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01-31-2019, 11:53 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-31-2019, 11:56 AM by
Mick.)
I always liked Frank Robinson. He played at McClymonds High with Vada Pinson and Curt Flood. He received death threats in the early parts of his career, and waved a pistol in a Cincinnati restaurant in 1965, causing him to be traded from the Reds to the Orioles. The GM of the Reds, Bill DeWitt, famously said "He's an old 30," when asked why he traded Robinson. The next year, Frank's first with the Orioles, he won the Triple Crown, was named AL MVP, and MVP of the world series when the Orioles beat the Dodgers in four straight. Frank hit two of Baltimore's four home runs in that World Series.
I have an interesting little anecdote involving Frank Robinson when he was manager of the Giants. In the early 1980s, the Giants would play an annual charity game against a local college, frequently Stanford. One or two of the Giants regulars would show up for the game. In 1983 or 1984, they played Santa Clara University, and one of the Santa Clara students -- a former catcher at St. Ignatius and played as a frosh at Santa Clara -- decided to play a little prank. He calls the SCU athletic director office and says that any game involving an NL team must have at least one NL umpire, even charitable games. The AD readily agrees, and the student shows up to the game in legitimate, current NL umpiring gear. The three WCC umpires are fawning all over this kid ("What's Mike Schmidt really like?") and they ask him if he wants to umpire behind home plate. The student -- who looked very old for his age -- "graciously" demurs and says he'll take third base, thinking he'll be safe there.
Lo and behold, there's a close play at third base, and the student makes the wrong call. Frank Robinson sprints out of the dugout and verbally tears the kid a new one. The student later told me "Up until that moment, it seemed like a really good idea."
Audaces fortuna iuvat
