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the angels & mlb remember
dents as well as consulted with coaches and Legion and high school ball, led the Reds to their
athletes in multiple sports to introduce the first pennant in 21 years, though they lost a five-
“mental game” as part of their holistic training. game World Series to the Yankees.
He worked with musicians, heart surgeons, US Over the next four years Robinson’s Reds posted
Military cadets, hospice personnel and beyond. winning records, but failed to claim another pen-
As tributes poured in from around the world, nant, and in December 1965, Cincinnati GM and
the common thread was his kindness, compas- owner Bill DeWitt traded Robinson to the Orioles
sion, ability to listen, his lasting impact on indi- for a three-player package headlined by pitcher in memoriam
vidual lives and his ability to help others achieve Milt Pappas. The trade became one of the defini-
their dreams. Because he was non-judgmental, tive lopsided deals in baseball history.
accepting of all cultures and points of view, he In his first season with the Orioles, Robinson won
established immediate trust as he used his skills his second MVP award. He also won the Triple
in humanistic psychology to help people, athletes Crown by leading the American League in batting
or not, apply his teachings to everyday life. average (.316), home runs (49, a career high),
DUTCH RENNERT, a National and RBI (122). Robinson also led the A.L. in runs
League umpire from 1973 to 1992 scored (122), OBP (.410), slugging percentage
who was known for his animated (.637), total bases (367), and OPS+ (198). The
booming strike calls, passed away Orioles won 97 games and the second pennant
last June 17. He was 88. in franchise history, their first since moving to
Baltimore from St. Louis in 1954. In the World
Rennert was a long-time minor Series, the underdog Orioles swept the Dodgers
league umpire prior to his pro- for their first World Series title since the club was
motion to the National League in founded in 1901.
1973. He worked a total of 2,693
regular-season games, in addition to six N.L. Though Robinson played more than half of
Championship Series, three World Series – in his career games with the Reds, he’s most re-
1980, 1983 and 1989 – and two All-Star Games. membered as an Oriole, as Baltimore enjoyed
near-dynastic success in Robinson’s six seasons
Respected by players, Rennert was known for his with the club: four pennants, including three in
distinctive strike calls. He would step back from a row from 1969 to 1971, and two World Series
the catcher, turn toward one dugout in a crouch victories, including over Robinson’s former team,
or on one knee, extend his right arm and often the Reds, in 1970. When Robinson went into the
yell loud enough to be heard on a television or Hall of Fame in 1982, he had an Orioles logo on
radio broadcast. his plaque. When Robinson took his last at-bat in
FRANK ROBINSON, the Hall of 1976, he was fourth all time in home runs (586).
Fame outfielder and manager Robinson bounced around in the later years of
died in Los Angeles Feb. 7 at the his career, getting traded from Baltimore to the
age of 83. He won two World Se- Dodgers, where he played one season, and then
ries, played in three more, won from the Dodgers to the Angels to Cleveland,
the Triple Crown in 1966, and where in 1975 he was named player-manager,
became the first and so far only becoming the sport’s first black manager. (Nine
player to win an MVP award in years earlier, Robinson’s high school basketball
both leagues. Perhaps most im- teammate, Russell, became the first black head
portantly, he was the first black coach in any major American sport.)
manager in the big leagues, and left an indelible At Game 2 of the 1972 World Series, in his final
imprint on the game as a player, coach, and ex- public appearance before his death, Jackie Rob-
ecutive. inson famously implored Major League Baseball
Robinson, the youngest of 10 children, was born to end its managerial color line, and when Frank
in Texas in 1935 before he and his mother moved Robinson did that two and a half years later, Jack-
to the Bay Area when he was a young child. Rob- ie Robinson’s widow, Rachel, was in the stands
inson was a multisport star at McClymonds High for his first game, which Cleveland won thanks
School in Oakland, where he played basketball in part to a first-inning home run by Robinson
with Bill Russell and baseball with Curt Flood himself.
and Vada Pinson, before signing with the Reds Robinson lasted three years as Cleveland’s man-
in 1953. ager, and in 1981 he became the first black man-
Robinson was part of the first generation of ager in the National League when he took over
African American players to be developed en- the San Francisco Giants. His record as a manag-
tirely within the Major League Baseball pipe- er was mixed—in 16 seasons he never made the
line, rather than coming up through the Negro playoffs—and he had a losing record overall with
Leagues as his contemporaries Hank Aaron, Er- each of the four clubs he managed. Robinson,
nie Banks, and Willie Mays did. Robinson rose an outspoken and hard-nosed player, brought
through the minors quickly, and by age 20 was the same approach to his time as a manager. He
the National League’s Rookie of the Year, hitting won the A.L. Manager of the Year award in 1989
.290/.379/.558 with 38 home runs, tying Wally with the Orioles after improving Baltimore’s re-
Berger’s rookie record, a mark that’s since been cord from 54-107 to 87-75, and earned praise for
beaten only by Mark McGwire, Aaron Judge, and leading the Expos to winning records in 2002 and
Cody Bellinger. 2003, while the franchise was under league own-
ership and at its absolute rock bottom.
Five years later, in 1961, Robinson won the first of
his two MVP awards, hitting .323/.404/.611 with Robinson’s life in baseball is its own multigenera-
22 stolen bases in 25 attempts; that same year tional epic. He broke into the big leagues as MLB
he and Pinson, his old teammate from American was still adjusting to integration and recovering
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