Frank Robinson
Frank Robinson
Frank Robinsonis an American former Major League Baseballoutfielder and manager. He played for five teams from 1956 to 1976, and became the only player to win league MVP honors in both the National and American Leagues. He won the Triple Crown, was a member of two teams that won the World Series, and amassed the fourth-most career home runs at the time of his retirement. Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth31 August 1935
CityBeaumont, TX
CountryUnited States of America
Big home run. Big, big, big home run in the eighth inning. The other two were big, too.
Second pitch. Line drive off the center-field fence. Missed hitting a home run by a couple of feet. Double.
We felt like he's capable of doing it when he walks up to home plate on any given at-bat. He gave us a big one tonight.
What it becomes is that you expect something is going to happen because you keep losing, ... You're going to make a bad play, you're going to make a bad throw, you're going to give up a home run. You expect to lose. That's what it is.
I remember my first Opening Day very well. We lost 4-2 to the Cardinals on a two-run home run. I remember my first at-bat, a double, missed a home run by a couple of feet. I had an intentional walk and another hit and went 2-for-3, and I thought I was on my way to the Hall of Fame.
He could not push off the mound and he couldn't get his position, ... He was throwing straight up. He couldn't get down and drive toward home plate off of that knee.
If nothing else, your mindset is at ease. You have peace of mind. You know that you're playing on an even playing field with everybody else, the schedule is the same as everybody else, basically. You don't have that extra travel. You don't have those extra games tacked onto a road trip. You're not out on the road, away from your home base for 20-some days. It makes a real big difference. You can see it already here. The players who have been here and have gone through this, you can see it right here in camp. You could hear it in their voices on the telephone during the winter. Now, does that translate into wins on the field? Who knows.
Probably the most dramatic change in pitching I've observed in my years in baseball has been the disappearance of the knockdown or brushback pitch. This is why record numbers of home runs are flying out of ballparks, why earned run averages are soaring, and why there are so few twenty game winners in the majors.
I am not going to sit here and say he should hit 25 home runs and drive in 90 runs or whatever. That's not fair. But what he is doing, I knew he had the abilities to do these things.
When a guy is maybe on the lower end of the pain threshold, we have a tendency to maybe be a little critical of him and say what he should do and what he should be able to do. All I know is an individual knows himself and he knows what he is able to handle as far as pain is concerned.
We have to do whatever it takes right now, ... That's our rallying cry: whatever it takes. We have to put it together now. We can't win one, lose one, win one, lose two.
We had the ballgames. They were our ballgames to win, and we didn't finish them off.
We had the ballgames, ... They were our ballgames to win, and we didn't finish them off.
We chose not to give him an MRI. The physicals should include everything.