ROBINSON, Frank

(b. 31 August 1935 in Beaumont, Texas), one of the greatest baseball players of the twentieth century, the first athlete named as the Most Valuable Player for both the National and American Leagues, and the first African American to manage a major league team.

Robinson was the youngest of ten children. His father, Frank Robinson, deserted the family when Robinson was young, leaving his mother, Ruth Shaw Robinson, to raise the children. When Robinson was four, the family moved to the San Francisco Bay area of California, where they eventually settled in Oakland. Robinson was an athletic child, and he blossomed under the coaching of George Powles, the local baseball coach who also worked with Curt Flood and other future professional baseball players. Robinson excelled for Powles's American Legion baseball club and at McClymonds High School. After graduating from high school in 1953, he signed with the Cincinnati Reds for a $3,500 bonus.

In his first year of minor league baseball, Robinson was sent to Ogden of the Pioneer League for the 1953 season. Although the team was based in Utah, Ogden still had many discriminatory regulations in place that Robinson had never seen growing up in Oakland. For the bulk of the next two seasons, Robinson played for Columbia of the Class A South Atlantic League and established his credentials as a major league prospect. In 1956 Robinson made the leap to the Cincinnati Reds and responded with an excellent season. He batted .290 with thirty-eight home runs, establishing a rookie National League (NL) record for home runs, and winning the Rookie of the Year award.

During the course of his career, Robinson mostly played outfield and first base, although he did play third base on occasion. While he continued to hit well for the Reds, his finest year with that organization was in 1961, when the Reds won the NL pennant. Robinson won the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) award with a .323 average, 37 home runs, and 124 runs batted in (RBI). On 28 October 1961 Robinson married Barbara Ann Cole; they had three children. After having an even better season in 1962, his offensive production began to wane. Even though he remained one of the best power hitters in the league, Robinson quickly fell out of favor with the Cincinnati management and despite being only thirty years old, Robinson was written off by the Reds and traded to the Baltimore Orioles in December 1965, in time for the 1966 season.

In Baltimore, Robinson rejuvenated his career, immediately leading the Orioles to the World Series in 1966. During the regular season Robinson batted .316 with 49 home runs and 122 RBI, winning the American League (AL) triple crown. He was a natural choice for the MVP as well, becoming the first player to win the award in both leagues. Although his batting average slipped over the following years, Robinson was a critical member of the pennant-winning Orioles teams in 1969 and 1971 and the World Series team in 1970. In December 1971 Robinson was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers and played with them for one season. In November 1972 he was traded again, this time across town to the California Angels; he played with the Angels for the 1973 season and most of the 1974 season.

While Robinson was still contributing as a player in the 1970s, including hitting thirty home runs for California in 1973, he set his sights on maintaining an active role in baseball following his playing career. Robinson made numerous public comments about his desire to become the first African American to manage a major league team. While the African-American former players Larry Doby and Buck O'Neil served as coaches in the majors, the lack of management opportunities for African Americans was as real as in the years before 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color line for players.

To build his credentials and skills, Robinson succeeded Earl Weaver, the Orioles manager, as the manager of the Santurce Crabbers of the Puerto Rican Winter League for the 1968–1969 season. The Crabbers were the winter team of many Latin American major-and minor-league players as well as others that needed to continue work in the off-season. During Robinson's first year as the manager, the team included his Orioles teammates Paul Blair and Jim Palmer and qualified for the playoffs. He had a number of successful years, including the playoff championship in the 1972–1973 season, and managed the team through the 1974–1975 season. He also managed them in the 1979–1980 and 1980–1981 seasons (a total of nine seasons).

In September 1974 Robinson was traded to the Cleveland Indians and at the end of the season was named the player-manager for the upcoming 1975 season, becoming the first African American to manage a major league team. During his first game as a player-manager, he hit a home run in the Indians win over the Yankees at home in a game attended by Rachel Robinson (Jackie Robinson's widow) and the commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Cleveland improved slightly under Robinson as they finished 79–80 in 1975 and 81–78 in 1976. Some felt that Robinson, as one of the best players in baseball, had little tolerance for less-talented players. He played sparingly over those two seasons, putting a cap on a career that saw him hit 586 home runs (fourth on the all-time list) and 1,812 RBI.

Robinson gave up the player-manager title in 1977, focusing solely on his role as a manager. However, after the team started the 1977 season 26–31, he was fired, returning to the Orioles as a coach for his old manager Earl Weaver. He remained in Baltimore until he was named as the manager of the San Francisco Giants (1981–1984). His best season with the Giants was 1982, when they went 87–75. Also in 1982 Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was fired as the Giants manager during the 1984 season and was rehired as a coach with the Orioles.

In April 1987 Robinson was the most vocal critic of the Dodgers general manager Al Campanis and his remarks that African Americans "lacked the necessities" to manage in the major leagues. Robinson earned his third opportunity to manage a major league team shortly thereafter when the Baltimore manager Cal Ripken, Sr., was fired after starting the 1989 season 0–6. Robinson took over the team, but unfortunately they proceeded to lose the next fifteen games in a row, giving the 1983 World Series champions a 0–21 start. The Orioles bounced back the next season and finished only two games behind the Toronto Blue Jays, the AL East Division winners. The team's turnaround earned Robinson the AL Manager of the Year award.

In 1991, after a slow start, Robinson was moved from Baltimore's manager to the assistant to the general manager, where he evaluated players and other baseball-related decisions. In 2000 he moved to the Major League Baseball headquarters as the vice president of on-field operations, assuming a large number of the disciplinary tasks formerly maintained by the league presidents.

Robinson's baseball career is remarkable in that he made tremendous contributions both on and off the field. On the field Robinson was one of the game's best power hitters, ending his career tied for fourth on the all-time home run list. Off the field he was a respected manager who broke the color barrier and who served with distinction as an executive with the Baltimore Orioles and Major League Baseball.

Information about Robinson can be found in the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, New York. Robinson wrote three books about his life and career: with Al Silverman, My Life in Baseball (1968); with Dave Anderson, Frank: The First Year (1976); and with Berry Stainback, Extra Innings (1988). See also Russell J. Schneider, Frank Robinson: The Making of a Manager (1976), and Thomas Van Hyning, The Santurce Crabbers: Sixty Seasons of Puerto Rican Winter League Baseball (1999).

Corey Seeman