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Home , Dodger Stadium, Jackie Robinson, Stan Kasten, Tommy Lasorda

umbers speak. They tell a story. service and a commitment — “an ong Remember cards? Kids Sharon — to work for social chang could recite a player’s stats by in the impac heart. Those numbers added up to words are inscribed on his tombs something — the sum of one’s skill and effort. Take , the Dodgers Sharon was six when her dad re who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947: season. T 125 runs scored his rookie season; a .342 batting average the family from an integr in ’49; six pennants; nineteen career steals of home plate. new house on six wooded acres in N Sharon Robinson ’76NRS knows her father’s numbers. There was a lak But what if someone were to keep track of her professional Sharon, and Da stats — as a nurse midwife? Fifty births within her first father six months of practice . . . a hundred within the frozen sur year . . . 250 after five years. Sharon T has delivered some 750 babies — Hank that she could swee Aaron territory. And that’s not counting Rachel, was beautiful, sophis the births she’s overseen as a teacher, first and her brothers were r at the Columbia School of Nursing and and ine later at Yale, Howard, and Georgetown. sure up There’s more. How about nine books Sharon, the girl, the middle child, who published, 1,500 students who have shoved into her lit received scholarships from the Jackie aware, as she g Robinson Foundation, and thirty-two mil- She was an a lion kids reached by Breaking Barriers: In ball, and volle Sports, In Life, the educational program a normal childhood: family dinners, games of M that Sharon started in 1997? Those num- with Dad, af bers tell many stories. maternal gr What if there were bubblegum cards Doctors for everyone? sneak off with her gr had alwa Sharon Robinson is awfully approachable and ma for a member of cultural royalty. She’s un- her mother pretentious, contemplative, quick to laugh. pushing her toward colleg You can see her father in her face, can hear M him in her voice, but after a minute you pampered the boys: rebellious, sensitive J can almost forget that this is the daughter adventurous, funn of an American folk hero. of e When Sharon was born, in 1950, her “M father was one of the most famous, most or m important people in the country. As the cultur first Black player in the majors in the mod- males as more targ ern era, Jackie Robinson had electrified the s baseball with his dynamic, aggressive style we’re building their self-es and ferocious will, and through his courage forces the women to be ultr and dignity he had moved the nation for- of weak ward. Polls rated him second in popularity should push them out of the nes only to , and Life photographers COURTESY OF THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME Tha showed up to take family portraits a decade the girls: the before the Kennedys and the astronauts. going to pamper you; you Being Jackie Robinson’s daughter came with blessings to take car and challenges. “I learned very early on that I shared and your community my dad with the world,” Sharon says. Her father was a Sharon had known since she was a girl passionate civil-rights activist who marched with Martin that she wanted to work in a hospital Luther King Jr., and he instilled in his family an ethos of someda JOHN VECCHIO

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2.17_Robinson_FINAL.indd 34 5/17/17 11:29 AM lion kidsreachedbyBreakingBarriers:In t iftherewerebubblegumcards Remember baseball cards? Kids Remember baseballcards?Kids s daughter came with blessings s daughtercamewithblessings ted him second in popularity ted himsecondinpopularity yer inthemajorsmod hose numbers added up to hose numbersaddedupto tice . . . a hundred within tice .ahundredwithin ther in her face, can hear ther inherface,canhear t this is the daughter t thisisthedaughter wfully approachable wfully approachable ter five years. Sharon ter fiveyears.Sharon ter a minute you ter aminuteyou teals of home plate. teals ofhomeplate. aits a decade aits adecade professional professional hose num s numbers. s numbers. tion for- to laugh. to laugh. thos of thos of wo mil , first , first aphers aphers s un s skill s skill am am ers ers yle yle tin tin age age t age age t

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- - COURTESY OF THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME OF HALL BASEBALL THE OF COURTESY 2.17_Robinson_FINAL.indd 35 JOHN VECCHIO maternal grandmother, wholivedwiththefamily. (The watching soapoperaswith Dad,afternoons withher a normalchildhood:familydinners,gamesofMonopoly andlovedtoswim.Inball, andvolleyball, many ways itwas aware, asshegot older, ofthepressuretoachieve. shoved intoherlittle hands bystrangers withcameras, became Sharon, thegirl,middlechild,who’d hadbaseballbats never sure up? theiridentities,orownsuccess?Even Orestablish that shadows.How glowcast mea- and inevitably ever couldthey and herbrotherswereraised andfame, intheglowofexcellence Rachel, wasbeautiful,sophisticated, andaccomplished.Sharon histeawithherpinky.that shecouldsweeten Her mother, thethicknessofice. eachyeartotest the frozensurface father, whocouldn’tswimandwasafraid ofwater, walkingouton Sharon, andDavid —wouldskate oninwinter. Sharonrecallsher wasalake ontheproperty,There whichthekids—Jackie Jr., houseonsixwoodedacresinNorthStamford,. new the familyfromanintegratedIsland neighborhoodonLong toa season. To hisfamily’s protect privacy, Jackie Robinsonhadmoved the1956 frombaseball,after Sharon wassixwhenherdadretired andSharonlivesbythem. words areinscribedonhistombstone, ithasonotherlives,”in theimpact Jackie said.The Robinsonoften Sharon —toworkforsocialchange. “A except lifeisnotimportant andacommitment—“anongoing familymission,”service says someday (maybe it was all those hours someday (maybe itwasallthosehours that shewantedtoworkinahospital and yourcommunity.” to takecare ofyourfamily,church, going topamperyou;you’re going tohave pushthemout.W the girls:they That’s typically what Blackfamiliesdowith earlier.should pushthemoutofthenest of weakens themen.” Sharonlaughs. “We forces thewomentobeultra-strong andsort we’re butactually, buildingtheirself-esteem, it the status quo.We wantthemtobesafe.We think threat they’re thebigger to males asmoretargeted; intheBlackcommunity,cultural becauseweseethe or my father, they’re exalted,” Sharonsays. “Part ofitis everything. of adventurous, funny David. AndDad wasat thecenter pampered theboys:rebellious,sensitiveJackie Jr. and pushing hertowardcollege andacareer. her mother, apsychiatric nursewhotaughtat Yale, was and maybe writearomancenovelofherown.But even had always figured she’d marriedandhave get lotsofkids, sneak offwithhergrandma’s romancenovels.Sharon Doctors wastheirfa She was an athlete inhighschool.SheplayedShe wasanathlete soft- , To shy Sharon” herdad,shewas“sweet, he’d —sosweet, say, Sharon had known since she was a girl Sharon hadknownsinceshewas agirl it’s“My pro-male—whether motherisvery theboys Meanwhile, hermotherandgrandmother vorite.) Sharonwould Sometimes e’re not

was still coping with the trauma from her first marriage. copingwiththetrauma marriage. was still fromherfirst marriage wascollapsing,shemourningherbrother, andshe breaking thecolorbarrier, Sharonwasat alowpoint.Her second ofhis father wastobehonoredonthetwenty-fifth anniversary toheroin,diedinacarcrash atan addiction twenty-four. brother Jackie, andconquered atourinVietnam whohadsurvived her Sharonfoundthestrengthyear before toleave. in1971, Then, shattering weremarriedfora heralreadyfragile They self-esteem. else, hadbeenabusingherphysically andemotionallyfortwo years, toherparentsoranyone married ayoungmanwho,unbeknownst nursing.Alsothatto study year, herparents’wishes,she against watching TheDoctors),andin1968sheenteredH By thetimeof1972World SeriesinCincinnati, whereher oward University 5/17/17 11:17 AM Yet she cherished that moment in Cincinnati. The family H stood strong together, though her father, white-haired and Collins. I blind in one eye, appeared older than his fifty-three years. diffic His diabetes had advanced, and his heart was failing. Nine neighborhood, her marriag days after the tribute, Jackie Robinson died. parents’ par The funeral was held in New York at . novels and se gave the eulogy. No grave can hold this body She plans to write a down, he said. It belongs to the ages. In 1997 After her brother’s death, Sharon had watched her mother appear crumble and then put herself back together. Rachel Rob- Mets-Dodg inson, like her husband, was a fighter, and Sharon took her ball, and her mother and P cues from her mother’s resilience. same year She was grateful, too, that toward the end of her father’s From left: of educa life, she’d had a chance to spend some time with him Sharon, Jackie, lastic to crea talking about her future. Sharon was interested in women’s David, Rachel, After t and Jackie Jr. health and brought up the idea of going to medical school ter. H for obstetrics and gynecology. Her dad was delighted: it many hours in dimly lit birthing rooms, listening. And then came didn’t matter to him if she went or not; he was simply pleased the birth. “That’s what I miss the most — the touch, the feeling of that she had the faith in herself to consider it. a baby, of a new life coming out, and you’re there holding it and As it turned out, Sharon chose another path. At Howard she’d passing it to the mother. It’s incredible to see.” learned about midwifery, and the more she thought about it, the more she realized she didn’t want to do C-sections. She wanted to 1978 was another tumultuous year. Sharon got engaged, then be part of the entire birthing process. She wanted to be a midwife. pregnant, and then left her fiancé and moved back east, where Columbia’s School of Nursing had a graduate nurse-midwifery her son Jesse was born. She stayed at home with Jesse for a “W program. Established in 1955, it was the first of its kind in the year, and then, in the fall of 1979, she returned to Columbia to success on and off the field: cour nation. For Sharon, Columbia was ideal: a pioneering school in teach at the School of Nursing. persis an urban setting, where she could work with a diverse population. Jesse was everything to Sharon. He was not an easy child to cellence, She got in and got started. raise. He had dyslexia and ADHD, speech and hearing prob- to help kids overcome obs “It was a very exciting time, because women’s health care lems — “a whole host of things that required intervention,” includes an essa was changing,” Sharon says. “Women were getting basic rights Sharon says. “I found it challenging to handle all that as a honored a around contraception and abortion and childbirth itself: having parent.” After three years at Columbia, Sharon needed Sharon is also vice chair of the J more choice in how they delivered, having a voice in their care, the structure of a nine-to-five, so she took a job leading PUSH (JRF), a scholarship progr and bringing the family into the birth experience. That was all for Excellence, Jesse Jackson’s educational nonprofit for high- that her mother founded in 1973. M part of my era.” school students. cofounder and secre After graduating from Columbia, she got an internship at LA In 1987, while at PUSH, Sharon spoke to Ebony magazine for who a County Hospital. “It was one of the best internships in the coun- an article about whether having a famous name helps or hurts. “T try, with a massive amount of births, and I got a lot of experience In it, Sharon disclosed that she had gotten engaged in high and self-direc in six months. I had to deliver in all sorts of crazy circumstances. school because she wanted to change her name. “I didn’t realize plish. She doesn Sometimes the women delivered in the hallway.” She next joined it at that point,” she said, “but I wanted to be anonymous.” to be successful. a small home-birthing practice in West LA: when her beeper She kept her married name at Howard to avoid preferential T went off she’d ride her bike from her home in Venice to the treatment; it was imperative that she make it on her own. And Museum, scheduled to open in SoH moms-to-be in Santa Monica. “Midwives in this country started having seen what Jackie Jr. had gone through — the constant, artifac off in and rode horses,” says Sharon, who had a horse impossible comparisons — she had declined to name her son York Cit as a girl. “Think of it as the contemporary Kentucky midwife for Jack. But she soon reclaimed her Robinson name. As she told and we the beach folks.” Ebony: “Once you integrate it into your total being, it is a major T Her next stop was General Hospital, where she asset, especially in my case, because my father had a great deal ahead. “M dealt with pregnant teens. “That was my subspecialty: adolescent of respect from all kinds of people.” The Ebony writer told her her during this phase of her life,

health and working on self-esteem, since self-esteem had been she ought to write a book about her life. ROBINSON FAMILY COLLECTION ant I figure out such a big issue for me. I used my time with the teenager to help And so Sharon began carrying around a pad, jotting down her build confidence and let her know that part of being a good thoughts. “I wasn’t sure it would ever be a book; I was just The essa parent is being sure of yourself.” writing and doing research on what it means to be abused by adversit A good midwifery experience means you have a bond with the your spouse,” she says. “Then I figured if I could write that part, knows well. She has lupus (an autoimmune inflamma expectant mother from labor to delivery, Sharon says. She spent I could write anything.” ease) and high blood pressure. I

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2.17_Robinson_FINAL.indd 36 5/17/17 11:18 AM Her memoir, Stealing Home, came out in 1996 from Harper- Around that time, Jesse, then twenty-nine, got sick and fell into Collins. In it, she discussed her childhood, her family life, the a coma for two weeks. He was diagnosed with adult-onset type 1 diculties that came with integrating her all-white school and diabetes, like his grandfather. “It runs in my father’s family in the neighborhood, her marriages, her father’s politics, and her males,” says Sharon. “They get a very virulent form of diabetes parents’ partnership. She has since published two young-adult and heart disease. It had skipped a generation with my brother, novels and seven children’s books. and I knew my son was going to get it. I just knew.” She plans to write at least one more. Though Jesse survived the coma, his symptoms worsened. In 2013, he had a heart attack, which proved fatal. He was thirty-four. In 1997, the golden jubilee of Jackie Robinson’s history-shaping appearance on a ball field, Sharon attended the ceremony at a On , 2017, Sharon arrived at Dodger in Los Mets-Dodgers game at . Her son threw out the first Angeles, ten miles from Pasadena, where Jackie Robinson grew up. ball, and her mother and President Clinton gave speeches. That Seventy years had passed since that immortal day at same year, Sharon joined as vice president in Brooklyn when Jack Roosevelt Robinson in his white Dodgers of educational programming, teaming up with the publisher Scho- jersey strode pigeon-toed across the grass to the infield dirt. lastic to create a program for character development in children. Guests and dignitaries gathered in the left-field plaza: Sharon’s After twenty years in nursing, Sharon was ready for her next chap- mom, Rachel; Sharon’s brother David, who lives in Tanzania, ter. Her program, Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life, was born. where he runs a co’ee cooperative; the extended Robinson family; tening. And then came Jackie’s teammates Sandy t — the touch, the feeling of Koufax, , re there holding it and and ; Dave Roberts, the team’s first Black , now in ed, then his second year; Dodgers t, where part-owner ; “We introduce kids to nine values that I associate with my dad’s and Dodgers CEO ’76LAW. Nearby, blue curtains turned to Columbia to success on and o’ the field: courage, determination, teamwork, veiled a statue — the first ever for . persistence, integrity, citizenship, justice, commitment, and ex- On the count of three the curtains fell, revealing Jackie Robin- e was not an easy child to cellence,” Sharon says. “We use those values to provide strategies son, in bronze, sliding toward the plate, his right fist extended as to help kids overcome obstacles in their lives.” The curriculum he completes baseball’s most daring play: stealing home. includes an essay contest, for which two grand-prize winners are Sharon was grateful to have shared the moment with her honored at the All-Star Game and the . mother. These occasions are far more than celebrations. t Columbia, Sharon needed Sharon is also vice chair of the Jackie Robinson Foundation “Anniversaries let us focus not only on the past, but on where SH (JRF), a scholarship program for low-income students of color we are now,” Sharon says. “They help us see where we still need to tional nonprofit for high- that her mother founded in 1973. Martin Edelman ’66LAW is work hard to reverse the backsliding, and to move things forward. cofounder and secretary. The chair is Gregg Gonsalves ’89SEAS, They are moments of reflection, and not just for baseball.” magazine for who attended Columbia as a Jackie Robinson Scholar. ts. “The JRF is my mom’s baby,” Sharon says. “She is very powerful Sharon Robinson loves the water. She divides her time between and self-directed, and very clear in what she wants to accom- New York and Delray Beach, Florida. The beach in Delray is t realize plish. She doesn’t take on something that she’s not going to push beautiful; the water, healing. to be successful.” “I’ve been trying to figure out who I am since my son died,” This spring, the JRF broke ground on the Jackie Robinson Sharon says, matter-of-factly. Fortitude and grace su’use her; e it on her own. And Museum, scheduled to open in SoHo in 2019. It won’t be just there are no stats for that. tant, artifacts and baseball. “There’s no civil-rights museum in New Jesse had two children. Jessica is six, and Luke is eleven. They impossible comparisons — she had declined to name her son York City,” Sharon says. “We feel this museum will fill that gap, live in Massachusetts, and Sharon hopes to see more of them. s she told and we’re excited to get it done in my mother’s lifetime.” She’s been thinking more about the next phase of her life. te it into your total being, it is a major Though Sharon is dedicated to this work, she’s also looking “Slowly,” she says, “I’m beginning to visualize what that will t deal ahead. “My mother is ninety-four, and I’m very much supporting look like.” writer told her her during this phase of her life,” she says. “But I know it’s import- Her favorite time to walk the beach is sunrise, when the fisher- ROBINSON FAMILY COLLECTION ant I figure out my next phase.” men are setting out in their boats. A golden rim appears on the watery horizon — a crown, lifting as if for the first time — and the The essays for the Breaking Barriers contest are about facing world feels calm. t it means to be abused by adversity, and many of them center on illness — a topic Sharon “I have one more book I’m going to do for kids,” Sharon says, t part, knows well. She has lupus (an autoimmune inflammatory dis- peering into the future. She laughs, almost bashfully. “Then may- ease) and high blood pressure. In 2008 she had a bypass. be I’ll get to write some love stories.”

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