Frank Robinson 1935-2019

Frank Robinson passed away last week and with that the world of baseball lost a true legend.

When I saw last week that he'd passed away, I felt like I should do a tribute post. Others have already chipped in with their tribute posts so I may be a bit late to the party here but I figure it's appropriate, especially for a man that began his career with the Reds. I wanted to attempt to take a bit of a different approach and cover his playing and managerial career in card form.

Robinson signed with the Reds as an amateur free agent before the 1953 season. Before debuting with the Reds in 1956, he spent three years in the minors playing for the Ogden Reds, Columbia Reds, and Tulsa Oilers. This was a time before minor league baseball is what we know is at today where AAA is the highest level.

When Robinson debuted with the Reds in 1956, he made an immediate impact, not only winning the Rookie of the Year award but also making the All-Star team and finishing 7th in NL MVP voting. Throughout his Reds career, he made 6 All-Star teams (including 1956), finished in the top ten of MVP voting 6 times and winning once in 1961. He also won a Gold Glove in 1958 and was a part of the 1961 Reds team that surprised everyone by making a run to the World Series only to get thwarted by the Maris and Mantle Yankees. Then, in December 1965, the Reds made one of the worst trades in history, sending Robinson to the Orioles for Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun, and Dick Simpson.

Despite Robinson only being 29 at the time of the trade the Reds general manager felt Robinson's best days were behind him, according to various literature that I've read. Robinson would prove that theory wrong and continued to tear it up in Baltimore and won the AL MVP award in his very first season. He made the All-Star team in five of his six seasons with the Orioles (1968 being the lone exception) and also never finished lower than 11th in MVP voting in those same five seasons. He also won two World Series rings in 1966 and 1970, defeating his former team, the Reds, in 1970.

Image courtesy of COMC.com

After the 1971 season, Robinson was traded again, this time over to the Dodgers in exchange for Doyle Alexander, Bob O'Brien, Sergio Robles, and Royle Stillman. In his lone season in Dodger blue, he hit .251 with 19 HRS, and 59 RBIs in 103 games. That 1972 Dodgers team finished a respectable 85-70 which was good enough for 2nd place in the NL West, 10.5 games behind the Reds.

Just short of a year to the day when the Dodgers acquired him the previous off-season, they traded him up I-5 to the Angels as part of a six-player deal that netted the Dodgers Ken McMullen and Andy Messersmith. The majority of Robinson's stint with the Angels was that of the newly minted DH position and still played a handful of games in the field. Despite being nearly 40, he still finished 15th in AL MVP voting in 1973 and made his final All-Star team in 1974.

At the tail end of the 1974 season, the Indians acquired Robinson in exchange for two players and cash. Robinson's on field career was winding down at that point as well as he was named the player-manager for the Indians, thus becoming the first African-American manager in MLB history. He retired from active playing in 1976 but continued to manage the Indians into the 1977 season when he was dismissed after 57 games.

Image courtesy of COMC.com

In 1982, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame with 89% of the vote. This was also while he was the active manager of the Giants, a post he assumed in 1981 and would hold until 1984.

Image courtesy of COMC.com

In 1988, he went back to his old team, the Orioles, taking over for Cal Ripken Sr. and helming a truly dismal Orioles team that went 55-106 and lost 21 straight to start the season. The Orioles turned it around in 1989 finishing 2nd in the AL East with and 83-79 record which was good enough to earn Robinson his first and only Manager of the Year award. After the Orioles dismissed in favor of Johnny Oates 37 games into the 1991 season, he wouldn't resurface as an on field manager until 2002.

Image courtesy of COMC.com

His last managerial assignment in the majors was that of the Montreal Expos, leading the team through the last few years of their existence (2002-2004) and subsequently becoming the answer to the trivia question "Who was the last manager of the Montreal Expos?". The Expos didn't fair too bad under Robinson, posting back-to-back 83-79 seasons in 2002 and 2003 but the wheels feel off in 2004. He stuck with the team when they relocated to Washington and managed the first two seasons of the teams existence.

His uniform number 20 has been retired by the Reds, Indians, and Orioles, making him one of only two players to have his uniform number retired by three or more teams (Nolan Ryan being the other).

It's amazing to see what all he did during his professional baseball career from a young star with the Reds in the early 50s all the way to working for the Commissioner's office in recent years. He definitely had a long and distinguished career in baseball.

Farewell, Mr. Robinson. You will be missed.

Around the Horn: Baltimore Orioles

Time for another entry in the "Around the Horn" series .... up now the Baltimore Orioles.

This team presented me with a conundrum I've yet to face so far in this series, teams that moved cities and changed their identities completely. I considered doing a separate entry on those teams themselves but there wasn't enough content to warrant that.

I mentioned that because through the first half of the 20th century, the Orioles were actually the St. Louis Browns, a team that was at or near the bottom of the American League for most of their existence. I didn't realize until I was digging out Browns cards that Eddie Plank spent the last two years of his career with the team after being jettisoned by the A's in 1914 and spending 1915 in the Federal League.

The Browns only made one appearance ever in the World Series, 1944, where they lost in six games to their National League brethren the Cardinals. Rick Ferrell spent a total of 8 years on and off with the Browns. Ned Garver was an All-Star pitched for the team in their waning years, going 20-12 with a 3.73 ERA for a 1951 Browns team that finished dead last.

Speaking of the 1951 Browns, that's the year that Satchel Paige debuted with the team. It's nice to see Topps producing modern cards of Paige and chronicling his run with the Browns.

This is by far my favorite St. Louis Browns card. It just so happens to also be the first 1952 Topps card I ever bought. I was at one of the local card shops thumbing through the discount vintage box when I came across this for the low, low price of only $4. I couldn't resist the urge so I grabbed it up. I'm slowly adding as many decent 52 Topps cards to my collection as I can. There's no way I'll ever be able to afford the star cards or even some of the "name" players but if I see commons like this at a decent price, I'll gladly snap them up.

Some of you may remember seeing this card during my recap of my most recent card show visit. I figured it was appropriate to show it again here, considering it's now the oldest Orioles card in my collection. The Browns relocated to Baltimore and were rechristened the Orioles after the 1953 season. From what I've been told by fellow bloggers on the card show post, this Preacher Roe card is one of the earliest examples of a "zero year" card out there as Roe never appeared for a single game for Baltimore.

For the longest time, this was my oldest Orioles card, a 1962 Topps Boog Powell rookie card. I remember buying this card from a 3 for $5 vintage bin at a card show a number of years ago. I forgot the other cards that I got from that deal but I just think this is a super cool looking card.

The Orioles have a had a number of great players over the years but perhaps there was none greater that Cal Ripken Jr. Much like Ken Griffey Jr. with the Mariners, if someone mentions the Orioles, I guarantee the first thought goes to Cal Ripken.

Like I did with Griffey, I decided to show off all the Ripken cards in my collection. If my counting was correct, I have 42 different Ripken cards. I guess you could say I have a decent collection of his cards. If I had to pick some favorites, I'd say the Topps Big League card, the Highlight of the Year card, and the Gold Standard card right below it. 

My most interesting card by far is the Leaf "Slideshow" card from 1995. The deal with these is that there's a second card that goes with it and by putting the cards together, you'll get a cool slideshow of the player. For the 90s, it's a pretty interesting concept although 1995 was the last time Leaf would do it with baseball.

Jim Palmer is another Orioles player I tend to collect and I can usually find his cards for a decent price. Photography was not the strong suit of early Fleer cards but I really do like the one of him getting ready to throw.

The Orioles made out like bandits when they got Frank Robinson in the now infamous December 1965 trade with the Reds. The Reds, who thought Robby was over the hill, sent him east for three players, the most notable being Milt Pappas, who did next to nothing in a Reds uniform. Robinson proved the Reds wrong, winning AL MVP in his first season in orange and finishing in the top twelve of MVP voting in all but one season in Baltimore. 

The "other" Robinson on the Orioles was Brooks Robinson, who spent his entire 23-year career manning third. I'm not a super big Brooks Robinson collector but I'll pick up a card of his here and there, especially if it's a neat looking card like the two Stadium Club cards.

One of the most notable "short term stops" in history is Reggie Jackson with Orioles. Everyone remembers his time with the A's and Yankees, but most forget he had a quick stop off in Baltimore during the 1976 season. 

Eddie Murray is more of an unintentional player collection. I've got cards of his from nearly every team he's been with. I guess I should probably add him to the official PC list as I always tend to keep cards of his when I find them in repacks, yard sale purchases, card shows, etc.

Who doesn't love 1971 Topps? The team card I got in one of my best community yard sales hauls of all time a few years ago. My goal for 1971 Topps is just like 1952 Topps, acquire as many of the cards in the set as I can without breaking the bank.

Here's a bunch of random 80s cards. It's really hard to pick a favorite from this batch. Rick Dempsey and Mike Flanagan on mid-80s cards, a fresh-faced Pete Harnisch on an 89 Donruss card, the pop of the orange on Lee May's 1980 Topps card. There's a whole lot to like here.

Fred Lynn as an Oriole is just strange to me. 

I find it a bit strange that Davey Johnson is listed as both "2nd base" and "Manager" on this card. He wouldn't manage the Orioles until 1996 and this card was issued in 1990. Oh well, still, it's the lone oddball card I have in my Orioles cards.

Here's a whole slew of random 90s cards. I'd forgotten Rick Sutcliffe pitched for Baltimore. As a kid, I always thought Mike Mussina would be with the Orioles forever as he was their star pitcher throughout the 90s. Also, how can you not love Brady Anderson climbing the outfield wall?

Chris Sabo spent the 1994 season with the Orioles as a DH/outfielder. His stints with different teams such as the Orioles and White Sox are what led me to be a collector of "short term stops" cards.

Eric Davis had the last great season of his career in 1998 as a member of an O's squad that finished near the bottom of the AL East. He hit .327 with 28 HRs and 89 RBIs and finished in the top 20 of MVP voting.

Joe Carter played the majority of his final season with that same 1998 team and appeared in 85 games before being traded to the Giants for minor leaguer Darin Blood.

I always thought this was a neat card with both Manny Machado and Cal Ripken on it. I really felt like the so-called "pundits" went crazy last summer with the Machado trade stuff and interviewing him about it in the dugout at the All-Star Game was ridiculous.

I like this card mainly because of the old school style uniforms. 

Finally, some newer cards with a random Nick Markakis card thrown in just because of the picture on it. Last season, the Orioles had a horrible record at 47-115, the second worst record since 2000, only behind the 2003 Detroit Tigers who posted a 43-119 record.

Well, that's it for the Orioles/Browns edition of "Around the Horn". Next up will be another team with two identies ... the Texas Rangers/Washington Senators.

Mystery Boxes From a Mystery Yard Sale

A few weeks ago, my step-mom dropped by for a few minutes on her way to some sort of wine tasting deal and dropped off the mountain of card boxes seen above. She said she was at a yard sale a while back and purchased these from some withered old man for the paltry sum of three dollars. After about a half hour or so, she headed off to her event and I did a quick peek through the boxes. It was too late at night to pull everything out and go through them so I left them on the kitchen table for the next day. The next afternoon, I started digging through the boxes. Yes, there was junk wax but not as much as I thought. Then, I did what any rational human being would do when presented with three well worn boxes of cards ... I sorted them!

As you can clearly see, there were cards from all different years and sets included. There was a lot more variety than I though there would be as I was expecting boxes filled with 1990 Donruss and 1989 Topps. Yeah, there was a lot of 1989 Topps, but it didn't phase me at all. After I sorted, I pulled the dupes and loaded some into the trade box and the rest went into the donation bag for Goodwill. After that, I went back through, pulled out the highlights and put the rest into my sorting box to await their turn to be put into pages and loaded into a binder (that reminds me, I need more binders).

Despite the influx of Donruss and Fleer in 1981, I still dig cards from the early 80s. There was a good amount of 1981 Fleer in the boxes so I scanned in some of the highlights. I about flipped when I saw the Jerry Koosman and Ron Cey cards, although I think the Cey might be a duplicate. There's just something about the Koosman card though, mainly because I'd forgotten he was still kicking around in the early 80s and there's also that awesome power blue Twins roadie.

1981 Topps is one of those sets where if you were to ask me what it looked like, it'd take me a while to try to remember it and at that point, I'd have to Google it. I feel it's often a forgotten set, overshadowed by the shiny new Fleer and Donruss sets (well, maybe not shiny on Donruss' part but definitely new). There were mostly commons from the set I found but a few minor stars from the time such as Randy Jones, Dave Cash, and Rick Sutcliffe.

A batch of cards from both 1982 Fleer and 1982 Topps. There weren't a lot of major "star" cards in these early 80s batches but still, there were minor stars, fan favorites, and some really fun photography.

Base set cards weren't the only thing in the boxes, there were some curiosities and randomness as well. Take these two 1984 O-Pee-Chee cards for example. Of all the O-Pee-Chee cards, somehow someway these wound up in a box in a dirty garage in southwest Ohio. As I was sorting through the cards initially, I hit a stack of 1984 Topps. I thought to myself "wouldn't it be something if there were some OPC cards in here?" Lo and behold the next cards were O-Pee-Chee. It's as if the cardboard gods were listening. (PS: Never mind the funky lines, my scanner decided it wanted to mess with me).

My curiosity was peaked with these cards as well. I've never seen cards from the 87 and 88 Topps sets that had the "now with ..." printing on them. I've only ever seen that with O-Pee-Chee cards. After doing a quick search on the Trading Card DB, it turns out that these are just standard old base cards, nothing special. However, to me they're pretty unique.

There were also a bunch of the glossy All-Stars and Rookie sets from the mid-80s. The Clemens All-Star card reminds me of something you might see from the early 70s with the palm trees and cars in the background.

Not to be outdone, Score joined the fun on the All-Star cards as well. The Mike Schmidt card looks like someone trimmed a side off of it with some scissors at some point.

One box was nothing but 87 and 88 Topps. I know everyone is probably sick of 87 Topps by now but these are a few of my favorites, especially the Jose Rijo A's card and the Langston M's card.

Some late 80's randomness including a Royce Clayton minor league card and a Tom Glavine RC.

Now a few of my favorites to wrap up the 80s, first this Randy Johnson 1989 Topps RC.

Some cards for the Eckersley collection.

And my favorite from the 80s cards .... Reggie as an Oriole!!!!

Ok, it's going to be hard for the 90s cards to top that. But that's to be continued on Thursday afternoon ...