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October 2, 2006

F. Robby

Y
esterday was Frank Robinson's last game as manager of the Washington Nationals. "F. Robby," as he was called in his playing days, was a personal favorite when I was young. I didn't know much about him except he hit and threw righthanded and played the outfield (as I did), and hit a homerun in the 1971 All Star game -- the first one I followed.

Robinson played 21 years in the majors, winning Rookie-of-the-Year honors in 1956 for the Reds and finishing as a player-manager for the 1976 Cleveland Indians, with stops in between at Baltimore, L.A., and California. In 1966, he won the Triple Crown in his first season as an American leaguer with the Orioles, leading them to the A.L. title and a shocking 4-game sweep of the Dodgers in the World Series, in which he was MVP.

He finished his Hall-of-Fame career with 586 HRs, an MVP award in both leagues (the only player to do that), a gold glove, 10 times finishing in the top 10 for average, 17 times in the top 10 in SLG, 13 times among the top 10 in runs, and 5 times in the top 10 in hits, 15 times in the top 10 in HRs, and 13 times among the RBI leaders.

His 17 seasons as a manager were not nearly as successful, never once finishing first. He managed Cleveland, S.F., Baltimore, and Montreal-Washington. He won manager-of-the-year honors in 1989 when he led the Orioles to a second-place finish in the A.L. East, 2 games behind a superior Toronto team on the cusp of two world titles. Though he never won a pennant, Robinson did something greater. He bore the burden of being baseball's first black manager.

Robinson was one of the great players during what I think was baseball's golden era. His departure reminds me again how much the economics, style, and quality of the game has changed in the 35 years I've been watching -- not for the better, I think.

Posted by shertaugh at October 2, 2006 1:10 PM

Comments

As a manager, Frank never went to the post-season. Much of his best managing was with very mediocre teams, like the Giants. Nonetheless, he was able to get more out of some of these teams than was expected. He also had the misfortune to manage the Baltimore Orioles during their 21 game losing streak, though he was not the skipper for the entire streak. I hope he gets at least a bench job for the coming season, as he deserves to remain in the game, and he probably wants to stay, too.

Posted by: pyamada@pomlaw.com at October 5, 2006 12:44 PM