Wilbert Robinson

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Wilbert Robinson
Runs batted in
722
Managerial record1,399–1,398
Winning %.500
Teams
As player
  • 1890
    )
  • 1899
    )
  • 1900
    )
  • Baltimore Orioles (AL) (19011902
    )

As manager

Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction1945
VoteOld-Timers Committee

Wilbert Robinson (June 29, 1864 – August 8, 1934), nicknamed "Uncle Robbie", was an American

Brooklyn Robins. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945
.

Life and playing career

1895 Baseball Card

Born in

Orioles team which folded after the 1899 National League season, and in 1901–02 with the American League team which moved to New York City in 1903 and became the Yankees. He also spent one season, 1900, with the St. Louis Cardinals
.

Over the course of his career, Robinson played 1,316 games as a catcher, which prepared him for his second baseball career as a manager. The star catcher of the Orioles dynasty which won three straight titles from 1894 to 1896, he compiled a career

McGraw
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Managerial career

Baltimore and New York

Robinson and McGraw joined as business partners in the

New York Giants. There were rumblings of a move to New York City to counter the Giants to help the fledgling League before the season had started, but nothing came to pass yet. The 1902 season was the last for the Orioles in the American League. Robinson took over after McGraw had gone 26–31 to manage the last 83 games. He won 24 while losing 57 (with two ties). The team had been plagued by debt suffered by owner John Mahon. Andrew Freedman and John T. Brush, principal owners of the Giants and Cincinnati Reds, respectively, purchased the team and raided the roster by releasing certain players to be claimed by the two teams. A.L President Ban Johnson seized control of the Orioles not long after and loaned several players from other A.L teams, but the damage was done.[3] After the season, McGraw enticed Robinson to be his pitching coach from 1903 to 1913 (although he would also do some coaching at third base), during which time the Giants won five NL pennants and a World Series title in 1905. As for the Orioles, they moved to New York for 1903. An argument between the two after the 1913 World Series over alleged bad coaching by either man in a saloon (meant to reunite old Oriole teammates) meant the beginning of a feud between the two that never formally healed, and Robinson left to manage Brooklyn in 1914.[4][5]

Brooklyn Dodgers

In 1914, Robinson took over the National League Brooklyn franchise. The team was known by various nicknames, including Bridegrooms, Superbas, and Dodgers, but during Robinson's managerial tenure, which lasted until 1931, the club was as often referred to as the "Robins" in honor of their manager, who had acquired the nickname "Uncle Robbie." (The frequently error-prone Dodger teams of this era were also sometimes derisively known as "Uncle Robbie's Daffiness Boys.") The Dodgers had finished the previous year with a 65-84 record that was buoyed by stars such as Zack Wheat and Jake Daubert (with the latter having won the National League's MVP award). Robinson would lead them to a 75-79 record for 1914, 19+12 games behind first while finishing 5th for the first time since 1907. He followed it up with a 80-72-2 second season that had them finish third in the League while acquiring future Hall of Fame pitcher Rube Marquard from New York.

By the halfway point of the 1916 season, the Robins were already 15 games above .500. By the time of October, the Robins were holding firm with 91 wins and a bare lead over the Philadelphia Phillies. Facing New York for the final four-game series, they won three to clinch the pennant. It was the first time Brooklyn had won the pennant since 1900, and they would compete in their first ever World Series. They would face the Boston Red Sox, managed by Bill Carrigan that had future Hall of Famers with Babe Ruth and Harry Hooper while making their fourth appearance in the World Series in thirteen years. The Red Sox would win the title, which was the third in four that they would win from 1912 to 1918.[6] Marquard was outmatched in Game 1 by Ernie Shore, as Boston had a 6-1 lead before Brooklyn came close to rallying in the ninth inning, when Carl Mays was brought in to curtail a bases-loaded situation that led to Brooklyn scoring four runs but falling one run short. Boston then won Game 2 in fourteen innings, which featured no scoring for ten straight innings until Boston had a walk-off single. Brooklyn scored in the first inning of that game and promptly did not score again until the 3rd inning of the next game. Brooklyn held on to bounce back in Game 3 after nearly blowing a 4-0 lead, but Boston rallied in Game 4 with a three-run inside-the-park home run by Larry Gardner proving the difference in a 6-2 game. Game 5 featured Boston scoring four unanswered after Brooklyn had a brief lead in the second inning as Boston won the series in five games (they batted .238 for the series, but Brooklyn batted .200). Brooklyn slumped in the next three seasons, finishing 70-81-5 for a seventh place finish in 1917 before finishing 5th in the next two years, although a trade for Burleigh Grimes (a fellow future Hall of Famer) in 1918 would be a helping hand soon enough. However, in 1920, he led them to a 24-game improvement with 93 wins in 155 games for a seven game cushion over New York for Brooklyn's second pennant in four years. However, the Cleveland Indians (led by player/manager Tris Speaker) would win the World Series five games to two in a series that saw no lead changes at any point, as the team that scored first won the game, with Cleveland scoring as early as the first inning (twice) and as late as the sixth (Game 6). Brooklyn was outscored 21-8.

Robinson continued to manage the Robins for eleven more seasons, with five winning seasons in the mix. His best finish was the 1924 team, which finished 2nd with a 92-62 record while being buoyed by NL MVP

Boston Braves (the league doormat) for two games each, with Vance tabbed to start two of them (the Giants, however, had five games left to play). However, they would win and lose twice, which included a 10th inning home run off Vance by Gabby Hartnett on the 23rd that doomed the Robins.[7][8]
The Giants finished at 93-60 to finish 1+12 games in first.

The Robins also had their share of struggles, which included seven times of finishing in the second division (below 4th), including five in a row from 1925 to 1929, which coincided with Robinson serving as both manager and team president (having been named after owner Charles Ebbets had died). Robinson finished his career with two fourth place finishes in 1930 and 1931. He closed out his career on September 27, 1931 in Ebbets Field, fittingly against McGraw and his New York Giants. Robinson's Robins won 12-3.[9] He was replaced by Max Carey as manager while hunting at his camp in Brunswick, Georgia.

In his 18 years at the helm of the Robins, Robinson compiled a record of 1,375–1,341–19, including National League championships in 1916 and 1920 – Brooklyn's only pennants between 1901 and 1940. His 1,375 NL victories were, at the time, the 3rd-highest total in National League history, trailing only the totals of John McGraw (then with 2,652) and Fred Clarke (1,602).

Robinson was highly regarded for his ability to draw outstanding performances from his pitching staffs, a result of his many years as a catcher. Among the pitchers he guided to success were

Governor of Pennsylvania
.

Robinson was manager when Al López started out as a catcher in the majors, as Lopez made his debut in 1928 before becoming a regular in 1930 who spent the first six seasons of a 19-year career with Brooklyn. Robinson watched Lopez' style and finally hollered, "Tell that punk he got two hands to catch with! Never mind the Fancy Dan stuff." Lopez went on to eventually surpass Robinson in the number of games played as catcher (1,316) and Lopez in the most games caught at 1,918 in 1945. That record was not broken for four decades; in 1951, Lopez became a manager and won two pennants and 1,410 games in seventeen seasons that led to his induction into the Hall of Fame.

Managerial record

Team Year Regular season Postseason
Games Won Lost Win % Finish Won Lost Win % Result
BAL 1902 81 24 57 .296 8th in AL
BAL total 81 24 57 .296 0 0
BKN 1914 154 75 79 .487 5th in NL
BKN 1915 152 80 72 .526 3rd in NL
BKN 1916 154 94 60 .610 1st in NL 1 4 .200 Lost World Series (BOS)
BKN 1917 151 70 81 .464 7th in NL
BKN 1918 126 57 69 .452 5th in NL
BKN 1919 140 69 71 .493 5th in NL
BKN 1920 154 93 61 .604 1st in NL 2 5 .286 Lost World Series (CLE)
BKN 1921 152 77 75 .507 5th in NL
BKN 1922 154 76 78 .494 6th in NL
BKN 1923 154 76 78 .494 6th in NL
BKN 1924 154 92 62 .597 2nd in NL
BKN 1925 153 68 85 .444 7th in NL
BKN 1926 153 71 82 .464 6th in NL
BKN 1927 153 65 88 .425 6th in NL
BKN 1928 153 77 76 .503 6th in NL
BKN 1929 153 70 83 .458 6th in NL
BKN 1930 154 86 68 .558 4th in NL
BKN 1931 152 79 73 .520 4th in NL
BKN total 2,716 1375 1341 .506 3 9 .250
Total 2,818[a] 1399 1398 .500 3 9 .250

Retirement and death

After his retirement from managing, Robinson became the president of the

Atlanta, Georgia at the age of 70. He was buried in the New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore. His resting place is located near the grave of John McGraw
, who had died in February of that year.

Family

Robinson's brother, Fred Robinson, also played briefly in the majors, appearing in 3 games for the 1884 Cincinnati Outlaw Reds of the Union Association.

Legacy

Plaque of Wilbert Robinson at the Baseball Hall of Fame

Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945 by the Old-Timers Committee. One reporter had described him as a "Rule-of-thumb manager, a gentle Falstaff, who could get more out of less material than any manager before or since." Noted baseball analyst Bill James, looking at all elected managers in the Hall of Fame based on meeting expectations in regards to record, described his election as "capricious".[10]

Robinson and Ruth Law

On March 13, 1915, at

Grapefruit League got its nickname.[13]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Robinson also managed in 21 games that ended in ties
  2. ^ A contemporaneous account, published in The Daytona Daily News on March 17, 1915, reported that Robinson misjudged the catch, resulting in the grapefruit hitting him on the arm.[12]

External links

Popular culture