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
How did I handle it? If he hit me, I went to first base. If he didn't, I got up and was more determined that he wasn't going to get me out. And if I went to first base, there was a bull's-eye on the shortstop, there was a bull's-eye on the second baseman.
If he comes to me in a week or so and says: 'My arm is feeling good. I think I can go out there,' I might take him up on it.
A pitcher can be the leader among the pitchers and be there for anyone who wants to approach him. But he is not that one guy who will go to a hitter and get in his face. Sometimes you need a leader and arms of that leader on the pitching staff, bullpen and the reserves. A position player can cross the line and doesn't mind going over to talk to the pitchers. But pitchers are kind of hesitant to go over to the offensive side of it.
Nobody is going to win a job today, tomorrow or the first week of Spring Training. So everybody settle down and do what you are capable of doing. Get yourself ready for the long haul. Mostly everybody in that room doesn't have a real good chance to make that club. There are just too many people in there.
If he wins the job, we will be better off in that respect, because he can create a little havoc at the top of the lineup and put some pressure on the defense and pitching if they are worried about him stealing second or going from first to third.
He's not making some plays we expect him to make, he's made in the past and will make in the future. I'll tell you one thing: Pitchers go in slumps, hitters go in slumps, fielders go in slumps. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. He's in a slump in the field. He has 48 hours to come out of it.
The way we played and have been playing is what prompted the meeting. I don't like the overall results. We're not doing the things we're capable of doing.
He's trying to do a little too much right now.
About this ballpark? The dimensions? The answer is no.
It might not last until we get to San Diego. But it certainly should show these guys what they're capable of doing if each individual would go up there and do what he's capable of doing, and think about it being a team effort.
He was what I call a very good general manager,
Pretty soon, if we don't right the ship, it's going to be too late. The early stuff is over with. You wait and wait and wait, and it continues and continues and continues, so you try something else.
Each day you miss, it comes into question. He still has time, but it will be close. These are the days now you start revving it up a little bit.
He threw strikes, ... He hit the ball around the strike zone. He used all of his pitches today, and he was ahead of the hitters. He made them swing the bat and made pitches to get them out.