Sick vandals painted a swastika and racial slurs on a statue of Brooklyn Dodger icons Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese at MCU Park in Coney Island, officials said.
Brooklyn Cyclones officials made the disturbing discovery outside the MLB minor-league stadium when they arrived at the park yesterday before an 11 a.m. game.
Cops said the vandals struck between midnight and 6 a.m., scrawling the words “heil Hitler,” “die n—-r,” “F–k n—-r” and “F–k Jackie Robinson and all n—-rs.”
Crews worked to clean the base of the statue, but were forced to cover the graffiti with duct tape and netting after struggling to remove the paint in time for the first pitch of the game between the Cyclones — the first professional baseball team in Brooklyn since the Dodgers shipped off to Los Angeles in the late 1950s — and the Connecticut Tigers.
The statue shows Reese with his arm around Robinson, and commemorates the moment at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field when Reese, playing before his family, showed his solidarity with the man who integrated modern-day baseball in 1947.
The teams were playing on Camp Day, which attracted thousands of children.
“We did our best to cover it up to try to avoid exposing it to the kids,” said Billy Harner, the team’s director of communications.
“It’s a symbol of equality and tolerance, and for someone to do that, it’s just mind-boggling.”
Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime, officials said.
The statue was erected in 2005, four years after the Cyclones’ new stadium opened.