Frank Robinson 1935-2019

Frank Robinson, about to crush some homers for the Baltimore Orioles.

One of the very best players in baseball history passed away yesterday. The great Frank Robinson was 83 years old. Throughout his long playing career, Robinson amassed numerous awards: Rookie of the Year, NL MVP, AL MVP, Triple Crown winner, 2-time World Series champion, first ballot Hall of Famer. Robinson also became baseball’s first African American manager, leading the Cleveland Indians in 1975. Robinson hung up his spikes after the 1976 season, but he remained in baseball his entire life, later managing the Giants, Orioles, and the Expos/Nationals. 

Robinson brought an intense competitive spirit to the diamond. Sportswriter Jim Murray memorably wrote that “Robinson always went into second like a guy jumping through a skylight with a drawn Luger.” (Needless to say, if he were still playing, Robinson would have some issues with the Utley Rule.) I’ve always felt that Frank Robinson was an underrated player. I know that sounds ridiculous—how can someone hit 586 home runs and be underrated? I think Robinson was somewhat overshadowed by Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. It’s really unfair to compare anyone to Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, and while Robinson falls short in the WAR comparison, at 107.3, compared to Aaron’s 143 and Mays’ 156.4, his slash line is very similar. (All stats according to Baseball-Reference.com)

Robinson: .294/.389/.537 OPS .926 OPS+ 154

Aaron: .305/.374/.555 OPS .928 OPS+ 155

Mays: .302/.384/.557 OPS .941 OPS+ 156

The lowest OPS+ that Robinson ever put up was 104, in his final season, 1976, in which he played just 36 games. His next lowest OPS+ was 118, in 1958. Robinson had one of the greatest single-seasons ever in 1966. In December of 1965, Robinson was traded from the Cincinnati Reds to the Baltimore Orioles for Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun, and Dick Simpson. (Side note: Milt Pappas was actually a pretty good pitcher. He won 209 games and came within a strike of pitching a perfect game in 1972.) All Robinson had done for the previous decade was obliterate National League pitching, so why were the Reds dealing him? Well, in the words of General Manager Bill Dewitt, Robinson was “an old 30.” These words no doubt added fuel to Robinson’s already substantial competitive fire. In his first year with the Orioles, Robinson won the Triple Crown, leading the American League in home runs, RBI, and batting average. Not content to merely dominate the league in three prime statistical categories, Robinson also led the league in runs scored, on base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+, total bases, and sacrifice flies. Robinson won the AL MVP, making him the first and only player to date to win the award in both leagues. The Orioles won the American League pennant that year, and faced the heavily favored Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. The Dodgers had a formidable 1-2 pitching punch with Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. However, the Orioles swept the Dodgers in four games. The score of Game 4? 1-0. How did the Orioles score that one run? On a Frank Robinson solo homer off of Don Drysdale. For his timely hitting, Robinson was awarded the World Series MVP. 

I met Frank Robinson once, at a baseball card show in 2013. He was very nice, easy to talk to, but a little intimidating all the same. He made eye contact with me a couple of times as I was standing in line—one guy was having trouble getting his cell phone to take a picture and Frank gave me an exasperated look like “You see what I have to deal with?” I also corrected the guy in front of me when he was talking about Frank’s 573 home runs. As Frank was signing the guy’s photo he looked at it and said, “Look at those guns, wow!” When I met Frank I told him he was one of my favorite players and I wish I could have seen him play. He said “You were born too late! You should have been born 20-30 years earlier. But if you’d been born then, you’d be old now like me.” I told him, “You’re not old,” and he gave me a funny look. I guess what I meant to say was “You’re only as old as you feel,” or something like that. So that was my interaction with the great Frank Robinson. I’m just happy I never had to pitch to him.