This probably has a factual answer, but since it’s baseball-related I put it here. If the mods feel it should be in GQ, that’s fine.
I was reading this articlefrom the NY Daily News about the new stadiums for the Yankees and Mets. The Mets apparently have included a “Jackie Robinson Rotunda.” According to the Mets’ website this is a tribute:
Why? I understand the history and importance of Robinson to NY and all of Baseball, but he was a Brooklyn Dodger, not a Met. He never played a game for the Mets. It strikes me a bit odd that a team would build a brand new stadium and have one of the main focal points be a player for a different team.
Jackie Robinson’s number is the only number retired by every team in baseball; he was that important to baseball. He played in the same town as the Mets before the Mets existed. The team owes its existence to the Dodger and Giants leaving town. It seems like a nice fit to me.
Robinson is a trascendent figure in baseball. As pointed out, every team has retired his number, and
The Mets are the inheritors of New York’s tradition as a National League city, for what that’s worth. Robinson played his whole career in New York City and so it is appropriate a New York team have a tribute to team. The Mets seem more logical than the Yankees, who were his opponent.
It’s true that Jackie Robinson never played for the Mets. However, from the very beginning of the franchise, the Mets and their fans always regarded themselves as the TRUE heirs of the recently departed Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants. The Mets’ rosters of the early Sixties included several former Brooklyn Dodgers (Gil Hodges, Don Zimmer, Duke Snider), and that was not an accident.
Yes, New Yorkers regard the Mets as the “National League heartbeat of the city”, replacing the NY Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers. It’s different with players like Koufax who did play in Brooklyn but spent his heyday in LA, and Willie Mays who was beloved in NY but also did many great things in SF. Jackie came up with Brooklyn, lived in Brooklyn as a player, retired before the Dodgers moved (famously retiring rather than play for the crosstown Giants), stayed on living in Brooklyn, and is buried in Brooklyn.
You may recall that back in '97, when MLB retired Jackie’s number league-wide, the ceremony was done not at Dodger Stadium but at Shea. That was no accident.
Many writers and fans wanted the new Mets stadium named for Jackie. They ended up selling the name to a corporation, which never seems to work out well, does it? Think of all those Inaugural Season memorabilia for the Astros’ “Enron Field” – we could see something similar with Citi Field. Oh well.
In a similar vein, when Baltimore re-acquired an NFL franchise, there was a lot of sentiment for naming the stadium after Johnny Unitas, another sports legend who settled in with strong local ties. There was a lot of anger (including from Johnny U himself) that this was not allowed because the INDIANAPOLIS Colts retained the rights to the name, and Johnny U was a vocal supporter of the idea that the Ravens were the true heirs to the spirit of the BALTIMORE Colts, even if the franchise name and logo had been spirited away to the Midwest.
I guess I understand everyone’s answers, but the Mets have been around now for what, 47, 48 years? Shouldn’t they have their own identity by now instead of clinging to the glory days of a another franchise that still exists, but just left town?
The Mets do have their own history by now, yes, but it’s not strong enough to make Robinson and his role in baseball irrelevant even if there was a benefit to doing that. He’s one of the icons of the game and of the nation, not just NY NL baseball, after all. There is only a downside in diminishing his role in any way. Besides, there’s no other place specifically devoted as a memorial to him, he deserves one, and this is an ideal place for it.
Also, the Mets’ colors of blue and orange aren’t just from the city’s old Dutch flag, they represent the Dodgers and Giants. They can’t completely sever themselves from that past even if they wanted to.
Ok, that’s an interesting point. I guess if the Dodgers had a monument for him (they might, for all I know…) it wouldn’t have the historical significance as as NY team.
KeySpan Park (home of a Mets farm club, the Brooklyn Cyclones of the New York-Penn League) has a statue honoring Robinson and his Dodger teammate Pee Wee Reese.
The Yankees’ Monument Park, otherwise devoted to great figures in the history of New York’s American League team, contains a plaque in Robinson’s honor.
In the Los Angeles area, there’s a monument to Jackie and brother Mack in Pasadena.
Sure. I can see a plaque. A retired number. But a major entrance way to your new stadium when he’s not one of yours? Why not Tom Seaver? Is it Cooperstown or the new Mets stadium? Maybe they have other areas that pay tribute to their own?
Just to be clear, I’m not anti-Jackie Robinson. I LOVE baseball and fully appreciate his place in history, as well as his prowess as a player. It’s just the Mets cashing in on his legacy that bothers me. He was DODGER.
But more importantly he was a New Yorker. It’s like a park in Illinois having a statue of Lincoln. It’s more of a civic memorial than a baseball memorial, and in that vein it’s more of a baseball memorial than a franchise memorial.
No offense, but he wasn’t a New Yorker. He was from Georgia. He happened to be in the right place at the right time, and he handled it INCREDIBLY well. He totally should be honored. His place in baseball history is undeniable. His place as a Met is. That’s all I’m saying. NOT a Met.
Many people in Brooklyn in particular and New York in general have a very HISTORY HAPPENED HERE thing going on with the legacy of Jackie Robinson. Not just Dodgers history, not even only baseball history, but sports history and more significantly, American history.
I hear what you’re saying about “He’s not a Met.” Believe me, I get that, and plenty of people in NYC get that as well. There are living people who are still not over the move to Los Angeles. The attachment to the Jackie Robinson story is way beyond the specific team. If the Mets left, and at some point in the future, they moved, I don’t know, the Diamondbacks here, people 'round these parts would want to know what they planned to do to honor Jackie Robinson. I truly believe there is a feeling that any baseball team here* is responsible for being the caretaker of a historic legacy.
and by here, I mean Not the Bronx … it’s an east of the East River thing. Although I believe Yankee Stadium is technically east of the East River on a map, but that’s not important right now.