Wilbert Robinson
Wilbert Robinson | ||
---|---|---|
Runs batted in | 722 | |
Managerial record | 1,399–1,398 | |
Winning % | .500 | |
Teams | ||
As player
As manager
| ||
Member of the National | ||
Baseball Hall of Fame | ||
Induction | 1945 | |
Vote | Old-Timers Committee |
Wilbert Robinson (June 29, 1864 – August 8, 1934), nicknamed "Uncle Robbie", was an American
Life and playing career
Born in
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
Managerial career
Baltimore and New York
Robinson and McGraw joined as business partners in the
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+1⁄2 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
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
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
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
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
See also
- List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders
- List of Major League Baseball runs batted in records
- List of Major League Baseball managers by wins
- List of Major League Baseball player-managers
- List of Major League Baseball single-game hits leaders
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4616-7370-5.
- ^ "archives – baltimoresun.com – BASEBALL DEAL MADE". pqasb.pqarchiver.com.
- ^ "The House That McGraw Built". 5 August 2018.
- ^ "Wilbert Robinson".
- ^ "Wilbert Robinson – Society for American Baseball Research".
- ^ "1916 World Series - Boston Red Sox over Brooklyn Robins (4-1)".
- ^ "Chicago Cubs at Brooklyn Robins Box Score, September 23, 1924".
- ^ "1924 Brooklyn Robins Schedule".
- ^ "New York Giants at Brooklyn Robins Box Score, September 27, 1931".
- ^ "The Standards of a Hall of Fame Manager | Articles | Bill James Online".
- ^ "Gabby Street's monumental catch: 'It weighed 300 pounds and traveled 95 MPH' – Society for American Baseball Research".
- ^ "No More Grapefruit for Manager Robinson". The Daytona Daily News. Daytona Beach, Florida. March 17, 1915. p. 4. Retrieved February 17, 2024 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Grapefruit League earned its name from a prank". MLB.com.
Notes
External links
- Wilbert Robinson at the Baseball Hall of Fame
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
- Wilbert Robinson managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
- Wilbert Robinson at the SABR Baseball Biography Project
- Wilbert Robinson at The Deadball Era
- Wilbert Robinson at Find a Grave
Popular culture
- R. M. Stults dedicated the song Our Orioles March to Capt. Robinson in 1894.