You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we’ll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history.
ON THIS DATE in 1954, Frank Robinson made his debut.
Twenty-one years later, Frank Robinson, the player-manager of the Indians, chose not to put himself in the starting lineup on Opening Day 1975. His general manager, Phil Seghi, insisted that he play, saying, “Frank, this is YOUR day.” That day, Robinson would become the first African American manager in baseball history. Batting second in the order, Robinson, in his first at-bat, fell behind 0-2 to the Yankees’ Doc Medich, who threw a nasty slider off the outside part of the plate. Robinson thought to himself, “This guy is trying to strike me out on three pitches. He’s trying to embarrass me on MY day. No one does that to me!” Robinson hit the next pitch over the left-center field fence for a home run.
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That is Frank Robinson: the most ferocious competitor I’ve ever met in a baseball uniform. When he came to the Orioles in a trade for Milt Pappas before the 1966 season, he changed the culture on that team. “Frank taught us how to win,” third baseman Brooks Robinson told me.
The Orioles won the World Series that season, Robinson became the first player to win the Most Valuable Player Award in both leagues and he won the Triple Crown.
Robinson would finish his brilliant career with 586 home runs and 2,943 hits — he just missed being in the 3,000-hit, 600-homer club, which has only four members. In an Old-Timers’ game in Texas in 1987, Robinson was 51, he was facing massive Jim Bibby, who could still throw hard.
Accidentally, Bibby knocked down Robinson with a pitch. Robinson, as I saw him do many times in his career, dusted himself off, got back in the box and hit a home run over the left-center field fence.
After the game, I asked Frank how many homers he would hit if he had 600 at-bats as a DH.
“Thirty!” he said..
“Frank,” I said, “you’re 51 years old.”
“Thirty-five!” he said.
Other baseball notes for April 17
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In 2018, the Twins and Indians played a two-game series at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Puerto Rico to help raise money for the devastation from Hurricane Maria. In his third at-bat of the first game, Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor, from Caguas, Puerto Rico, hit a two-run homer run over the right-field fence. It was a magical moment. He joyously ran the bases to the delight of the crowd, which finally had something to cheer about in their ravaged country. Lindor apologized immediately after the game for perhaps showboating in his tour around the bases. The next day, Twins pitcher Jake Odorizzi, who surrendered the home run to Lindor, approached him and told him, “I have no problem with what you did.”
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In 1953, Mickey Mantle hit a historic home run off Chuck Stobbs at Griffith Stadium in Washington. A Yankees PR man actually chased down the ball, and using a relatively advanced measuring system, came up with 565 feet.
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In 1955, Al Kaline hit three home runs in one game. Kaline hit the most career homers (399) without a 30-homer season. Eddie Murray hit the most (504) without a 40-homer season. Hank Aaron hit the most (755) without a 50-homer season and Ron Fairly hit the most (215) without a 20-homer season.
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In 2013, the Mariners and Tigers combined to strike out 40 times in 14 innings. Tigers leadoff man Austin Jackson struck out four times. Five years later, a groundskeeper in San Francisco introduced himself to me with this question: Who is the only active major leaguer whose first and last names are state capitals? This was a challenge because I am, after all, pathetic. It took 20 minutes, alone in a quiet area at AT&T Park, but I got it: Austin Jackson.
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In 1976, Mike Schmidt hit four homers (consecutively) in a game against the Cubs. Many years later, as the dugout reporter on Monday Night Baseball in Philadelphia, I was trying to explain the greatness of Schmidt, who was strong enough to lead the league in homers eight times, and nimble enough to win 10 Gold Gloves. So, I said, on the air, “Mike Schmidt could play the piano, and move it, too.” To which, one my colleagues said, “I had no idea Schmiddty could play the piano.” He can’t. I was joking.