Barrier-breaking Hall of Famer an MVP in National, American leagues
Reds, Orioles star later managed Montreal Expos
WASHINGTON • Decades before Frank Robinson became the Washington Nationals’ first manager in 2005, he had already had one of the most distinguished and trailblazing careers in baseball history. He was the first — and still the only — player to win the MVP award in both the National and American leagues, and in 1975 he became Major League Baseball’s first African-American manager.
He died Thursday at his home in the Bel Air neighbourhood of Los Angeles. He was 83. Major League Baseball announced his death but did not cite a cause.
Robinson burst into the national consciousness during his first season with the Cincinnati Reds in 1956, winning the NL’s Rookie of the Year Award. In 1961, he led the Reds to the World Series and won his first MVP award.
Robinson’s big league debut coincided with the final season of another celebrated Robinson — the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson, who in 1947 became the first black major league player in modern times. Even by 1956, several teams had not yet integrated; Cincinnati had fielded its first black player only two years earlier.
A powerful hitter, swift, graceful outfielder and hard-nosed competitor, Robinson was part of a generation of black players that dominated baseball in the 1950s and 1960s, including Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and Puerto Rico native Roberto Clemente.
“He brought tremendous power,” Tom Adelman, a baseball historian and author, said in an interview. “He was a really graceful fielder. He ran the bases really well.”
While batting, Robinson stood close to the plate, daring pitchers to throw inside and hit him.
“Pitchers did me a favour when they knocked me down,” he said. “It made me more determined. I wouldn’t let that pitcher get me out.”
On the bases, he was fast and aggressive, bowling over defenders who were in his way. He chewed out other players for mistakes.
He was controversial off the field, too, and had frequent quarrels with his team’s management. After receiving death threats early in his career, Robinson started carrying a gun. In February 1961, he displayed it in a restaurant when a man threatened him with a knife; Robinson was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.
The incident revealed a fissure in his relationship with the Reds. Bill DeWitt Sr., then the team’s general manager and later its owner, did not respond to a call for help from Robinson, who spent the night in jail and paid a $250 fine.
“A man learns from his stupidities,” Robinson said after the incident.
He then played as if he was trying to prove his point.
In 1961, he compiled a .323 batting average, hit 37 home runs and knocked in 124 runs while leading the Reds to their first National League pennant in more than 20 years. Cincinnati lost the World Series to the New York Yankees in five games.
In 1965, when Robinson belted 33 home runs and drove in 113 runs, DeWitt dismissed him as “an old 30,” a player past his prime, and traded him to the Baltimore Orioles.
Stung by the comment and determined to prove DeWitt wrong, Robinson had one of the greatest revenge-fuelled seasons in sports history. In 1966, he won the Triple Crown by leading the American League in batting average (.316), home runs (a career-high 49) and runs batted in (122).
Only two players have won the Triple Crown since. Robinson, who was named the league’s most valuable player, capped his 1966 season by homering twice in the World Series and won the series MVP award as the Orioles swept the Los Angeles Dodgers for the franchise’s first title. During his six seasons in Baltimore, Robinson led the Orioles to the World Series four times, winning twice.
When Robinson retired after 21 seasons as a player in 1976, his 586 home runs ranked fourth behind Aaron, Babe Ruth and Mays (he is now 10th on the all-time list). He finished his career with a .294 batting average and 1,812 RBIs (21st all time). He was named to the allstar team in 12 seasons and was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 1982.
In 1975, while still active as a player, Robinson was named manager of the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first African-American to hold the field general’s job. He went on to manage more than 2,000 games and was at the helm of the Montreal Expos when the franchise moved to Washington in 2005. He led the team during its first two seasons and also served as a longtime executive with Major League Baseball.
“Does anybody have as complex, as long and as distinguished a career as Robinson?” Rob Ruck, a University of Pittsburgh history professor and author of Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game, said in an interview. “If this guy had played in New York or L.A. or Chicago, more of baseball America would have been aware of that.”