Frank Robinson

Before I get into this, remember, it's an opinion from a guy who never saw Frank Robinson play. If I did, I don't recall specifically. But I would have been about 5 or 6 and he would have been a player-manager in Cleveland. So I don't have any of those memories that many Orioles fans do. That's not to say I don't know much about Frank Robinson. I grew up as a kid in Baltimore in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the youngest in a baseball family. My brothers - and heck, my father - would explain to me that as good as those Eddie/Cal Orioles clubs were, they weren't close to those Frank/Brooks/Palmer teams.

The solitary orange banner waved over the left field wall at old Memorial Stadium for years. “HERE” is all it said in blocky black lettering. No other words were necessary. Everyone knew what it meant: here's where Frank hit it out. Wednesday marks the 47th anniversary of that historic home run, when Orioles outfielder and future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson became the only player to hit a baseball completely out of the old ballpark on 33rd Street during a game. It happened on May 8, 1966, in the second game of a doubleheader against the Cleveland Indians, when Robinson hit a mammoth two-run shot off Indians starter Luis Tiant in the first inning.

We have countless awesome sports photos in the archives here at The Baltimore Sun , and I have decided to share one with you each week in a regular feature called "Throwback Thursday. " With the Cincinnati Reds coming to Camden Yards this weekend for an interleague series, I decided to search for old photos from 1970, the year Frank Robinson and the Orioles beat the Reds to claim their second World Series title. In this AP file photo from September 30, 1970, Robinson is shown chilling out at his locker stall, where he was answering questions from reporters about the three other teams left standing -- the Reds, the Twins and the Pirates.

You see the jerseys every time the Orioles play at Camden Yards, often on boys born 20 years after the man shelved his famous mitt - No. 5. Robinson. The combination of that name and that number will always stir the souls of those who watched Brooks Robinson make impossible play after impossible play along the third-base line at Memorial Stadium. But even their children and grandchildren, who never glimpsed his magician's act, have heard the stories of Robinson's kindness - the way anybody could run into him at the mall and receive not only an autograph but a few minutes of genial conversation with a Hall of Famer.

"Close don't count in baseball. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. " Frank Robinson is quoted as coining that phrase during an interview with Time Magazine in July 1973, which is to say you wouldn't expect him to put too much stock in the Orioles' 12-7 start to this season. But Robinson - who will be immortalized with a statue at Camden Yards on Saturday - said he feels the organization is on the upswing. “I think this team is headed in the right direction,” Robinson said in an interview Saturday when he attended the President's Cup championship at Camden Yards . “They're building.

The intense stare is captured, the look of a slugger tracking a ball hit well into the night. The bat is dangling from the bronzed Frank Robinson's left hand. “I'm looking at the ball going out in the outfield, but I am ready to drop that bat and get my damn butt down the bases,” the flesh-and-bones Robinson quipped Saturday evening. “I don't want to stay up there [at the plate] too long.” Robinson, the Hall of Fame outfielder who led the Orioles to their first world championship in 1966 and a string of three more World Series appearances in the next five years, on Saturday became the first player to have his likeness replicated in a life-size bronze statue in the Garden of the Greats picnic area behind center field at Camden Yards.

As a player and manager, Frank Robinson represented seven major league organizations in eight cities. These days, he lives about 2,700 miles away in the Los Angeles area and makes it back to Baltimore only about two or three times a year. But when Robinson gets stopped in the street, wherever he is, there's one team people almost always ask him about. "People will say, 'I remember you, you played with the Orioles,'" Robinson said. "I'll say, 'Well, I played 10 years with Cincinnati first.' "'Oh, you did?

Ask him for the highlight of his Hall of Fame career and Frank Robinson jumps on it like a high fastball. "The '66 season," he told The Baltimore Sun last month. "I couldn't have scripted the first year [with the Orioles] any better. That's winning the pennant, that's sweeping the Dodgers [in the World Series], that's winning the Triple Crown and the Most Valuable Player. That's Hollywood stuff. " None of that happens without Robinson, the headstrong 30-year-old outfielder obtained from the Cincinnati Reds.

Former manager Frank Robinson has agreed to become an assistant general manager for the team, the Orioles and Robinson's agent said today."We're obviously pleased that Frank will continue to be an important member of the Orioles family," said Roland Hemond, the Orioles' executive vice president and general manager.Robinson, who was fired May 23, was on vacation and could not be reached for comment. He starts his new job Monday.Ed Keating, his Cleveland-based agent, said Robinson would take a pay cut."

Before we dive headfirst into this week's pool of "Q's & A's" let me remind county student-athletes about something very important.You may want to start gathering information for your All-County Academic Athletic Team ballot, which will start running on these pages in January.The Anne Arundel County Sun once again will be searching for the county's best student-athletes.All county high school students will be eligible to apply for what will be the ninth annual Anne Arundel County Sun All-County Academic Athletic Team.

BOSTON -- If revenge really is a dish that is best served cold, Sunday's sports menu in Baltimore and Boston could end up looking like an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet. The Red Sox certainly have a score to settle after the Orioles knocked them out of the playoff picture in dramatic fashion last year on the final day of the regular season at Camden Yards. The Ravens would also like to get even after the New England Patriots ended their season with a late score in the AFC Championship Game in Foxboro, Mass.

Here it is September and not only are the Baltimore Orioles in contention for post-season play for the first time in nearly a generation, as of mid-week they were tied for first place with the New York Yankees. What a fitting backdrop this Orioles team is to the tribute being paid this season by the ballclub to six of its legendary players, including Aberdeen's own Cal Ripken Jr. On Thursday, a bronze statue of Ripken was unveiled alongside previously revealed statues of Earl Weaver, Jim Palmer, Frank Robinson and Eddie Murray.

Jim Palmer is being honored with his sculpture today. Several notables in attendance, none bigger than Brooks Robinson - who has missed the first two celebrations (Earl Weaver and Frank Robinson) due to health reasons. Brooks had his own ceremony pushed back to September. But he is here and looks good. Brooks received a huge ovation from the crowd. Also here are Hall-of-Famers Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken Jr. and Baltimore native Al Kaline. Frank Robinson, who lives in California, is the only Oriole in the Hall-of-Fame who didn't make it. Former Oriole Ken Singleton was the first speaker.

Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver took a long look at the larger-than-life bronze likeness of himself that was unveiled at Camden Yards on Saturday and expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the people who made it possible. "My thanks to Mr. Angelos and the Angelos family," he said, "and thanks to Toby Mendez, the sculptor, who made me look like Buck. " It was vintage Earl. He spent 10 minutes at the unveiling ceremony giving credit for his amazing record as Orioles manager to the men who mentored him in the minor leagues, the owners and executives who gave him his chance to manage in the major leagues and the players who carried him to five 100-win seasons in Baltimore.

Tickets remain for Saturday's Baltimore Orioles-Cleveland Indians game, according to the Orioles. The game is scheduled to start at 4:05 p.m. Prior to the game, at about 2:15 p.m., the Orioles will have a ceremony unveiling the statue of former manager Earl Weaver. His will be the second statue to join the Orioles' new statue garden beyond center field. Frank Robinson's statue, by Antonio Tobias "Toby" Mendez, was unveiled April 28. Still left after Robinson and Weaver: Jim Palmer (July 14)

WASHINGTON - Once considered a key member of the Orioles' young rotation, right-hander Brad Bergesen will be pitching for Triple-A Norfolk on Sunday without a spot on the organization's 40-man roster. That's something he hasn't done in more than four years. "It's been an interesting process, something I've gone through for the first time, kind of the in-limbo phase," said Bergesen, who was taken off the 40-man roster Friday when the Orioles made room for Bill Hall . "There was some unknown, whether I'd be playing for another team … I was kind of on pins and needles.

Coming off the bench is not a job that Frank Robinson performed very often in a 21-year career that included two world championships and two Most Valuable Player awards, one in each league.But when Home Team Sports was left without either of its regular Orioles analysts, John Lowenstein or Jim Palmer, for the first two games of this weekend's Oakland series, the cable channel pressed Robinson into service.And, as he did 586 times in his Hall of Fame career, Robinson hit a home run, making an impressive return to the broadcasting booth, where he had been absent since a stint during the 1975 American League playoffs for NBC.Robinson was blunt, outspoken and informative throughout his two-game stay, making the kinds of points you'd expect from a man who had been around the game for 43 years, but articulately and with a sense of humor.

Fifty years after Jackie Robinson, you need only four fingers to count the number of minority managers in major-league baseball. Not embarrassing enough?Fifty years after Jackie Robinson, you also can count the number of minority general managers, farm directors and scouting directors on one hand.If baseball truly wants to honor Robinson's memory, it should state its sins before President Clinton tonight at Shea Stadium, and confess to the minority-hiring "achievements" of its 30 major-league clubs.

Ask him for the highlight of his Hall of Fame career and Frank Robinson jumps on it like a high fastball. "The '66 season," he told The Baltimore Sun last month. "I couldn't have scripted the first year [with the Orioles] any better. That's winning the pennant, that's sweeping the Dodgers [in the World Series], that's winning the Triple Crown and the Most Valuable Player. That's Hollywood stuff. " None of that happens without Robinson, the headstrong 30-year-old outfielder obtained from the Cincinnati Reds.

There is no Red Sox- or Cubs-style curse on the Orioles - nothing involving Babe Ruth, “No, No, Nanette” or a malodorous goat. At least not that I know of. But we all know the Orioles haven't won since 1997. That sure was an eventful season for the franchise. The O's went wire-to-wire, winning the AL East and advancing to the ALCS before falling short of the World Series. Manager Davey Johnson and owner Peter Angelos had a stunning baseball divorce after the season was over, and Johnson stepped down before completing his third and final contract season.