Simon told The Associated Press on Tuesday that her family was friendly with Jackie Robinson's family when she was a girl and that the Brooklyn Dodgers star used to bring her to games and call her his "lucky charm."
Simon says she found the classic baseball tune, which she originally recorded for Ken Burns' documentary "Baseball," "pretty enchanting" and even tried to write her own baseball number about her daughter playing centerfield. "I really should finish it," said Simon, 66, whose hits include "You're So Vain" and "Anticipation."
Simon's father, Simon & Schuster co-founder Richard Simon, helped Robinson buy a house in Stamford, Conn., in the mid-1950s, at a time when the community resisted letting blacks live there. She remembers Robinson, the major league's first black player, as "gentle and ardent," a kind man who was passionate about "fair treatment for everybody" and a competitor who "played tennis like nobody else."
Robinson died in 1972, but Simon remains close to his widow, Rachel Robinson.
"She's a fantastic spirit," Simon said. "And she's very vigilant about Jackie's legacy."
