With the MLB wrapping up its first month of the 2019 season, it is important to reflect on the recent passing of Frank Robinson, the first black manager in the league’s history, a 14-time All-Star and a man of true character.
After 63 years serving as a player, manager and various other roles in the MLB, Robinson passed away on February 7, 2019, of bone cancer at the age of 83.
A winner on and off the field, Robinson made his MLB debut at the age of 20 in 1956 for the Cincinnati Reds.
Although the unrelated Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier for baseball players in 1947, it was still an arduous task for most ballplayers of color to make it to the same level as their white counterparts.
By being signed to a minor league contract in 1953 at the age of 17, Robinson started playing Class C ball in Ogden, Utah.
According to his autobiography cited by the Society for American Baseball Research, Robinson’s first experience of institutionalized racism after growing up in racially diverse Oakland, California occurred in Ogden.
No restaurant or movie house in the state of Utah would allow black patronage at the time.
In 1954, Robinson was sent to play in Columbia, South Carolina, where segregation was the norm. Despite this, he claimed in his book that his time there was still better than being in Ogden.
After making his debut in 1956, Robinson won the National League Rookie of the Year and helped the Reds to their first winning season in 11 years. He went on to set many other major league records.
In a playing career that spanned 21 years, Robinson is the only player to date to win the MVP award in both the American and National Leagues. He has also won the Triple Crown and was awarded World Series MVP in 1966 with the Baltimore Orioles.
Robinson, like most young black men of his time, faced a lot of obstacles. His unwavering determination and single-minded approach to success as a player translated to him being chosen as the first black manager in league history with the Cleveland Indians in 1975.
While managing the Orioles in 1987, Robinson wrote a book describing the discrimination he faced as a player and the lack of black individuals in managerial and front office positions within the MLB.
Fourteen years after becoming the first black manager in baseball, Robinson became an assistant general manager of the Orioles in 1991. From then on, he would remain in the executive side of baseball before coming back for one last managing role with the Washington Nationals.
In 2015, Robinson was hired as an advisor to the commissioner’s office and did work as a special consulting in promoting equality.
Due to his leadership and contributions as a player and in the black baseball community, Robinson was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.
His impact on the game of baseball will always be felt in his constant fight to combat racism and to advance the prospects of black players and coaches.
Baseball will not be the same this year as Robinson will be missed as a great player and a better man.