One of the flagpoles from Ebbets Field has officially found a permanent home, right outside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Sharon Robinson (the daughter of Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson) along with Nets guard Jerry Stackhouse and many others were there to witness the historic moment.
More details after the jump…
According to Mike Mazzeo at Special to ESPNNewYork.com:
During his playing days for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson used to look up at the flagpole at Ebbets Field. Now, that same flagpole stands at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, serving as a symbol of the borough’s storied sports past.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Brooklyn Nets held a ceremony to commemorate the new home of the Ebbets Field flagpole, just steps from Barclays Center. During the ceremony, an American flag and a Nets flag were raised atop the flagpole, and an accompanying plaque was unveiled.
Jackie Robinson’s daughter, Sharon; Nets veteran swingman Jerry Stackhouse, who wears Robinson’s iconic No. 42; Barclays Center owner and developer Bruce Ratner; Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz; and Nets CEO Brett Yormark were among those in attendance.
“I think it’s a beautiful connection to Ebbets Field, to imagine this flying over Ebbets Field and the Brooklyn Dodgers being such a part of that history here with this plaque,” Sharon Robinson said. “So it will remind people that the Brooklyn Dodgers were here, and made such a difference in this community, and now we have the Brooklyn Nets.”
Asked what she thinks her father, who broke baseball’s color barrier, would’ve thought, Sharon Robinson replied: “I think he’d be very proud. My father loved sports. He was a four-sport lettermen at UCLA. It’s right here in the city, right here in the heart of the city, and that would’ve been very important to him, as it is to us.”
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