RadioOnFire.com - Frank Robinson, the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame slugger and baseball lifer who played a key role in the team's first World Series championship, died Thursday after a long battle with cancer. He was 83.
A right fielder, Robinson played for five teams in his 21-season career and remains the only player to be named the most valuable player in both leagues. A Triple Crown winner, he was a member of two World Series champion Orioles squads. He hit 586 career home runs, 179 of them as an Oriole.
Robinson passed away in his Los Angeles home surrounded by his wife Barbara, daughter Nichelle and other family and friends. Brooks Robinson spoke to him a few days before his death.
"He just was wonderful teammate and put us over the hump," the Hall of Fame third baseman said of his teammate. "We'd been close for a couple of years but had never been able to win."
The Baltimore Ravens, in a statement, called Robinson "one of the most important and influential figures in Baltimore sports history" and hailed his contributions to baseball and to Baltimore.
A first-ballot entry into Cooperstown, Robinson was also the first black manager in baseball, becoming player-manager of the Cleveland Indians in 1975 and staying on as manager a year after he hung up his cleats in 1977. Robinson's No. 20 was the first to be retired by the Orioles, and was also retired by the Indians and the Cincinnati Reds, with whom he debuted. He is one of just two players, the other being Nolan Ryan, to have their number retired by three different clubs.
Source WBAL
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