Jackie Robinson retired when the Dodgers still played in Brooklyn. He retired rather than accept a trade to the hated New York Giants. He was working for Chock Full o’ Nuts (that heavenly coffee) when the New York Mets came into existence to fill the void when the Dodgers and Giants skedaddled west. By most accounts, he had little interaction with the Mets in the last 10 years of his life, which was the first decade of the Mets’ existence. Yet today they seem forever linked.
The Robinson Rotunda is how most fans enter Citi Field for the first time.