| Bob Costas
Announcer: Boeing
presents another in a series of essays from contemporary opinion
leaders. Today, author and sports broadcaster
Bob Costas. Mr. Costas: Another man might have rested on his achievements
as a ballplayer; 1956 Rookie of the Year, MVP in both the American
and National Leagues, 1966 Triple Crown Winner, 586 career
homeruns and two World Series rings.
But Frank Robinson was not another man.
Frank Robinson wanted to be a manager. But, in 1974, he was
no shoe-in for the job. A Hall of Fame career wasn’t
enough. In fact, in 1974, there wasn’t a single African-American
major league manager. And there had never been one.
He’d put in two decades as a player. And toward the
end of that run, he worked double-duty, managing winter ball
in Puerto Rico during the off-season. It was there that he’d
prove himself in the dugout, becoming that league’s 1970
Manager of the Year. But still it wouldn’t be easy, the
idea of a black manager was then foreign to baseball.
Finally he had his day. In 1975 it was announced that Robinson
would be the new manager of the Cleveland Indians. He’d
broken a significant barrier becoming major league baseball’s
first African-American manager.
And he’d remain an important voice in baseball, lobbying
for fair representation for people of color in management and
front office roles. Slowly the door has opened for others.
Today there are six black and Hispanic managers in the majors.
With his prominent role in the game’s on-field and social
history, it’s fitting that Frank Robinson now leads the
Washington Nationals, the new team in our nation’s capital.
Thirty years ago at the press conference announcing him as
the new manager of the Indians, Frank modestly accepted his
accolades. Then, in reference to another baseball pioneer,
a Brooklyn Dodger who also went by the name of Robinson, Frank
said “I only wish Jackie could be sitting here beside
me.”
Announcer: Boeing. Forever New Frontiers.
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