Leading OFF
Frank Robinson, baseball’s first black manager, dies at 83
Frank Robinson was royalty, a legend in the world of baseball. Despite his tremendous accomplishments on and off the field, it was as if his monumental role in baseball history had been forgotten.
Maybe now people will pay attention and realize Robinson was one of the most impactful figures in baseball history.
Robinson, a first-ballot Hall of Fame player who became the first African-American manager in baseball, died Feb. 7 at 83.
Robinson, who had been in hospice in Southern California for several months, was able to say farewell to many of his friends and family before his death.
Now, perhaps the public can pay proper respect to a man who had a dramatic influence on the game.
Few men have had a greater impact as a player, a manager and an executive than Robinson, who was so revered and respected that three franchises retired his uniform number 20 and erected statues in his honor.
“Frank Robinson’s résumé in our game is without parallel, a trailblazer in every sense, whose impact spanned generations,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “He was one of the greatest players in the history of our game, but that was just the beginning of a multifaceted baseball career. Known for his fierce competitive will, Frank made history as the first MVP of both the National and American Leagues, earned the 1966 AL Triple Crown and World Series MVP honors, and was a centerpiece of two World Championship Baltimore Orioles’ teams.”
Robinson, a 14-time All-Star, had a legendary career. He was the Rookie of the Year in 1956 when he hit a rookie-record 38 homers for the Reds, won the Triple Crown in 1966 with the Orioles and remains the only player to win an MVP award in each league (with the Reds in 1961 and the Orioles in 1966). He also led his teams to two World Series titles, winning with the Orioles in 1966, when he also was voted the World Series MVP, and in 1970.
Robinson, who had his greatest years with the Reds and Orioles, played 21 years in the major leagues before retiring in 1976 with 586 home runs. It was the fourth-highest total in baseball at the time, trailing only Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. The longest of those home runs came on May 8, 1966, when his 541-foot blast off Luis Tiant cleared Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.
“We were facing Luis Tiant, and he had thrown three straight shutouts,” Robinson said at a 2014 news conference. “I had never seen him before. The first pitch was a fastball down and in and I hit it. You know when you get one. You don’t know how far, but you know you got it.
“When I came into the dugout, the guys were saying that ball went completely out of the ballpark. I said, ‘Get out of my face. No way.’ They said, ‘Yes, it did.’
“When I went out to right field, the fans gave me a standing ovation. I thought maybe it did go out.”
He continued to influence the game long after retirement, though he became the first African-American to manage in the major leagues as a playermanager with the Indians in 1975. He also managed the Giants, becoming the National League’s first African-American manager, and later managed the Orioles, Montreal Expos and Nationals. He compiled a 1,065-1,176 (.475) record over parts of 16 seasons, winning the 1989 AL Manager of the Year award with the Orioles.
In Washington, Robinson said, one of his players asked him in 2005 whether he had played in the major leagues. It was then, he said he realized just how little attention players today pay to baseball history.
Robinson, the youngest of 10 children raised in Oakland, California, was a former high school basketball teammate with Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Russell at McClymonds High School and a former baseball teammate with former major leaguers Vada Pinson and Curt Flood.
Robinson became active in the civil rights moment in Baltimore after witnessing the city’s segregated housing and discriminatory real estate practices and in 2005 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. He was honored two years later with the first Jackie Robinson Society Community Recognition Award at George Washington University.
He spent the last 12 years working for the commissioner’s office mostly as a vice president and later as a senior adviser to Commissioner Rob Manfred.
In 2005, when Frank Robinson was in his first year as manager of the Washington Nationals, a young player casually asked if his 70-year-old skipper ever played in the majors.
That moment perfectly sums up why Robinson, a first-ballot Hall of Famer and slugger of 586 career home runs, might have been one of the most underrated great players in baseball history.
Playing in the same era as Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, Robinson didn’t quite have the homer totals the other superstars did, and he didn’t spend his entire career with one franchise.
But when he retired in 1976, he ranked fourth on the all-time home run list, behind only Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Mays (660).
For the benefit of that unnamed Nationals player, and the rest of the baseball world, here are five more reasons Frank Robinson, who died Feb. 7 at 83, was unique in his own right.
5) He is the only player ever to win MVP awards in both the National and the American League. The ultimate honor every season is the Most Valuable Player award. Robinson won it in 1961 as a member of the Cincinnati Reds when he hit .323 with 37 homers and 124 RBI.
After Robinson turned 30 in 1965, the Reds determined that he was on the downside of his career, so they traded him to the Baltimore Orioles that offseason.
Robinson made them pay for that mistake by having the best season of his Hall of Fame career in leading the Orioles to 97 wins and a World Series title. He was a unanimous choice for his second MVP.
4) He won the American League Triple Crown in 1966. Robinson could hit for average and he could hit for power. In that MVP season with the Orioles, he posted a .316 average, hit a career-high 49 home runs and drove in 122 runs.
In the 52 seasons since, only two other players (Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 and Miguel Cabrera in 2012) have led their league in all three categories.
But the numbers don’t quite tell the whole story. The 1960s were dominated by great pitching so the best hitters stood out even more. Four times during the decade, Robinson led the league in OPS+, which adjusts for era and ballpark.
In 1966, he had an OPS+ of 198, meaning he was almost twice as productive as the average player. His career OPS+ was 154.
3) He was one of the game’s most intense competitors. In the right-hand batter’s box, Robinson stood close to the plate, almost daring pitchers to throw inside. They did, but he didn’t back down.
Robinson led the league in being hit by pitches seven times in his 21 MLB seasons.
When the stakes were highest, Robinson was at his best. He had 10 home runs and a slugging percentage of .532 in 35 career postseason games. He was MVP of the 1966 World Series as the Orioles swept the Los Angeles Dodgers.
As a manager, Robinson didn’t tolerate players who disrespected the game.
In 1990 with the Orioles, he ejected one of his own players, removing catcher Mickey Tettleton for continuing to argue with the home-plate umpire between innings.
And during a pitching change in 2005 with the Nationals, reliever Tomo Ohka tossed the ball to Robinson as he was exiting the game. The skipper called his pitcher back to the mound so he could hand over the ball properly. Ohka never pitched another game for the Nationals and was traded less than a week later.
2) He had his uniform number retired by three major league teams. Unlike Aaron with the Braves and Mays with the Giants, Robinson was not identified with a single franchise.
He played 10 seasons in Cincinnati, winning the NL Rookie of the Year award, an MVP award and a Gold Glove and appearing in seven All-Star Games.
In his six years in Baltimore, Robinson was an All-Star five times and was in the top three in MVP voting three times. Those Orioles teams won four AL pennants and one World Series with him.
And in the final two seasons of his playing career, he also served as manager of the Cleveland Indians.
All three teams have erected statues in his honor and no one will ever wear his No. 20 in Cincinnati, Baltimore or Cleveland.
1) He was the first AfricanAmerican to manage an MLB team. Being a player-manager wasn’t the only significant thing about Robinson piloting those Indians’ clubs.
Perhaps his greatest legacy in baseball was paving the way for a generation of black and Latino managers to follow in his footsteps.
In his managerial debut in 1975, Robinson, still a competitor at age 39, wrote his own name on the opening-day lineup card against the New York Yankees, hitting second.
And in true Robinson fashion, in his first at-bat as playermanager of the Indians, he hit a home run.