Bill Robinson Was Just Swell (After a While)

He had big cleats to fill but forged his own path home

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1990 Swell Bill Robinson (#114) - Card of the Day

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Young baseball players often face unreasonable expectations when they become pros, especially when those expectations come on the back of a valuable first-round draft pick or with the duty of stepping into someone else’s shoes.

Bill Robinson was able to avoid that first tripwire, signing with the Milwaukee Braves as an amateur free agent in June 1961 and then spending most of the next six summers in the minor leagues. Along the way, he developed into a consistent .300 hitter and built his power profile to the point that he hit 20 home runs in a partial 1966 season for the Triple-A Richmond Braves.

Those slow-burn results ratcheted up the expectation that Robinson would be able to contribute to the big league team, and he got the chance to make good on the promise he had shown with a late-season call-up that same year.

On September 20, 1966, Braves manager Billy Hitchcock brought in Robinson to pinch run in the bottom of the seventh in Atlanta (where the team had moved the previous offseason) with the Braves up, 4-1, over the Cardinals.

The man Robinson replaced on the basepaths? A fella named Hank Aaron, who had just doubled home Eddie Mathews with one out. Robinson moved to third on a Joe Torre groundout, but then Rico Carty flied out to end the inning.

Robinson stayed in the game, also replacing Aaron in right field. Big shoes, indeed.

The rookie didn’t come to the plate in that game, but he did end up hitting .273 in 11 plate appearances over six games down the stretch. Then, in November, the Braves traded Robinson and Chi-Chi Olivo to the Yankees for Clete Boyer.

Robinson’s presence gave the Bombers some leeway in their outfield, and they exercised that wiggle room in December, trading Roger Maris to the Cardinals for Charley Smith.

And so it was that Robinson arrived in the Bronx with the general expectation that he would be replacing the single-season home run record-holder in right field.

No pressure, right?

Robinson was up to the task, at least to start, and went 2-for-5 with a home run on Opening Day before things got rough in a hurry. By the end of April, he was hitting .143, still with one dinger, and was sitting at .101 (yes, with one homer) at the end of May.

His 162-homer pace on Opening Day had fallen to about a 3-homer pace in the span of two months.

Things got a bit better from there through the end of the season, but Robinson lost his starting job to Steve Whitaker and ended up at .196 with seven home runs and 29 RBI on the season.

More part time play across the outfield positions followed the next two summers, and then the Yanks sent Robinson to the minors for 1970. Next, they flipped him to the White Sox for Barry Moore in December and, after another season on the farm, the Sox traded him to the Phillies for Gerardo Rodriguez.

Robinson finally made it back to the majors with the Phillies in 1972 at age 29 and stayed there for most of the next 11 seasons.

Well, he stayed in the majors, that is. He also stayed in Pennsylvania, his home state, trading in his Phillies uniform for Pirates togs — and vice versa. In April of 1975, the Phils traded him for Wayne Simpson, and then the Pirates sent him back across the state in June of 1982 for Wayne Nordhagen.

If you wanted Bill Robinson on your team, you had to be willing to give up a Wayne or two, it seemed.

At any rate, his Keystone Kombo years saw Robinso rack up enough games and production that he ended his career with more than 200 appearances at first base and at each of the three outfield positions, as well as more than 100 at the third. And when he finally hit the locker room after his final game on May 23, 1983, Robinson had accumulated 1127 hits, 166 home runs, 229 doubles, and 641 RBI.

Not Roger Maris, and certainly not Hank Aaron, but a wonderful career that also produced a World Series ring with the 1979 We Are Family Pirates.

And, seven years after he retired as a player, a slot in the 1990 Swell Baseball Greats set that also served as a sort of belated career-capper:

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The late William Henry Robinson, who passed away in 2007, was born on June 26, 1943.

1983 Topps Fernando Valenzuela Breaks the Winter

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Robinson’s last plate appearance came as a pinch hitter, replacing Ivan de Jesus in the bottom of the eighth at Veterans Stadium on May 23, 1983 with one out and the Phillies down 1-0.

Robinson struck out and then was replaced by Kiko Garcia, who came in to play shortstop in the ninth. The Dodgers scored another run in that frame, and Fernando held the Phils scoreless again to cap a 4-hit, 2-walk, 7-strikeout complete-game shutout.

About the same time, collectors were getting familiar with Fernando’s sunny 1983 Topps baseball card. That one’s always worth another look, which you can get right here.

Not that you care, but this is probably also my favorite Fernando card…which one is YOURS??