|
|
 |
|
|
 ROBIN ROBERTS ...dead at 83 |
|
|
Roberts was a lot more than just a great pitcher
By MAURY ALLEN
of TheColumnists.com
He was the anchor
of one of the glamour teams of the 20th century, the 1950 Whiz
Kids, the collection of young stars of the Philadelphia Phillies
who won the team’s first pennant in 35 years.
Robin Roberts won 20 games for that pennant winner with the final
victory coming on the last day of the season in Ebbets Field
when Cal Abrams of the Brooklyn Dodgers couldn’t score from
second base on Duke Snider’s single and Dick Sisler hit
a three run 10th inning homer for the Phillies win.
Roberts was matched against the Dodgers hulking right hander
Don Newcombe in that contest as they often were in games that
would see both pitchers go all the way even if it got into the
10th, 11th or 12th innings in an era of titanic pitchers.
When Roberts died the other day at the age of 83 at his home
in Temple Terrace, Florida, I recalled a tale he told me a few
years back at a Hall of Fame induction weekend in Cooperstown.
“Dick Sisler had this terrible stammer and typical of
those bench jockeying days,” Roberts recalled, “the
Dodgers were all over him, making fun of his inability to get
out a few words without repeating himself three or four times.”
Sisler walked to the plate in the 10th and three or four of the
Dodgers were needling him from their bench. He couldn’t
or wouldn’t answer back. He just pumped his bat.
He sent the next pitch flying over the wall for three runs and
he had this huge grin on his face as he rounded the bases.
“As he came into our dugout I think I heard him say without
a stammer, ‘That should shut them up.’ I think it surely
did," Roberts said.
Roberts was born in Springfield, Illinois, land of Lincoln, on
September 30, 1926, the son of Welsh immigrants. His father was
a burly coal miner and taught young Robin the game of baseball
with a cricket bat.
He won a basketball scholarship to Michigan State but played
some baseball in college and in an amateur league in Vermont
where he was spotted by a Phillies scout. The Phillies were collecting
the young players--Richie Ashburn, Del Ennis, Granny Hamner,
Willie Puddin’ Head Jones, Curt Simmons and Mike Goliat--that
would lead them to the 1950 title.
Roberts was signed for a healthy $25,000 bonus and assigned to
the Phillies farm club in nearby Delaware.
“I was getting ready to start the minor league afternoon
game when I was called into the office and told to get on a train
for Philadelphia. I left the clubhouse in about 15 minutes and
headed for the train station. Players going up move fast while
players sent down move very slowly," Roberts said.
He arrived at Shibe Park an hour before the game and met with
manager Eddie Sawyer.
“Can you pitch tonight?” the skipper asked him.
“Isn’t that why I’m here?” he said.
He went on to win 286 games in 19 big league seasons with the
Phillies, Orioles, Astros and Cubs. He was signed by the Yankees
after the 1961 season, but was cut in spring training.
His final contribution to the game may have occurred in 1966
when he was a member of the Major League Baseball Players Committee
asked to come up with a union leader.
“I was at a Steelworkers Union meeting in San Francisco,”
said Marvin Miller, the revolutionary figure who changed the
financial structure of the game. “when one of the union
executives asked me if I knew a player by the name of Robin Roberts.
I grew up in Brooklyn. How could I not know Roberts.”
They soon met and Roberts decided that Miller was the man for
the job of representing the players. Baseball salaries grew from
an average of $6,000 a year then to over $3 million a year now.
Roberts stayed connected with baseball as a college coach in
Florida and a frequent spring training instructor with the Phillies.
He was in their 2010 spring camp as the Phillies put together
a team they hoped could beat the Yankees in the Series.
The still handsome former pitcher stayed involved in the Hall
of Fame as a board member after his own election and was a regular
visitor to the yearly induction ceremonies.
We often sat on the back porch of the famed Otesaga Hotel in
Cooperstown talking about his pitching accomplishments and reminiscing
about the greats of the game-- Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays,
Ralph Kiner and Stan Musial--he had faced in his career.
Robin Roberts was a wonderful pitcher with a marvelous career.
He was, more so, a wonderful man with decency, dignity and kindness.
©2010 by Maury Allen.
The Maury Allen caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. This
column first posted May 10, 2010.
TO ACCESS MAURY ALLEN'S ARCHIVE OF COLUMNS
ON THIS SITE, CLICK HERE: ALLEN ARCHIVE
|
|
|
Archives |
|
|