Remembering Frank Robinson - Part 2

This is the second part of my tribute to Frank Robinson, my personal favorite baseball player who died of bone cancer this past February 7^th.  In remembering him, I will always think about 1966.  That year, I got the opportunity to see him play in person.  And more importantly, after being defined as “past his prime” and traded, Frank Robinson had the best year of his career.

The Baltimore Orioles did not have a strong history with African-American players since coming into the American League in 1954 when a group of Baltimore investors bought the failing St. Louis Browns franchise and moved it to the city by Chesapeake Bay.  The team followed the American League’s slow pace of racial integration in the 1950s.  Despite building a strong minor league system, the Orioles’ had not developed an African-American star player.  Joe Durham and Jehosie Heard, in 1954, were the first African-Americans to play for the Orioles; both having only brief non-impactful careers. Two former Negro League players had solid seasons with the Orioles in the late 1950s.  Pitcher Connie Johnson won 14 games in 1957 and first baseman Bob Boyd hit .300 three consecutive seasons (1956 – 1958).  In the early 1960s outfielder Sam Bowens had one good season, 1964, hitting 22 home runs in 139 games.  But despite that history, after finishing 3^rd the previous two seasons, Baltimore Orioles’ management believed acquiring Frank Robinson could put them over the top in 1966.  He hit a double his first At Bat in spring training starting a magical season that would prove them correct.

On May 27^th that year, while sitting in the upper deck bleachers far down the right field line at the Kansas City Athletics’ Municipal Stadium, I cheerfully saw Frank Robinson take his right field position; I saw the strut.   In his first At Bat, he crowded the plate just as I had seen him do on TV; challenging the pitcher.  In the 4^th inning he got hit by the pitch, one of the 198 times of his career.  The next game I attended when the Orioles came to town Robinson did not get a hit, but the talk of him winning the Triple Crown had begun.  Each day I looked at the newspaper baseball box scores to check his progress.  Robinson finished ahead of 4-time American League home run champion Harmon Killebrew 49 to 39.  He finished ahead of Tony Oliva, who had won the American League batting title the last two seasons, .316 to .307.  With also leading the League with 122 RBI, Robinson won the Triple Crown.

My high school drafting teacher brought a TV to watch the World Series.  From my front row drafting desk I saw Frank Robinson’s 1^st inning two run home run off Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitcher Don Drysdale that set the tone for the Orioles’ four games sweeping of the Series.  He hit another home run off Drysdale to win Game Four.  Named American League Most Valuable Player in 1966, Robinson is the only one to receive MVP honors in both leagues, winning it while with Cincinnati in 1961.  During Robinson’s time in Baltimore, the Orioles also won American League pennants in 1969 – 71 and were World Series champions in 1970.

Frank Robinson’s autobiography is called “My Life is Baseball” (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 1975).  That title reflects a true picture of his relationship with the game.  Near the end of his playing career in 1974, he became the first African-American manager in Major League Baseball.  The Cleveland Indians were the first of four teams in Robinson’s 16 year career as a manager, 1,065 wins and 1,176 losses.  He had the reputation as having a “hard-nosed”, “old school” approach at managing, although he did mellow in the in the way he handled players as he got older.   I remember Robinson’s competitive spirit on display when seeing the Indians play the Kansas City Royals in 1975.  Throughout the National Anthem, Robinson jawed back and forth with the home plate umpire while they both looked up at the flag.  He had his critics, but also gained the highest respect and esteem in the Major League Baseball community for his overall accomplishments in the sport.  During his career, Frank Robinson served as a batting coach, an outfield coach, a consultant for club owners, and held positions in the Office of Major League Baseball.

I will miss my favorite baseball player.  Playing on my high school’s first baseball team the spring of 1967 and throughout the amateur summer leagues, I chose # 20 as my uniform number.  I still have his 1959, 1960, 1964 Topps baseball cards (lost 1965s) and also the Post Cereal Frank Robinson cards for 1961 – 63.  I still have memories of that 1966 season.  Also, I still have that vision of my first seeing of him circling the bases after that home run in the 1959 All-Star Game.  Frank Robinson had the run, that strut, I will never forget.

All images used for this post were taken from internet web sites