World Series awakens memories for Robinson
At 95, Eddie Robinson is the last surviving player from the 1948 World Series champion Cleveland Indians.
That’s the year the Indians last won a World Series. A fact that’s not lost on Robinson, who after a successful playing career that included four All-Star appearances worked in the front office for a number of major league teams.
Robinson said he will be at home in Fort Worth, watching the 2016 World Series with keen interest.
“I’m just delighted,” Robinson said. “I’m really pulling for them. And even though the Cubs haven’t won in over 100 years, I still want Cleveland to win the World Series. I have so many memories of that year and they’re vivid memories. It would be nice to see them win again. I played with Tito (Francona), Terry’s fa-
ther, and that makes a big difference, too. Terry’s a very good manager.
“They’re going to play a powerful team. The Cubs just have a very fine team. Cleveland suffered some injuries that most teams would have folded, but they kept going, they made do, and Francona uses his bullpen like an expert. They may not have the firepower to beat the Cubs, but it should be a good series. Cleveland has a bunch of guys nobody has heard of. But they hung in there and it’s amazing what they have done.”
In a phone interview Friday, Robinson fondly recalled the 1948 Indians. The Indians were owned by Bill Veeck, also the team’s general manager, and led by player/ manager Lou Boudreau, who that year became the first shortstop in the American League to be named MVP.
The Indians defeated the Boston Red Sox in a one-game playoff at Fenway Park, and beat the Boston Braves to win the World Series in six games.
Six Hall of Famers
Cleveland went 97-58 in 1948 and played before 2.6 million home fans at Municipal Stadium. The roster was loaded with talent, including future Hall of Famers Boudreau, Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, Joe Gordon, Larry Doby and 41-year-old pitcher Satchel Paige.
“Has to be, 1948 was my favorite year. The pinnacle of my career,” said Robinson, who played for seven of the original eight American League franchises, and had a high of 29 home runs and 117 RBIs in 1951 with the White Sox. “Such an exciting season.
“We had a quartet that sang when the games were delayed. We used to sing around the clubhouse and at train stations. We would get on the speaker system at the ballpark and sing. We did all kinds of crazy things.”
Robinson’s salary in 1948 was $12,000. The most he made in a season as a player was $35,000, signing a $70,000 contract for two years over the 1953 season with the Philadelphia Athletics and 1954 with the Yankees, where Robinson was a teammate of Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra.
In 1948, the first baseman Robinson, at age 27, batted .254 with 16 home runs and 83 RBIs in 134 games. Cleveland won its first six games that year.
“The year was exciting from the beginning,” said Robinson, who was born in Paris, Texas, and began his professional baseball career in 1939. “We opened up at St. Louis, and we won (the four-game series) and Joe Gordon was my roommate, and I remember Joe getting in the taxi after we won our fourth game. He and I were going back to the hotel, he said, ‘Eddie, we’re going to win the pennant.’ And sure enough we did.”
But it wasn’t easy for the Indians, who were challenged all season by Boston and New York. The Indians’ starting infield in 1948 combined to drive in more than 400 runs.
Robinson said he was thankful for the career he had and the people in the game that he met, mentioning Nellie Fox, Lemon, Feller, Berra and Whitey Ford.
In 1,315 games over a 13-year playing career, Robinson had a lifetime batting average of .268 with 172 home runs and 723 RBIs. Robinson is the oldest living player to compete on a World Series-winning team and is the oldest living member of the Tigers, Yankees and Senators.
After his playing career ended in 1957, Robinson fulfilled a desire to be in player development and in the front office. In addition to being a player on the 1948 World Series champion Indians, Robinson was a consultant on two championship teams in Minnesota, one with Cincinnati and he received an American League championship ring with the Yankees in 1955. While working for the Kansas City Athletics, he drafted Reggie Jackson and Vida Blue.
In 1961, Robinson began working in the front office of the expansion Houston Colt .45s. He along with Paul Richards, Tal Smith and Grady Hatton were primarily responsible for evaluating players for Houston’s 1962 expansion draft.
“He had a long career in the game as a prominent front-line player for a number of years,” Smith said. “He was a good hitter with good power.
“He coached at the major league level and then he came over to Houston, and he got heavily involved after I left, in scouting and development. And then he went on to become a general manager and longtime player personnel consultant and evaluator.”
Here’s what Robinson, who also was general manager of the Braves and Rangers, on Friday had to say about some of the owners, general managers and players with whom he played.
• A’s owner Charlie Finley: “He had good ideas for baseball and a knowledgeable baseball guy. He wanted good players but ran the team on a shoestring budget.”
• Braves owner Ted Turner: “A man’s man. Misunderstood in ways, but I liked him.”
• Indians owner Veeck: “Was a great owner. He loved the players, the players loved him. And he paid good money.”
• Colt .45s general manager Richards: “He was my mentor and probably the smartest baseball person I was ever associated with.”
• Yankees great Mantle: “He was fun to be around, but he wasn’t a carouser when I was there. He loved his country music. Mickey was a great guy but my best friend on the team was Yogi.”
‘DiMaggio did it all’
Because he didn’t have the privilege of watching New York Giants center fielder Willie Mays of the National League much, Robinson said Yankees star Joe DiMaggio was the best overall player he saw and that the Boston Red Sox’s Ted Williams was the best hitter.
“DiMaggio did it all, he was a team leader,” said Robinson, who was born on Dec. 15, 1920. “When Ted Williams got in a batting cage, all the visiting players would watch him take batting practice. He was something to see.”
Most Indians fans weren’t alive when the Indians last won a World Series, 68 years ago. And they would cherish winning the series in 2016 against the Cubs, but Robinson said winning the A.L. pennant in 1948 seemed to outweigh winning the World Series.
“The World Series was kind of anticlimactic to the season,” said Robinson, who in 2011 wrote an autobiography, “Lucky Me: My Sixty-Five Years in Baseball.” “We got to the World Series, we had a load taken off our shoulders. Getting to the World Series was the big thing. And we did it. And we did it the hard way, but we did it.
“The World Series was important to win, of course. But it wasn’t the biggie like getting there.”
Robinson, who has been married to Bette 61 years, has lived in the same house off a golf course in Fort Worth 39 years. He also has owned a pecan farm in Bastrop the past 30 years.
“I have a wife that’s taken good care of me,” Robinson said. “Being happy at home tends to encourage longevity.”