in the U.S. this summer have created a more unified front in the fight against injustice. This was a week to remember Robinson’s impact and to heed his lesson.

“Change continues to be needed,” Matheny said. “To see the courage of a Jackie Robinson, especially then … it’s definitely a day that I believe will ring truer than ever before.”

• Players Alliance thanks Jackie for paving way

Worth noting
• Reliever Tyler Zuber was activated from the bereavement list prior to Friday’s game, filling the spot left open by the Brett Phillips trade.

• Salvador Perez, who has been on the injured list since Aug. 21 because of blurred vision in his left eye, rejoined the team after seeing an eye specialist in Kansas City but does not appear close to activation.

• Friday’s game time was moved up from 7:10 p.m. CT to 6:10 p.m. because of an inclement-weather forecast in Chicago.