Robinson played for five teams, with his best seasons with Cincinnati and Baltimore and won the 1966 Triple Crown in his first season with the World Champion Orioles.
Robinson was the first player to win the MVP award in both leagues (1961 Cincinnati and 1966 Baltimore), made the All-Star team fourteen times and hit 586 home runs in an era filled with dominant pitchers.
Robinson is also remembered for being the first African-American manager in the big leagues with the Cleveland Indians in 1975, a post he held until midway through the 1977 season.
Robinson would later manage the Giants, Orioles and the Expos/Nationals, piloting the Expos through their final three seasons in Canada and the Nationals first two years in Washington.
As a player. Robinson was always thought of as a great one in his time but often wasn't thought of first among his peers.
That is far from an insult considering those peers were players named Mays, Aaron, Clemente to name just a few, but it shows that not only did Robinson play in smaller cities and that he wasn't always the most media-friendly player either.
Still, Robinson was a player and manager for that matter, that didn't suffer fools lightly and it showed.
One of the major issues with Robinson in managing the Indians (besides the Indians being an average team at best) was his dealings with Gaylord Perry, who was the best player that the Indians had at the time and Perry was eventually dealt to the Rangers before Robinson's first season was complete.
Robinson's hiring was a major news story with the above cover of the monthly SPORT magazine shows (Wearing the hat that I hope the Indians would consider using with the absence of Chief Wahoo) at the time as his hiring gained far more publicity than a lower division team in Cleveland would have received.
The 1956 Rookie of the Year, Robinson slugged 38 homers and would only hit less than 29 homers once in his first twelve years in the league (21 in 1963), but yet isn't always remembered as a master of the long ball despite his career numbers and the as noted 586 career homers.
Robinson was a better runner than is recalled as he finished with double figures in steals in nine of his first ten seasons in an era where the stolen base was not nearly as common as it would become in the artificial turf era.
Robinson won the 1961 MVP with a dominant season (.323 37 HR 124 RBI and a career-high 22 steals to lead the Reds to what would be their only pennant between 1940 and 1970, but what isn't always remembered is Robinson's follow-up campaign in 1962 when he exceeded his MVP season (.342 39 HR 136 RBI and a league-leading 51 doubles), but finished only fourth in the MVP voting.
Following the 1965 season at Crosley Field that saw his typical strong statistics ( .296, 33 HR and 113 RBI), Robinson, at the age of 30, was traded to Baltimore for three players, most notably pitcher Milt Pappas with one of the most memorable quotes by a GM ever as Reds general manager Bill DeWitt claimed that Robinson was an "old 30".
Robinson led Baltimore to the World Championship as he won the Triple Crown with Pappas, a solid, but far from an elite pitcher, winning 28 games in the two seasons that he spent in Cincinnati.
Baltimore would win the American League for three seasons in a row from 1969-71, winning the 1970 Series in five games over Robinson's former club in Cincinnati.
Following the 1971 series in which the Orioles lost in seven to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Robinson was again at the center of a puzzling trade.
Robinson hit well at 35 for Baltimore in 1971 (.281, 28 HR 99 RBI), but was traded to the Dodgers for a four-player package headed by pitcher Doyle Alexander, who would be part of another memorable trade 16 years later when Alexander was traded to Detroit by Atlanta for a minor leaguer.
Alexander would win nine games without a defeat to help the Tigers down the stretch to win the American League East title, but the minor leaguer was Hall of Famer John Smoltz.
Robinson would struggle in his lone season as a Dodger as he hit only .251 (19 homers) in 103 games and feuded with manager Walter Alston.
Robby would bounce back with 30 homers in a season spent as the DH for the California Angels in the initial year of the position.
Robinson would be traded to Cleveland late in 1974 with the surprising Indians on the edge of contention until September and would be named player/manager to start the 1975 season.
Robinson started himself as DH to start the season and wearing those fire engine red uniforms of the time, hit a home run on Opening Day before hitting only .237 with nine homers in 118 at bats.
Robinson would bat 67 times in 1976, adding three homers to his final stats before concentrating on managing the Tribe.
Robinson was the opposite as expected, relating well to the younger players such as Dennis Eckersley, Rick Manning, and Duane Kuiper, but battled with veterans such as Gaylord Perry, John Ellis and Rico "The Big Man" Carty.
Robinson would fare better in future managing stops, often when teams least expected it as he kept the 82 Giants in the NL West race until late in the season, finished second with the 89 Orioles after they had won only 54 games the season before and finished second with the league-owned and shoestring budget Expos in 2002.
Frank Robinson also might have the record for most statues outside stadiums ( I didn't check anyone else!) as he has statues of his likeness outside the parks in Cincinnati, Baltimore and Cleveland.
One of the toughest players of his time and one of the best ever, it's hard to believe that you can be in the Hall of Fame with tremendous performance and still be underrated, yet that is the legacy of Frank Robinson, who might be remembered best simply as a ballplayer that doesn't come along every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment