Brooklyn historian remembers Jackie Robinson 

In 1997 Major League Baseball honored the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s April 15, 1947 Brooklyn Dodger debut with a commemorative day to mark the date that the color barrier was broken in baseball. In honor of that date, MLB universally retired Robinson’s number 42 and in 2004 proclaimed April 15 as Jackie Robinson Day.

After his 10 seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers (1947-1956), Robinson was a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee in 1962. In 1999 he was named to MLB’s All-Century Team and was declared one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the Century. 

This season, Borough Historian Emeritus Ron Schweiger, a Brooklyn Dodgers fan since childhood, commemorated the 79th anniversary of Robinson’s 1947 breakthrough at the Brooklyn Cyclones’ Maimonides Park in front of the Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson monument. To mark this year’s occasion, along with Cyclones season ticket holder Lisa Gavaletz, Schweiger displayed an official Jackie Robinson number 42 signature T-shirt in front of the Robinson statue.

In 1957 Schweiger, along with other Brooklyn fans, was devastated when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, leaving the Midwood resident with just memories of the beloved Dodgers and Ebbets Field. Coming to Ebbets Field to watch the Dodgers for the first time as an 8-year-old in 1953, Schweiger likes to recount the story of being amazed by the intensity of the outfield’s green grass after watching Dodgers games on his black and white TV.

When asked why Robinson was his favorite player, Schweiger said, “I liked the way he ran, his hustle and his energy.”

Like many kids of that era who played the game, Schweiger emulated Robinson’s swing and batting stance when he came to the plate. One of Schweiger’s fondest memories was meeting Jackie Robinson to get his autograph in 1956. Since fans knew where the players parked their cars at the Mobil gas station behind the Ebbets Field scoreboard, kids would often line up there for players after the game. Getting an autograph and a handshake from Robinson will always be a cherished boyhood memory for the 81-year old borough historian who recently completed his final term at that post which he held over the past 24 years.

Besides meeting Robinson over 70 years ago, Schweiger said that it was also an honor to reminisce with his wife Rachel Robinson when he met her at an LIU symposium in 1997 during Jackie’s 50th MLB anniversary season. In addition to meeting Rachel Robinson, during that same year, then-science teacher Schweiger even arranged for Robinson’s daughter Sharon to speak to his class at P.S. 219 in East Flatbush when she was touring as an MLB ambassador.

For fans who’d like to share his celebrated memories of Ebbets Field, Schweiger has recently loaned his Brooklyn Dodgers memorabilia collection to the Brooklyn College Library, where it will be displayed until the end of October.