R.I.P. Frank Robinson

Forums:

image_1529.jpg

One of the greatest Orioles (and Reds before that).  

image_1528.jpg

 

Still the only player to be named MVP in both lgs (which is even more amazing in this day in age w players moving around as much as they do)

A true 5 star player (run, hit, hit for power, play D, and had a great arm)

 

RIP FRANK

 

 

Player/Manager with my Cleveland Indians

 

Here’s to you Mr. Robinson

We Giants fans have heard a lot about him over the years because the Giants announcing team of Dwaine Kuiper & Mike Krukow both played for him when he managed the Giants, and Robinson's name comes up often in their stories, usually in colorful ways.

He wasn't a very good manager for the Giants, but he was still a Giant and was one of the greatest players of all time.

On it goes.

I had dinner with Frank around 1963. He signed a ball for me along with Sandy, Brooks, Carl, Juan and some others. 

A bad ass on a team full of bad asses.

His Orioles were the shit in my youth.

RIP Frank

He was pretty much a shit head when I met him :)

Great player and one of the toughest- didn't take any shit from anybody- and played hard.

He stood right over the plate and led the league in HBP

And....with ALL those phenomenal stats...his biggest, greatest accomplishment will still be becoming the first African American manager in baseball...and to think it wasn't until 1975...not that long ago , folks...

Frank was never given the greatest of teams to manage.  In 1989, he almost led a very young Orioles team that had lost a MLB record 21 games in a row to start the previous season to the AL East title, and received the AL Manager Of The Year award.

My oldest brother got married in Milwaukee in late September that year.  We were staying at the Pfister Hotel in downtown, along with the Green Bay Packers who were playing a "home" game in Milwaukee and the Baltimore Orioles, in town to play the Brewers.  I remember sharing an elevator with the Pack's #1 pick, Tony Mandarich, and a couple of his floozie fangirls.  That dude was huge, and wound up being a bust in the NFL.  We caught one of the O's/Brewers games at County Stadium, and I remember the Milwaukee fans booing their rookie third baseman Gary Sheffield, who would get traded away to the Florida Marlins the next year and go on to have a great career as an outfielder.

The morning of the wedding, I was having breakfast with my folks in the hotel restaurant, and Frank Robinson happened to be at the next table.  My brother the groom to be, and a huge baseball fan, came down to say good morning to the family.  He was acting very cool, as if getting married was no big deal, but when he completely missed seeing Frank sitting next to us, I could tell he was a little off his game.