CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Indians and Major League Baseball lost an icon just before the start of spring training in February when groundbreaking manager Frank Robinson passed away at the age of 83.
The Indians and MLB honored Robinson’s memory with a touching video tribute in the middle of the second inning of the 2019 MLB All-Star Game at Progressive Field in Cleveland, where a bronze statue of him stands in Heritage Park in center field.
An outfielder and first baseman, Robinson played 21 years in Major League Baseball, including a decade-long run with the Cincinnati Reds, as well as stints with the Baltimore Orioles, Indians, California Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Over his 16-year managerial career, which began with his historic hiring by the Indians in 1975 as the first African-American manager in MLB history, Robinson won 1,065 games. Robinson was a player-manager with the Indians for two seasons.
“I know that Frank is definitely looking down on me,” National League manager Dave Roberts, of the Dodgers, said Monday. “He was a good friend of mine, a mentor and shared a lot of thoughts and stories with me.
“My Major League career started in Cleveland. There's a lot of layers to this experience for me, whether it's my African-American side, Japanese side, you know, our starting pitcher is from South Korea. So there's a lot of good things that people can kind of relate to our game.
“For me, for Frank, for his family, yeah, I definitely will have a moment where I'll look up and give him a little thumbs up.”
