R.I.P. Frank Robinson, age 83

F. Robby was one of the greatest players of my youth, and a top tier Hall of Famer.

He is the only player to win the MVP in both leagues, and he was the first African-American to become a major league manager.

He was a superstar even as he broke out of the gate with Cincinnati. He hit 38 homers with a .290 batting average in his rookie year, making him the unanimous choice as rookie of the year. He raised the ante to .322 the following year.

He was the NL MVP in 1961, which was a real show of respect, because some great players had great years in ’61. The early 60s in the NL may have been the greatest collection of top line talent in baseball history, especially in the outfield, and Robinson won that MVP against great years from Cepeda (.311 46-142), Clemente (.351 with power), Aaron (.327 34-120) and Mays (.308 40-123). (Imagine the outfield of Mays, Aaron, Clemente and Robinson. Which one would you bench? I’d play the other three and move Robinson to first base, where he played from time to time.) You’d think it would be hard to top winning an MVP against that talent pool, but his following year was better in every respect. He raised his OBP and slugging enough to lead the league in both, reached his highest HR total to that point, knocked in 136 runs, batted .342 and added a new dimension to his slugging – 51 doubles.

When the Cincinnati Reds traded him to the Orioles a bit later – a trade often considered the dumbest in history – he attacked American League pitching with ferocity, finishing his first AL season with 49 homers, and again leading the league in both OBP and slugging, and winning the Triple Crown. That won him his second MVP and his first World Championship, which included the World Series MVP trophy to sit on his mantel next to the regular season one. The Orioles were magnificent in that series against the Dodgers. The Dodgers had their vaunted 1-2 punch of Koufax and Drysdale on the mound, but it was the O’s pitching that shone, allowing the Dodgers only two runs in a four-game sweep. The O’s beat Koufax once and Drysdale twice. Robinson kicked off the sweep by hitting a homer off Drysdale in the very first inning of the Series. Robinson also sealed the sweep with another homer off Drysdale to account for the only run in the final game.

His second and final World Championship, in 1970, was the sweetest of all. A Robinson was the Series MVP that time as well – but that was the time for Brooks to shine. So why was it so sweet for Frank? He won it against the same Cincinnati Reds that had dumped him five years earlier!

What a career

One thought on “R.I.P. Frank Robinson, age 83

  1. Boy I hated that series. My first sports team was the Dodgers (I was living in the “Southland” when Vin Scully came West) and my Holy Trinity has pretty much always been Williams, Spahn, and Koufax. Given Rochester’s then AAA status with the O’s (and I have to love a team which basically divorced the evil troll Peter Angelos about 20 years ago) I ‘m guessing you loved it.
    But Frank Robinson was something else. The underrated member of the Mays-Mantle-Aaron-Mathews-Banks-FRobby group who came up in the early/mid 50s. Beat you so many ways it wasn’t funny (I always hated the Reds and it took me five years of living in team-less DC to get over the 66 WS as far as the O’s were concerned).
    And winds up being a pretty good manager. His managing of the “Why Not” O’s (improved by 31-1/2 games over the preceding legendarily bad year) is one of the best two or three I can remember – along with Alston in ’59 and (Dick) Williams in ’67. And the first Nats team had no roster right to be within 10 games of .500 but they went 81-81.
    There is an absolutely fabulous piece on him by Tom Boswell in today’s WAPO. Regarding Boz, It was a sad irony for years that DC had one of
    the very best baseball writers out there and no team. Continue to burn in hell, Bob Short.

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