Frank Robinson

Yesterday’s death of HOFer Frank Robinson reminded me of two related stories.  The first happened August 20, 1967, during the second game of a Orioles-White Sox doubleheader at Comiskey Park. 

 

The box score in baseball-reference.com pretty much supports my memory of one play in particular.  It was the top of the eighth, one out, a Baltimore runner on first and the Sox ahead by a score of 2-1.  Robinson hit a sinking line drive to center that umpire Emmett Ashford ruled a catch; centerfielder Tommie Agee threw to first to double off Paul Blair before he could get back to first.  Robinson went ballistic, for good reason.  I was sitting in the stands in left center, and Agee clearly trapped the ball.  It was a fun argument to watch, though.

 

A year later, Robinson—or more precisely, a statistically driven representation put on paper—figured in a practical joke pulled at the expense of my friend Bob.  Bob was one of five friends who spent the summer of 1968 playing Strat-O-Matic baseball.  (Yes, we were really popular with the girls back then.)  We each had two teams, one from each league for the two leagues we set up.  As I recall, Bob had engineered a trade for Robinson, and this mustn’t have sit well with Matt and Dan.  Those two took a Start-O-Matic brochure which included a copy of Robinson’s player card (full of stats, as any Strat-o geek could tell you) and cut out the Robinson card that wasn’t.  Then, with Bob over at Matt’s (I had nothing to do with this, I swear to God), Matt and Dan burned the pretend card.

 

From what I gather, our friend went almost as crazy as Robinson had the summer before.  “Doug’s going to kill me!” Bob screamed because I was the one who bought all the teams.  Bob was pretty big, already over six feet as a high school sophomore, and he was pretty mad.  Rather than face an angry Dietz, Matt and Dan let him in on the joke.

With any luck, Bob and Frank Robinson are having a good laugh over that story.  I hope so.