ICYMI - Remembering Frank Robinson
*Today is the one-year anniversary of Frank Robinson’s death. Here is the article that was published on the Canadian Baseball Network last year after he passed away.
February 7, 2019
By Kevin Glew
Canadian Baseball Network
Hall of Fame slugger and trailblazing manager Frank Robinson passed away on Thursday at the age of 83.
Robinson, who was the last manager of the Montreal Expos before the franchise shifted to Washington, died after a long battle with bone cancer.
In his 21-year playing career that spanned from 1956 to 1976, Robinson was a 14-time all-star who recorded 2,943 major league hits, 586 of which were home runs. He remains the only major leaguer to win MVP Awards in both leagues -- securing the honour for the National League’s Cincinnati Reds in 1961 and for the American League’s Baltimore Orioles in 1966. He was also a key contributor to two Baltimore Orioles World Series-winning squads in 1966 and 1971.
In 1975, Robinson was named player-manager of the Cleveland Indians to become the first African-American manager in major league history. He proceeded to manage for parts of 16 major league seasons, including tenures with the Indians (1975 to 1977), the San Francisco Giants (1981 to 1984), the Baltimore Orioles (1988 to 1991), the Expos (2002 to 2004) and the Washington Nationals (2005-06).
In more recent years, he had worked in various roles in Major League Baseball’s commissioner’s office.
Several Canadians posted tributes to Robinson on Twitter on Thursday. Here’s a summary: