There Was Only One Frank Robinson

To tell the story of Frank Robinson’s influence on Major League Baseball, one need only look to the people who came to his memorial service when the Orioles Legend passed away in 2019.

Beyond current commissioner Rob Manfred and former commissioner Bud Selig, and a host of Hall of Famers including Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Hank Aaron, Ken Griffey, Jr., Dave Winfield, Reggie Jackson, Joe Torre, and Robin Yount, there was Dusty Baker, Manny Acta, Bo Porter, and Jerry Manuel – all former Major League managers, all minorities – who succeeded Robinson, the first African American manager in baseball history.

Frank Robinson was often described as a fierce, intense competitor, and a stickler for detail. He could be gruff at times, to be sure, but underneath was a welcoming giant of the game. Few people poured their life into baseball as he did for 66 years.

While there may be more revered players in club history, there was never a better ambassador of the black and orange than Frank Robinson. And few bled black and orange the way he did.

When he passed away on February 7, 2019 at the age of 83, the magnitude of Robinson’s career was felt across the baseball community and filled pages of stories in his honor.

There are the numbers: a career .294 batting average; 586 home runs (10th all-time); 1,821 RBI (21st); 1,829 runs scored (16th); 2,943 hits (35th).

There are the honors: National League Rookie of the Year with the Reds; NL Most Valuable Player in ’61; the Triple Crown and American League MVP in his first season with the Orioles in 1966, when he also was named World Series MVP; 14 All-Star Games, including All-Star Game MVP in ’71; a Gold Glove, and so many more.

He is the only player to win MVP awards in both leagues; one of two players (along with Brooks Robinson) to be named league, All-Star, and World Series MVP during their career; the first to hit All-Star Game homers in both leagues. Three teams – the Orioles, Reds, and Indians – retired his number, and each erected a statue at their ballpark to honor him.

Fierce competitor? He was hit by a pitch 198 times. He led his league in hit-by-pitches seven times; 11 other times he ranked among the top 10.

Even with the numbers, Frank Robinson was the most overlooked and underrated superstar in baseball history. People gushed about the likes of Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Roberto Clemente and others, and all while Robinson was leading his teams to victory and put up numbers that rivaled or surpassed his contemporaries.

A stickler for detail? When he became the Majors’ first African American manager in 1975 with the Indians, it wasn’t because he was black. It was because he had prepared for it. He had spent several years managing in the Puerto Rican Winter League to prepare for the opportunity – while he was still an active player – and served as player-manager for two seasons with Cleveland.

Intense? Being the first black manager “meant the door’s open,” Robinson told ESPN’s Outside the Lines in 2016. “But how long the door would stay open depended on basically the way I conducted myself and the success that I would have.”

No wonder then that Acta, Baker, Manuel, and Porter were at his service. So was the first African American player-coach in the NBA, Boston Celtics Hall of Famer Bill Russell – coincidentally, a basketball teammate of Robinson’s at McClymonds High School in Oakland, Calif.

Robinson managed four different franchises over a total of 16 years, winning Manager of the Year with the Orioles in 1989 when he led the team to a second place finish after the team won only 54 games the previous season. He is the only Manager of the Year to have been both a Rookie of the Year and league MVP.

He also is the only person to play, coach, manage, and serve as a front office executive for the Orioles. And he was instrumental in shaping some of the design elements of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, particularly about the asymmetrical outfield dimensions, foul territory, the dugouts and the clubhouse.

Robinson later spent 12 years as a vice president for the commissioner’s office, serving in several roles focused on increasing African American participation in the sport. He served as the Executive Vice President of Baseball Development under Selig, and was a senior advisor to commissioner Manfred at the time of his death.

Robinson was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 1982, overshadowed even then by the man he entered with, Hank Aaron. Although he spent 10 years with Cincinnati and six with Baltimore, he went into Cooperstown wearing the Oriole bird on his hat. Winning four American League pennants in six seasons trumped his time with the Reds, especially after their owner, Bill DeWitt, traded him for being “an old 30” to the Orioles prior to the 1966 season.

Robinson took an active role in the civil rights movement when he came to Baltimore, after witnessing the city’s segregated and discriminatory housing practices. He would remain active in civil rights causes to the end, promoting the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities and Urban Youth Academy programs to increase the base and opportunities for minorities in baseball. In 2005, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. He was honored by the National Civil Rights Museum with the Freedom Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2014.

“Frank was about winning, and when we won with him, we won something more than baseball games. We won as people,” his former teammate, Orioles Legend Brooks Robinson, told those gathered at Frank’s memorial service. “Just knowing him was a win. I’m a better man for having known him.”

The same could be said for everyone who knew him. There was only one Frank Robinson.He is still the only player to win the MVP in each league.