Mets Will Honor OUR JACKIE at New Ballpark

[DODGER DEB]

I am watching the groundbreaking ceremony of the new METS ballpark(the one that looks like OUR Ebbets Field), to be called CITI FIELD. CitiCorp will pay $20 million per year, for 20 years, in this partnership with the METS.

METS Chairman, and owner, Fred Wilpon just announced that the ROTUNDA will be called the JACKIE ROBINSON ROTUNDA, and will have a huge statue of OUR JACKIE in it, along with everything about his life, in and out of baseball. Rachel Robinson, who is also in attendance, couldn't be more pleaed with this honor.

This is probably the best WE could have hoped for.

c.

[jgangstahippie]

I appreciate what Jackie Robinson did for baseball, but I think that the Mets really didn't have to do that. The Mets have absolutly NO connection to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

[DODGER DEB]

The AP just posted this story on the ceremony....

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2660240

c.

[CaliforniaCajun]

I appreciate what Jackie Robinson did for baseball, but I think that the Mets really didn't have to do that. The Mets have absolutly NO connection to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Mets owner was a Brooklyn Dodger fan, which is connection enough to him. I think it's great.

The severance of the Dodgers from Brooklyn is the greatest travesty in Major League history. The very least they could have done is replace the team. I'm sure a bereaved fan base in the 60s would have fought the politicians for assistance in providing a stadium.

[Brownie31]

The New York Post has a stinging editorial "Shea It Ain't So"
ripping the Mets for not naming the new stadium after Jackie
Robinson.

Brownie31

[strummer]

Once you accept the fact thast there will be a rotunda and the face of the stadium, no matter what you call it, is puroposely designed to resemble the Brooklyn Dodgers' Ebbets Field, then you have accepted a connection to the Brooklyn team and naming the rotunda to honor a great Brooklyn Dodger is not inappropriate at all.

[DODGER DEB]

Here is the NY Daily News story this morning on the events of yesterday, with a few more details and photos.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/471283p-396500c.html

It looks like on there will also be a lounge named the "Ebbets Lounge". It won't be hard to guess the decor of the Ebbets Lounge, now will it?

c.

[ColtscorrAL]

I appreciate what Jackie Robinson did for baseball, but I think that the Mets really didn't have to do that. The Mets have absolutly NO connection to the Brooklyn Dodgers.If you look at the design of the ball park, clearly an Ebbets Field look alike, the Mets are making a connection to the Brooklyn Dodgers. With the Rotunda and look alike exterior, why not a tribute to the most notable Brooklyn Dodger of them all?

[MATHA531]

The connection between the Mets and the Brooklyn Dodgers is Fred Wilpon who was a big Dodger fan...one must remember the original Met ownership was New York Giant oriented...and of course there was the influence of the Yankees in George Weiss and Casey Stengel and, for example, the pin stripes in the uniforms. The only Dodger motif so to speak was the use of royal blue as one of the colors of the team.(although Orange was chosen also for the Giants)....

Also it must be remembered that Jackie Robinson, to his ever lasting credit, refused to be traded to the New York Giants before the start of the 1957 season when the fat slob tried to trade him....

So I would go with the Jackie Robinson has no connection to the Mets crowd...it is nice of them to honor his memory by naming the rotunda after him and for that the Mets do deserve some credit but the NY Post today is totally off base by lambasting the Mets for passing up $20 million a year and naming the Stadium for him...let the Los Angeles National League baseball team when they decide to build a new stadium do the honors as they seem to claim they own the previous history of the franchise.

[EbtsFldGuy]

I appreciate what Jackie Robinson did for baseball, but I think that the Mets really didn't have to do that. The Mets have absolutly NO connection to the Brooklyn Dodgers.


I agree.

Well said.

[MSUlaxer27]

I always thought that using a blue and orange color scheme and keeping the NY Giants logo honored two teams enough that showed New Yorkers no honor by leaving...

I'm a born and raised NY'er, love baseball and baseball history but the two teams left 14 years before I was born...I have tremendous respect for the Dodgers & specifically Mr. Robinson for breaking a barrier that never should have existed in the first place. Major league baseball honored him for this by retiring his number throughout the game.

I feel like people trapped in the past are hijacking the team I root for. I can never understand what it's like to lose a team...I hope I never do... I'm sorry that Brooklyn Dodger (& NY Giant) fans do know that pain but it’s 2006, the Mets are an established team with their own history.

Not every Met fan (at least this Met fan) is happy about having a part of the stadium (and it's main focus) named after someone who never played a game for the team.

I am all for honoring NY's baseball past (How about a New York City Baseball museum honoring the Dodgers & Gints, the NY Cubans & X Giants, and the pioneers like the Eckfords, Atlantics, Mutuals etc.) Put it adjacent to the outfield and allow free admission with a game ticket. I know I'd visit.

The Mets franchise has had enough of a little brother syndrome in this city throughout the 45 years they have been here, honoring a player who never played a game for them over all of their own alumni and creating a doppelganger of a stadium long since demolished, just seems to perpetuate this problem.

[MATHA531]

I always thought that using a blue and orange color scheme and keeping the NY Giants logo honored two teams enough that showed New Yorkers no honor by leaving...

I'm a born and raised NY'er, love baseball and baseball history but the two teams left 14 years before I was born...I have tremendous respect for the Dodgers & specifically Mr. Robinson for breaking a barrier that never should have existed in the first place. Major league baseball honored him for this by retiring his number throughout the game.

I feel like people trapped in the past are hijacking the team I root for. I can never understand what it's like to lose a team...I hope I never do... I'm sorry that Brooklyn Dodger (& NY Giant) fans do know that pain but it’s 2006, the Mets are an established team with their own history.

Not every Met fan (at least this Met fan) is happy about having a part of the stadium (and it's main focus) named after someone who never played a game for the team.

I am all for honoring NY's baseball past (How about a New York City Baseball museum honoring the Dodgers & Gints, the NY Cubans & X Giants, and the pioneers like the Eckfords, Atlantics, Mutuals etc.) Put it adjacent to the outfield and allow free admission with a game ticket. I know I'd visit.

The Mets franchise has had enough of a little brother syndrome in this city throughout the 45 years they have been here, honoring a player who never played a game for them over all of their own alumni and creating a doppelganger of a stadium long since demolished, just seems to perpetuate this problem.

Great post...and completely understandable. Essentially, it was a marketing decision in 1952 to make the Mets the personification of all that was National League baseball in NY....the first gm of the Mets was a man named George Weiss who came over from the Yankees after the 1960 World Series loss and brought with him Casey Stengel, both dumped by the Yankees because of their ages. Weiss tried to instill many of the Yankee "traditions" one of which was Old Timers Day...of course who could the Mets honor on Old Timers Day in 1962? They chose to honor the legacy of Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca (Branca incidentally was doing the Mets pre game and post game radio shows with Howard Cosell on WABC)....things just got away from them so to speak...Weiss represented the dignified Yankee approach to things but the team was being covered by ex Dodgers writers such as Dick Young and a big deal was made of the first visits of the Los Angeles National League team and the SF Giants in 1962 which occurred around Memorial Day and there were probably more fans in the stands rooting for the visitors than for the Mets.

But remember Met upper management was always Giant oriented..a man named M. Donald Grant had been on the board of the New York Giants and had cast the only vote against moving the team and Mrs. Payson was a Giant stockholder...but since the Giants really had very fans left at the time of their departure...the fans seemed to be more and more old Brooklyn Dodger fans...to appease the fans the Mets who had originally centered some of their marketing around ex Dodgers such as Gil Hodges, brought in Duke Sniderat the end of his career but their image as a team never took off until Hodges became the manager in 1968 and he (along with the arrival of players such as Seaver and Koosman) were the first to make the team feel like a major league team and it really evolved in its own image with things uniquely Mets such as the sign man or Banner Day as such.

But this nostalgic move towards everything Brooklyn Dodgers, especially the ball park, is simply a function of Fred Wilpon and the fact he grew up in Brooklyn as a big Dodger fan.

As far as the Mets being a little brother to the Yankees, for a long period of time in the 1980's the Mets were the team in New York...it is not the Cubs against the White Sox where the White Sox have and will always be 2nd class citizens...we saw this past year the Mets can be absolutely every bit as popular as the Yankees...it's a cyclical thing...right now the Yankees have picked up some of the Johnny come lately fans because they won a couple of World Series in the late 90's but with their own network now and the money rolling in from the new Stadium, the Mets are hardly 2nd class citizens anymore.

[EvanAparra]

I agree.

Well said.
They didn't have to do it, but I see nothing wrong with it. I think I probably would be against naming it Jackie Robinson Stadium, but honoring the man is hardly something to argue against.

[kramer_47]

What does Jackie Robinson have to do with the Mets, if you want to honor him at new stadium put up a statue or a plaque, this is a complete kick in the face to guys like Hodges, Stengel, Seaver to have the Rotunda named after a guy that wasn't a Met for even one day.

[Donnybrook @ Second base]

Some people really don't get it. It is more about honoring the man.

He was a National hero, and NY NL baseball icon.

He never played a game in LA. He belongs to NY.

I am honored that the Mets are honoring such a great and storied American.

[55 chmps]

Jackie deserves this. He deserved it a long time ago and it's great that the Mets are honoring him, even though he didn't play for the Mets, he did a great for New York.

[NYMets523]

I appreciate what Jackie Robinson did for baseball, but I think that the Mets really didn't have to do that. The Mets have absolutly NO connection to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Mets succeeded the Dodgers as the NL team of NY. Plus the new stadium is reminiscent of Ebbet's Field. They are honoring a great player and person that played for New York (not LA).

The New York Post has a stinging editorial "Shea It Ain't So"
ripping the Mets for not naming the new stadium after Jackie
Robinson.

Brownie31

I think they should have called it Jackie Robinson field. Unfortunately, in this day and age, the highest bidder gets to name it. This rotunda is the most we could do to honor him other than naming it after him. Atleast here is something for Jackie and we aren't stuck with a crappy name like US Cellular or Petco.

[princethomas]

He was a National hero, and NY NL baseball icon.

He never played a game in LA. He belongs to NY.





"He never played a game in LA. He belongs to NY."


When you say he never played a game in LA do you mean...High School Baseball Football Basketball Track Tennis etc. in LA where he lived every day of his early life. Do you mean games that he played at UCLA that he played Basketball Football Baseball Track and Field. Where he lettered 24 times and was one of the greatest players to ever play 4 sports in LA, and was generally regarded as a legend in Los Angeles before he ever got to Brooklyn? I guess not.

Look, I think its great that they are honoring Jackie and Ebbetts in general. But don't turn EVERYTHING into a NY vs. LA thing. Jackie loved LA. And Dodger Fans in LA love Jackie too.

[soberdennis]

I am watching the groundbreaking ceremony of the new METS ballpark(the one that looks like OUR Ebbets Field), to be called CITI FIELD. CitiCorp will pay $20 million per year, for 20 years, in this partnership with the METS.

METS Chairman, and owner, Fred Wilpon just announced that the ROTUNDA will be called the JACKIE ROBINSON ROTUNDA, and will have a huge statue of OUR JACKIE in it, along with everything about his life, in and out of baseball. Rachel Robinson, who is also in attendance, couldn't be more pleaed with this honor.

This is probably the best WE could have hoped for.

c.
Billie Jean King wasnted the stadium named after him. I agree. Of course I hate any corporate name on a stadium.

[CaliforniaCajun]

Here is the NY Daily News story this morning on the events of yesterday, with a few more details and photos.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/471283p-396500c.html

It looks like on there will also be a lounge named the "Ebbets Lounge". It won't be hard to guess the decor of the Ebbets Lounge, now will it?

c.

I think it's significant that the Mets have chosen to bond with the old Dodgers rather than with the old Giants.

[mandrake]

I think the Mets need to have a NY NL "hall of Fame" at the new satadium. Every significant Met, Giant and Dodger should be inducted into it. Fans should be able to beat Statues of Stoneham and OMalley with sticks as they enter the stadium. Or walk over their pictures as they come into the lobby.

I hate to be mean spirited, but I was in LA once and a cab driver was whining about losing the LA Rams. I could sympathize, but also LA stole the Rams from Cleveland in 1946. LA began the whole 'relocation' nonsense after the war. And then they stole the Dodgers. So basically I told the cab driver St Louis just made the Rams a deal too good to be true !!! Pay back is tough, eh?

[JamesWest]

"

Jackie loved LA. .

My readings have told me the opposite. It seems to me that Robinson didn't like LA very much, and once he went to New York, he never looked back to LA.

[JamesWest]

but also LA stole the Rams from Cleveland in 1946. ?

The Rams were never much of a draw in Cleveland. There were probably more fans in Cleveland who cared about the Browns (who had yet to play a game, than who ever cared about the Rams.