The past. The present. The future.
When baseball came back to Brooklyn in 2001, it brought to the borough’s baseball fans not only a professional team, but a reintroduction to the past.
That past was in evidence on Aug. 3 and Aug. 4 as Cyclones fans celebrated, respectively, Jackie Robinson Day and Ernie Harwell Day at Keyspan Park.
How about that Brooklyn past? Jackie Robinson made his major league debut on Opening Day, April 15, 1948, at Ebbets Field, becoming the first black major league player of baseball’s modern era. Despite the slurs, spikes and bean balls directed at him, Robinson prevailed, hitting .297, and being named the National League Rookie of the Year. He led the Dodgers to six pennants and to their 1955 World Series victory, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962. His presence far transcended baseball — it was a powerful force for the integration of society.
Fast forward to the present, and Robinson was honored by Brooklyn Sunday as his uniform No. 42 was retired by the Cyclones, a jersey with his name on it handed to his wife, Rachel Robinson.
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz tied the present to the past when he addressed the crowd at Keyspan Park.
“I don’t speak to you as the borough president of Brooklyn; I speak to you as the kid who grew up on Empire Boulevard and Brooklyn Avenue, three blocks from Ebbets Field,” said Markowitz. “I watched him play at Ebbets Field. He was as Brooklyn as they come. Direct, confident, brilliant, stood up for the rights of others, and created a cutting edge that Brooklyn will always be known for.”
Robinson was a fierce competitor. As one of his Brooklyn managers, Leo Durocher, once said, “That Robinson comes to (expletives deleted) beat you!”
But there was another side to Jackie Robinson — his affection for the young fans.
I remember that when the Dodgers played a regular season game in 1956 at Jersey City’s Roosevelt Stadium, Robinson quietly took a canvas bag of baseballs to the left field seats and tossed 13 baseballs to the kids in the stands. I’ll never forget it because I was one of those kids.
A fan at Keyspan on Jackie Robinson Day had similar memories of his kindness. Coney Island resident Marty Bromberger recalled the days when he was a young Dodgers fan watching Robinson. Said Bromberger, “He never refused an autograph to a kid.”
Let’s get back in the present. The Cyclones are playing the Staten Island Yankees on Jackie Robinson Day, and Brooklyn’s Stacy Bennett steals home, the first straight steal of home in Cyclones history. Immediately, all the former Brooklyn Dodgers fans at Keyspan had the same thought — “A steal of home on Jackie Robinson Day. Did Bennett do it on purpose?”
As Charlie Monsanto, former Brooklynite, recalled, “When that guy [Bennett] stole home, I remembered the Yankees when Jackie Robinson stole home against Yogi Berra in the World Series.”
Bennett was well aware of Robinson’s Brooklyn fame, but Bennett didn’t know that Robinson was famous for his daring steals of home.
“I didn’t steal home because it was Jackie Robinson Day,” notes Bennett, “but I sure found out that he was known for stealing home after I did it!”
The next day at Keyspan was Ernie Harwell Day. The Hall of Fame announcer was best known for his work with the Detroit Tigers, for whom he announced for 42 years. But Harwell broke into the majors as an announcer on Aug. 4, 1948, exactly 55 years to the day of his return to Brooklyn.
Harwell was the only announcer ever traded for a player. The Dodgers’ Red Barber was ill, and Brooklyn needed an announcer to take his place temporarily. So they sent Cliff Dapper, a former major leaguer on their Montreal roster, to the Southern League’s Atlanta Crackers, who needed a catcher for their pennant race. In return, the Dodgers got Harwell.
In Harwell’s first major league game announcing, Jackie Robinson stole home in the first inning.
And now to the present. Harwell was sharing the radio booth with current Brooklyn announcer Warner Fusselle.
Harwell reminisced on air with the fellow Georgian. The personable Harwell recalled his call on television, as a New York Giants announcer, of Bobby Thomson’s “Shot heard ’round the world” in the 1951 pennant-clinching playoff game between the Giants and Dodgers.
Harwell talked of Willie Mays, the best player he ever saw, he said, and Jackie Robinson, the most exciting player he ever watched.
Harwell even gave the thumbs up to the Cyclones’ new ballpark.
“There is no better view than the view from this stadium,” he said of Keyspan.
The game moved along until there were two outs in the top of the fifth inning. Now Fusselle, knowing that Harwell’s half-hour visit to the booth was about to conclude, asked Harwell to do the play by play for the rest of the inning.
Harwell took over. He set the scene and vibrantly described a ground shot that third baseman Shawn Bowman stabbed and fired to first baseman Ian Bladergroen to end the inning.
It was Ernie Harwell coming out of the past and into the present at Keyspan, to presage the future of a pair of young ballplayers, in a professional baseball game in Brooklyn.
Serendipitous!
August 11, 2003 issue
