Vintage Fridays: Frank Robinson, 1972 Topps #100

The Orioles signed Pedro Alvarez this week, who doesn't seem to bring much to the table besides his prodigious power. He doesn't hit for average (.236 career), strikes out a ton (809 K in 742 games), and isn't even a passable defender at first base (23 errors last year...how?). But he does have something in common with Frank Robinson. Much like Robby once hit a ball clear out of Memorial Stadium, Pedro walloped a ball completely out of PNC Park last May. I have a pessimistic sense that the O's might be boom-or-bust to the extreme this year, but when they square up those balls, they should be awfully fun to watch.

Vintage Fridays: Frank Robinson, 1971 Topps #329

I've spent most of my evening watching other teams play postseason baseball, but nobody looked as good doing it as Frank Robinson did with his high, skinny orange stirrups and his contrast-colored, radial-arched name plate. Even home plate umpire Tony Venzon and number five hitter Paul Blair have to give Frank a once-over to take it all in. I hardly need to tell you that the Orioles dispatched the Reds 9-3 in this game, which took place on October 13, 1970 in Memorial Stadium. The O's only outhit Cincy by a 10-9 count, but three of Baltimore's hits left the field of play, and none of Cincinnati's did. Robby and Don Buford each hit a solo homer off of Tony Cloninger, and winning pitcher Dave McNally really blew the game open in the bottom of the sixth with a two-out grand slam off of reliever Wayne Granger. Perhaps buoyed by his rare feat, the Birds' tough lefty went the full nine innings to give his club a 3-0 advantage in the 1970 World Series. The whole thing took just two hours and nine minutes, which probably has something to do with the lack of three-minute commercial breaks between innings. Crazy, I know.

Frank Robinson, 2000 MLB All Century Team Playing Cards

Does it get any better than an oddball card of Frank Robinson showing off his 1966 MVP plaque in Yankee Stadium? Well, the current-day Orioles could stop scuffling and take charge in a subpar American League East, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards this week. There's 110 games left after tonight, but it's hard to be patient and calm when the team's looking as snakebit as they are right now. Already tonight, a four-run lead evaporated in two innings. I can't bear to watch.

Frank Robinson, 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #195

The card design might be pretty dull and lousy - in fact, I'm almost certain that is - but there's still something cool about seeing three guys with a combined 1,646 home runs all on one card. As the back of the card notes, Mike Schmidt, Ernie Banks, and Frank Robinson are all multiple MVP award winners. Schmidt was a three-time NL MVP, Banks a two-timer, and Robinson was the first - and still the only - player to be named Most Valuable Player in both the National and American Leagues. That's why Frank gets to anchor the card.

Frank Robinson, 1990 Baseball Wit #48

Is anyone in the mood for some trivia? The three questions on the back of this Frank Robinson card should be a piece of cake:

1. Name the only player to win the Most Valuable Player award in both leagues.

2. What was the Impossible Dream?

3. Who was the manager of the team from Question 2?

Pencils down.

Frank Robinson, 1990 Orioles Postcards

I just got home from an incredibly tense playoff opener that turned into a laugher right at the end. The Orioles got home runs from Nelson Cruz and J. J. Hardy to carry a tenuous 4-3 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning, and then broke out for eight runs on six hits, two walks, and a pair of Tigers errors in a 34-minute at-bat. Detroit used four pitchers, to no avail. The sellout crowd was lively all night long, but they/we truly started having fun in that big inning, chanting "Nick Mar-ka-kis" for the longtime O's outfielder who was finally participating in his first postseason game, and eventually taking a page from pro wrestling fans by chanting "this is awesome" before moving on to "we won't stop", the three-word slogan that the Birds have adopted for October 2014. 12-3 final, a new playoff record for runs scored by a Baltimore team. They'll do it again at noon tomorrow, and I'll try to keep tabs on things from my cubicle.

What does this superb autographed Frank Robinson postcard have to do with anything? Nothing, really, except that it's another wonderful Oriole-related item. Frank did push the Birds to their first World Series triumph back in 1966, of course. This was the big-ticket item in yesterday's mailing from Randy. I'm very glad to have it, just as I'm glad to have seen a Division Series victory by the O's.

Frank Robinson, 1991 Topps #639

A fun fact, courtesy of John Autin at High Heat Stats (and yes, I'm just now catching up to last month's blogroll):

There have been 11 1-0 final scores in postseason history with the only run scoring on a solo home run. Of those 11 games, four involved the Orioles. The bad news first: Sal Bando's round-tripper against Jim Palmer in the top of the fourth inning delivered Game Three of the 1974 ALCS to the Athletics. 23 years later, Tony Bleeping Fernandez took Armando Double-Bleeping Benitez deep in the top of the 11th to help the Indians wrap up both Game Six of the 1997 ALCS and the series as a whole.

But of course, there's good news in the form of astounding happenstance. The O's won their other two solo-homer-only 1-0 contests in postseason play...and they did it on back-to-back days. On October 8, 1966, Paul Blair touched 'em all against Los Angeles pitcher Claude Osteen in the bottom of the fifth inning. Wally Bunker six-hit the Dodgers, and the Birds took a three-games-to-none World Series lead. The following day (October 9, 1966, if you're not good with numbers), it was deja vu all over again. This time the instant offense came from Frank Robinson, against Don Drysdale, in the home half of the fourth. Dave McNally was the beneficiary of Robby's largesse, as he dispatched L.A. on four hits and a couple of walks to complete the sweep. Occasionally I feel like I've mined all the material that I possibly could from Baltimore's most dominating Fall Classic effort, but it seems like there's always another remarkable fact or statistic to be mined. I hope that this guy doesn't think I'm picking on him and his favorite team, especially since the events of October '66 took place before I was born and before he was even rooting for the boys in blue.

Frank Robinson, 2010 Topps 206 #159

While the Orioles continue muddling through a convoluted and anguishing playoff chase, Chris Davis continues his assault on the team's record books. Tuesday night, he hit his 49th home run to tie Frank Robinson for the second-most homers by an Oriole in a single season. His next round-tripper will tie Brady Anderson atop the heap. Last night, Davis drove in two runs with his 40th double of the year. He is now the only Baltimore hitter to go 40-40 (homers and doubles) in the same season. Add the two together and you get 89 extra-base hits, just three short of Brady's team record of 92 set in 1996. Just when you think you've run out of ways to quantify Crush's breakout season, you find a few more.

Vintage Fridays: Frank Robinson, Hank Bauer, and Brooks Robinson, 1967 Topps #1

I look at this card - this wonderful, triumphant card - and can't help taking a flight of fancy. After all, there are a few guys on the 2013 Orioles who compare pretty favorably to the cornerstones of that 1966 World Champion club.

First, there's the slugger. Frank Robinson captured the American League Triple Crown, the Most Valuable Player award, and the World Series MVP to boot. You probably know the numbers by now: .316 AVG, 49 HR, 122 RBI. He also topped the league with 122 hits, a .410 on-base percentage, and a .637 slugging percentage to boot.

Chris Davis isn't really a threat for the Triple Crown, since Miguel Cabrera is a remorseless hitting machine, but he's still leading the world with 35 home runs and a slugging percentage right around .700. He's driven in 88 runs in 93 games, and even with a recent cold streak, he's batting a strong .312. If you're curious, Frank was batting .320 and slugging .613 with 25 homers and 64 RBI through 93 games played in '66.

Hank Bauer paid immediate dividends when the O's hired him as manager prior to the 1964 season. He took a talented but inexperienced team and led them to 97 and 94 wins in his first two seasons on the job. But life was tough in the top-heavy American League, and the Birds finished in third each year. 97 W's did the trick in year number three, and before you could say "sweep", the Orioles had dispatched Koufax, Drysdale, and the Dodgers in a four-game World Series.

When Buck Showalter accepted the O's managerial position in August 2010, the team's immediate hope was to stop the bleeding. At 32-73, they hadn't even won a third of their first 105 games. Buck seemed to provide an instant shot in the arm, as the Orioles went 34-23 down the stretch to avoid the near-inevitable 100-loss mark. They weren't able to carry that momentum into the 2011 season, as injuries and inconsistent pitching left the team mired in last place at 69-93. The Birds flipped the script in 2012, winning 93 games and eking out a postseason berth. They were bounced in the Division Series, losing an agonizing 3-1 elimination game to the Yankees, but for the first time in ages, there seemed to be a strong foundation for optimism. Now, it's the third full season under Buck, and the O's are right in the thick of another American League East dogfight. At 52-42, they're two games ahead of last year's pace, yet they're stuck in third place, five games behind the resurgent Red Sox and a game back of the pesky Rays. Will they match 2012's torrid second half stretch run and return to the postseason, taking a shot at Baltimore's first World Series in three decades? Time will tell.

Brooks Robinson was the homegrown star, a solid hitter with some pop in his bat and an otherworldly defensive presence at third base. He'd already won the A. L. MVP in 1964, but he gladly settled in as a complimentary piece to that other Robinson. He batted .269 with 35 doubles, 23 home runs, and 100 RBI, captured his seventh straight Gold Glove at the hot corner, and was even named All-Star Game MVP for his three hits in a losing effort.

This is where the comparison falters a bit. Manny Machado just celebrated his 21st birthday, so it's not altogether fair to hold him up against a Hall of Famer who collected 2,848 hits and 16 Gold Gloves and inspired an entire generation of Baltimoreans to name their kids "Brooks". But Robinson didn't bat over .300 at 21, as Manny has through the first 94 games of 2013. And Brooks never hit 39 doubles in a full season, much less a bit over half of one. And as for amazing defense, plays like this help the imagination to run wild:

Some enterprising person already compiled an animated image juxtaposing Manny's incredible throw with the one made by Brooksie to retire Lee May in the 1970 World Series.

There's a lot of baseball yet to be played, and the odds don't especially favor the O's in a charge to and through the postseason, but it doesn't sound as insane as it did even a year ago. That's all I could ever ask for.

Frank Robinson, 2012 Topps Retired Rings #RR-FR

Recently I participated in my first card draft over at Thorzul Will Rule. Essentially, Thorzul had a big mess o'big-ticketish cards: autographs, relics, serial-numbered parallels, rookie cards, a little vintage, you name it. So for $25, you could claim a spot in the draft and be guaranteed 20 cards. Once Mr. T posted the master list of cards available, each participant sent a priority list of the 20 cards they wanted most. He established a draft order at random, and proceeded with the draft in a snake order (i.e. 1-12, then 12 back to 1) until one of the participants ran out of potential picks. There were 11 folks entered in the draft, and Thorzul made it through eight rounds before we needed to send updated draft lists. At that point, everyone submitted a new list with their top 25 to 30 choices from among the remaining cards. My pack of 20 arrived in the mail yesterday, and I was quite pleased with the results.

I drafted third overall, and got each of my first five preferred cards, all of which were Orioles. First was this incredibly thick Frank Robinson card, complete with manufactured ring relic embedded in the front. The ring, of course, features his #20, which was retired by the Orioles when they traded him to the Dodgers in 1972. The rest of the top five were a 2008 Nick Markakis Upper Deck A Piece of History Red Parallel (serial numbered 79 of 149), a 2001 Cal Ripken Fleer Tradition Diamond Tributes insert, a 2010 Matt Tucker Bowman Chrome Refractor, and a 2009 David Hernandez Topps Update Chrome Rookie Refractor. The other 15 cards were non-Orioles, but each was a welcome addition to my collection at large:

-1970 Topps Don Kessinger
-1973 Topps Harmon Killebrew
-1979 Topps Jesus Alou
-1979 Topps Rod Carew (Killebrew, Alou, and Carew...I'm a poet and I didn't even know it)
-1981 Donruss Ozzie Smith
-1981 Kellogg's J. R. Richard
-1981 Kellogg's Ben Oglivie
-1981 Kellogg's Joe Charboneau
-1981 Topps Johnny Bench Record Breaker
-1981 Topps Nolan Ryan
-1981 Topps George Brett
-1982 Kellogg's Chet Lemon
-1983 Donruss Carl Yastrzemski
-2002 Topps Opening Day Rickey Henderson Season Highlight
-2012 Topps Tribute Lance Berkman

All told, I had a blast doing this. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more card drafts in the future!

Jim Palmer and Frank Robinson, 2001 Sunoco Dream Team #5

I've heard from a few readers who enjoyed this week's oddball cards, so here's another! It's got some telltale signs of oddity: corporate sponsorship (in this case, Philadelphia-based oil company Sunoco) and lack of a Major League Baseball license. So we get "Baltimore" splashed up at the top of the page in a Microsoft Word font...Forte, maybe? I'm not much of a font wonk. Frank Robinson and Jim Palmer are wearing plain uniforms with some simple striping and numbering. Go Team Gray, White, Orange, and Black! Team G.W.O.B. all the way!

All jokes about design and budget limitations aside, this is a nice concept for a set. There were 12 cards in all, each featuring a pair of retired greats from one team. There were only nine clubs featured, so it's an extra feather in the cap for the O's to make the cut. The others were the Indians (Lou Boudreau/Bob Feller), Mets (Tug McGraw/Gary Carter), Phillies (Mike Schmidt/Steve Carlton and Robin Roberts/Richie Ashburn), Pirates (Willie Stargell/Bill Mazeroski), Red Sox (Luis Tiant/Carlton Fisk and Fred Lynn/Jim Rice), Reds (Tony Perez/Joe Morgan), Tigers (Sparky Anderson/Al Kaline), and Yankees (Don Mattingly/Yogi Berra and Roger Maris/Catfish Hunter). I can't quibble much with the checklist, though you're left wondering why they chose a mix of guys who were teammates and players who weren't contemporaries at all. Then there's the inclusion of manager Sparky Anderson on the Tigers card, which is a real curveball. I'll also just note that of the 24 men featured in this set, most are currently in the Hall of Fame, as you might expect with a "Dream Team" set. McGraw, Tiant, Lynn, Mattingly, and Maris are the only five who are on the outside of Cooperstown looking in, and all were very good players.

I'm certain that I've got an extra copy of this card stashed somewhere in my collection, if anyone would like it. First come, first served.

Frank Robinson, 2012 Topps Blockbusters #BB-3

Gross things about modern baseball cards, Volume 59: Registered trademarks after team names.

Frank Robinson, 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini #255

The Orioles - and baseball at large - lost a great man last week when Hall of Fame executive Lee MacPhail passed away at age 95. Younger Baltimore fans may be more familiar with Lee's son Andy, who served as the O's GM from 2007-2011. But the elder MacPhail put his mark on Charm City as the team's general manager from 1959-1965, also serving as club president for much of his tenure. Lee came to the Orioles after nearly a decade as a top personnel man with the Yankees, which worked out pretty well for all involved. But the powerful New Yorkers were already winners. In just a few years in Baltimore, MacPhail worked with manager Paul Richards to build a winner practically from the ground up. Amateur free agents signed and developed under his watch included Boog Powell, Dave McNally, Jim Palmer, Davey Johnson, and Mark Belanger, just to name a few. Paul Blair was drafted out of the Mets' system. Veterans like Stu Miller, Dick Hall, and Luis Aparicio were picked up in savvy trades. Throughout the early 1960s, the Birds were up-and-comers in the American League.

Then, in December 1965, MacPhail arranged the finishing touch just as he was heading out the door. Tabbed for a job in Major League Baseball's front office as an assistant to new commissioner Spike Eckert, Lee informed new O's GM Harry Dalton (who had been promoted from within the organization) that the framework was in place for a trade that would bring the Reds' slugging outfielder Frank Robinson to the Orioles in exchange for three players (say it with me now): Jack Baldschun, Dick Simpson, and Milt Pappas. Dalton wisely signed off on the deal, and the glory years of Baltimore baseball had arrived.

Lee MacPhail furthered his imprint on the game of baseball in the decades that followed, returning to the Yankees as general manager from 1967-1973 and serving as President of the American League from 1974-1983. He will certainly be missed.

Vintage Fridays: Frank Robinson, 1969 Topps #250

In about an hour, the Orioles will participate in the first-ever American League Wild Card Game, playing on the road against the Texas Rangers. The odds are long for the O's in their first postseason game since 1997, but long odds have been the theme of the year for the 93-win Birds. Joe Saunders probably shouldn't beat Yu Darvish in Arlington, but then the Orioles shouldn't have gone 29-9 in one-run games either. They shouldn't have won 16 consecutive extra-inning games. They shouldn't have battled the Yankees to the end for the Eastern Division title, especially with Brian Roberts, Nolan Reimold, Nick Markakis, and Mark Reynolds each missing big chunks of time. So I like our chances tonight.

If you needed any cosmic themes for the evening, it was 46 years ago today that the Orioles played their first postseason game, stunning the Dodgers with a 5-2 road win in Game One of the 1966 World Series. In the first inning, Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson hit back-to-back home runs off of Don Drysdale; it was all that the O's would need, thanks to 6.2 innings of one-hit, 11-strikeout relief from Moe Drabowsky. The pair of runs that Los Angeles scored in that game were the only two they would get in the Fall Classic, as Baltimore's young pitchers blanked them for the last 33 innings of the Orioles' Series sweep. It all started with one game...

Frank Robinson, 2012 Topps Gold Standard #GS-39

In general, the design of this card leaves a lot to be desired. Gold foil was played out 15 years ago, and I hate cards that shunt the player photo off to one side to make room for needlessly expansive graphic elements. If you've got the "1,500 RBI CLUB" gold seal (which isn't half-bad, actually), why do you need the faded-out "1,500 RBI CLUB"word stamp taking up an entire quarter of the card directly below it? However, the saving grace of this card is the placement of the round gold seal. It looks as if Frank Robinson has just walloped the seal and sent it hurtling right toward your face. Duck!

Frank Robinson, 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Gold Framed Paper #255

On the occasion of my 30th birthday, I felt compelled to feature Frank Robinson, who was dismissed by his previous employers in Cincinnati as "not a young thirty" when they dealt him to the Orioles in December 1965. Indeed, all that he had left in the tank was a Triple Crown, a second MVP award, a half-dozen more All-Star selections, 262 home runs, 803 RBI, and a 160 OPS+. I don't know if my thirties will bring the same successes that Robby experienced, but I can't complain about the way the next decade of my life has started. While I was celebrating with my family over burgers and ice cream cake this afternoon, the O's eked out their 11th straight extra inning win, outlasting David Price and the Rays 1-0 on Taylor Teagarden's 10th-inning RBI double. For my birthday, the Birds have given me meaningful August baseball for the first time in my adulthood. They went 4-2 on a road swing through New York and Tampa, and are just a game out of both wild card slots. With a homestand against last-place Kansas City and Seattle clubs, as well as a still-scuffling Boston team, this would be a good week to get hot. And because I'm still keeping score, the Orioles are now 32-22 all-time on August 5, including a 19-10 mark in my lifetime.

Frank Robinson, 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Moonshots #MS-FR

I'm pretty indifferent to the Gypsy Queen hullabaloo, but this is a mighty appealing card. There's the deep plum-colored border, which is superior to the bland, muted earth tones that are prevalent in the regular set.  Then there's the focus of the card; it commemorates Frank Robinson's towering home run off of Cleveland pitcher Luis Tiant on Sunday, May 8, 1966. It was Robby's second home run in that day's doubleheader, it gave the O's a 2-0 lead in the nightcap of the twinbill, and it was the only ball that ever left Memorial Stadium on the fly. For decades afterward, a simple orange flag flew at the stadium. It read "HERE" in plain black letters, and it was planted in the left field stands where the ball left the premises. Frank's clout reportedly traveled 541 feet, and according to the Hall of Famer himself, the original flag has been in his possession since the club left Memorial Stadium at the end of the 1991 season.

Frank Robinson, 2011 Kimball Champions Mini #KC-77

Later this evening I will be at Oriole Park at Camden Yards to witness the unveiling of Frank Robinson's statue in the picnic area beyond the bullpens. I'm excited just to get the chance to see the Hall of Famer up (reasonably) close for the first time, and he won't be the only all-time great in attendance. Among others, the Orioles are expecting Hank Aaron, Bill Russell (the Celtics' center, not the Dodgers' shortstop), Jim Palmer, Earl Weaver, and Eddie Murray. It's an honor that is a long time coming for the man who retired with more career home runs than anyone other than Aaron, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays. I'll definitely give you a report on the ceremonies, complete with pictures, in the next week.

Vintage Fridays: Frank Robinson, 1966 Topps #310

Thirty years ago today, Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson were both elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. Talk about your no-brainers. At the time, they were #1 (Aaron) and #4 (Robinson) all-time in career home runs, which is to say nothing about their barrier-breaking roles as black superstars in the 1950s and on through into the 1970s. Robby was even the first black manager, and had unrealized dreams of being a general manager as well.

But look at the voting results from that 1982 ballot. Hammerin' Hank, despite being the all-time home run king and owning all of the sorts of big numbers that have long made baseball writers ooh and aah (3,771 hits, .305 AVG, 2,297 RBI), was left off of NINE ballots, settling for 97.8% approval. That's bad enough, but you can chalk it up to the tiny, moronic cabal that insists that "Babe Ruth didn't get 100%, so no one else should". If we were all bound to the poor decisions of our ancestors, Hank and Frank would never have even gotten the chance to play in the major leagues, so...way to miss the point, fellas.

Look at the next line of results. Frank Robinson got 89.2% of the vote. 370 out of 415. There were 45 clowns that didn't think that big, mean, driven Frank Robinson, with more career homers than anyone not named Hank, Babe, or Willie, with a Rookie of the Year, two MVP awards (one from each league, which had never been done before), a dozen All-Star seasons, the 1966 A.L. Triple Crown, a pair of World Series rings, a .926 career OPS, etc. etc. etc., was either a) worthy of Cooperstown or b) a "first-ballot player" (a fallacy almost as stupefying as the 100% rule). It makes my temples throb just to think about it.

Further down-ballot, we see a full dozen eventual enshrinees who failed to collect the 75% necessary to join Messrs. Aaron and Robinson in the Class of '82. Some are on the outer fringes of Hall-worthiness (Don Drysdale, Red Schoendienst), and surely there were tough choices to be made in filling no more than ten slots on one's ballot, but the notion that it took Juan Marichal three years and Harmon Killebrew (59.3% in 1982!) four years to pass the test is still galling to me. The lesson here is that the BBWAA at large may be creating its biggest mess ever with all of the steroid posturing, but their membership has always acted curiously. It just seems to be snowballing now.

Frank Robinson, 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Charcoal #18

Happy 76th birthday, Frank Robinson! Nothing seems to slow down Robby, who punished pitchers with a career total of 586 home runs. He hit only 2 of those on August 31:

-August 31, 1956: Rookie Frank celebrated his 21st birthday with his 31st longball, a game-tying shot off of Chicago's Bob Rush to tie the game 3-3. Five batters later, the Reds celebrated a walkoff win on a Smoky Burgess sacrifice fly.

-August 31, 1966: En route to a Triple Crown, MVP, and World Series win in his debut season in Baltimore, Frank showed that he wasn't an old 31 by taking Luis Tiant deep in Cleveland. His two-out eighth inning blast also scored Curt Blefary and gave the O's a 2-1 lead. They went on to win 5-1 and boosted their stranglehold on first place to a dozen games.

Do you know how Frank Robinson celebrates his birthday? However he damned well pleases.