Eddie Robinson, 1920-2021

This is an update of the post I wrote for his 100th Birthday.

Believe it or not, there are 4 men named Robinson in the Baseball Hall of Fame:

* Jackie Robinson was the man who reintegrated baseball in 1947, and became an all-time great above and beyond his pioneer status. In his 10 seasons in the major leagues, all with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he led them to 6 Pennants (just missing 2 others) and a win in the 1955 World Series. 

* Frank Robinson remains the only man to be named the Most Valuable Player in each League, and he also became the 1st black manager in each League.

* Brooks Robinson became one of the best 3rd basemen ever, and reminded fans just how important, and how spectacular, defense can be. Together, he (white) and Frank Robinson (black) turned the Baltimore Orioles into winners of 4 Pennants and 2 World Series. 

* And Wilbert Robinson was a very good catcher who became a great manager, winning National League Pennants in 1916 and 1920. He was so admired, the team was sort-of named for him while he was its manager, from 1914 to 1931: The Brooklyn Robins. Afterward, it resumed its former name: The Dodgers. 

In comparison, the Hall has 2 Johnsons, Walter and Randy; 2 Jacksons, Travis and Reggie; 2 Gibsons, Josh and Bob; but only 1 Smith, Ozzie; and no Joneses. And 2 Wrights, the brothers Harry and George; 2 Waners, the brothers Paul and Lloyd; and 2 MacPhails, Larry and his son Lee. But it has 4 Robinsons.

*

Eddie Robinson will never be in the Hall of Fame. But he is an important figure in baseball history.

William Edward Robinson was born on December 15, 1920 in Paris, Texas. A 1st baseman who batted lefthanded and threw righthanded, he made his major league debut on September 9, 1942, with the Cleveland Indians. 

He would miss the next 3 seasons serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II. In 1943, during his service, he married Elayne Elder. They had 2 children, and divorced in 1951. He later married Bette Farlow, and had 3 more children.

He returned to the major leagues in 1946, and, wearing Number 3 (which the team would later retire for an earlier star, Hall-of-Fame outfielder Earl Averill), helped the Indians win the 1948 World Series. 

After that season, he was traded to the Washington Senators, and in mid-1950 to the Chicago White Sox. He was named an All-Star in 1949, 1951, 1952 and 1953, starting at 1st base for the American League in the 1949 and 1952 All-Star Games.

He was traded to the Philadelphia Athletics in 1953, and to the Yankees in 1954, helping them win a Pennant in 1955. As a Yankee, he wore Number 36.

In 1956, they traded him back to the Athletics, who had moved to Kansas City. His last season in the majors was 1957, with the Detroit Tigers, then back with the Indians, and closing with the Baltimore Orioles. He finished with a lifetime batting average of .268 and 172 home runs.

Having played under manager Paul Richards, a fellow Texan, in Chicago and  Baltimore, he became one of Richards' Oriole coaches, and then followed him to the 1962 expansion team that would become known as the Houston Astros.

He left Richards to become the farm system director for the A's, but they were now owned by Charlie Finley, and, like so many men before him and so many of them after him, Robinson got tired of Finley's nonsense, and left.

In 1968, Richards gave Robinson another lifeline, with the Atlanta Braves. He succeeded Richards as their general manager in 1972, held the job when their Hank Aaron became the all-time home run leader in 1974, and left in 1976, growing tired of another business tycoon who had bought a baseball team and thought he knew more than "baseball lifers" like Eddie Robinson: Ted Turner.

In 1977, Eddie returned to his native North Texas, serving as GM of the Texas Rangers through 1982. His last job in baseball was as a scout for the Boston Red Sox, the only one of the 8 founding franchises of the AL for whom he hadn't played.

In 2011, at the age of 90, he published a memoir: Lucky Me: My Sixty-Five Years in Baseball.

Don Larsen, Bobby Brown and Eddie Robinson,

at Old-Timers Day at Yankee Stadium, 2015.

By the time the Indians won the Pennant in 2016, Eddie Robinson was 95, and the last living former player who had played on one of their World Series winners. They had also won in 1920, and had played in the World Series but lost in 1954, 1995 and 1997.

Having become the last living player who had played at their League Park, and had also played for them at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, the Fort Worth, Texas resident was invited to Progressive Field for the 2016 World Series, and attended Game 6, with the Indians looking to end their 68-year drought that night, against the Chicago Cubs. 

But the Cubs won, and also won Game 7, to end their 108-year drought. The Indians' drought is now the longest.

When Val Heim died on November 21, 2019, Eddie became both the earliest and the oldest living former MLB player. On December 15, 2020, Eddie reached his 100th Birthday. When Bobby Brown of the 1947 Yankees died on March 25, 2021, Eddie became the earliest living World Series winner.

Eddie Robinson died on Sunday, October 4, 2021. He was a baseball lifer who had an amazing life.

With his death:

* The earliest living World Series winner is Art Schallock, 97, of the 1953 Yankees.

* There are 3 living players who played during World War II: Chris Haughey, Eddie Basinski and Tommy Brown.

* There are 8 living veterans of both World War II and Major League Baseball: Haughey, Carl Erskine, Larry Miggins, Ed Mickelson, Bobby Morgan, Frank Saucier, Bobby Shantz and George Elder.

* There are 8 living players who played in the 1940s: Haughey, Basinski, Brown, Erskine, Miggins, Shantz, Elder and Curt Simmons.

* There are 3 living men who played for the Philadelphia Athletics: Shantz, Bill Wilson and Bill Harrington.

* The oldest living former MLB player is now (somewhat appropriately, giving his name) Elder, age 100, who played 41 games for the St. Louis Browns, all in the 2nd half of the 1949 season.

* And the earliest living former MLB player is now Basinski, age 98, who debuted in 1944 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He is also the last surviving player from the "Tricornered Game" between the Dodgers, Yankees and Giants at the Polo Grounds in 1944, played to raise money for war bonds; and the last surviving player mentioned by Dave Frishberg in his song "Van Lingle Mungo."