Eddie Robinson obit

Former Rangers GM, MLB’s oldest living ex-player Eddie Robinson dies at 100

Robinson served as the Rangers’ general manager from 1976-82.

 

He was not on the list.

Former Rangers general manager Eddie Robinson, who had been the oldest living ex-major league player, died Monday night at his home in Fort Worth at the age of 100.

Robinson, who would have turned 101 in December, was the Rangers’ GM from 1976-82 during a 65-year career in professional baseball that began during World War II. He was witness to some of the game’s most historic moments, including being the Atlanta Braves general manager when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record.

“The Texas Rangers are incredibly saddened with the passing of the legendary Eddie Robinson, who spent nearly 70 years in professional baseball as an All-Star player and respected executive,” the Rangers said in a statement. “In his later years, Mr. Robinson was a regular and welcome visitor at Rangers home games, and his unique ability to analyze and discuss the game, past and present, was truly amazing. The Rangers were honored to help Mr. Robinson celebrate his 100th birthday last December, and he made a final spring training visit to Arizona this past February. He was a great ambassador for baseball to the end.

“The entire Rangers organization sends its thoughts and prayers to his wife, Bette, sons Robby, Marc, Drew, and Paul and the entire Robinson family. For Eddie Robinson, it was truly a life well lived.”

Robinson, who was born in Paris, Texas, began a 13-year playing career in 1942 with Cleveland. He appeared in eight games that season, then spent three years in military service before rejoining the Indians late in 1945. He played in Cleveland through 1948. He was the last living member of Cleveland’s 1948 World Championship team.

Robinson went on to appear for six other American League clubs during a playing career that lasted until 1957. He was at one time teammates with Mickey Mantle and later was Aaron’s GM during the chase for home run No. 715. He later traded Aaron to Milwaukee so he could finish up his legendary career where he began.

Eddie Robinson, a left-handed batter who threw right-handed, played four seasons in the minor leagues before being briefly called up at the end of the 1942 season by the Cleveland Indians. He enlisted in the US Navy after the 1942 season and did not resume his baseball career till 1946. He suffered a leg injury while in the service, and never fully recovered fully thanks to a botched operation, but he recovered sufficiently to enjoy an outstanding major league career. He enjoyed his most prominent team moment when, at the age of 27, he contributed to his first team, the Cleveland Indians, winning the 1948 World Series. Although traded during that offseason, he was still at the top of his game and, at the next two teams, Washington Senators (1949–50) and Chicago White Sox (1950–52), experienced the most productive seasons of his time in the majors. In 1951 Robinson began his life-long relationship with Paul Richards when former player Richards started his major league career as a manager with the Chicago White Sox.

Overall, he appeared in 1,315 games and batted .268 with 172 home runs and 723 runs batted in. Defensively, he finished his career with a .990 fielding percentage playing every inning at first base. He did not play in the 1943 through 1945 seasons, due to his service in the US Navy during World War II.

A four-time All-Star, he was the American League's starting first baseman for the midsummer classics of 1949 and 1952. The first game was a slugfest, 11-7, won by the American League, with a Robinson first-inning single off National League starter Warren Spahn driving in Joe DiMaggio. In the 1952 game, a rain-shortened 3-2 National League victory, Robinson singled in the American League's first run, scoring Minnie Miñoso, who had led off the fourth inning with a double.

In 1955, while playing for the New York Yankees as a part-time player, Robinson hit 16 home runs while having only 36 hits. He also had more runs batted in than hits, knocking in 42 runs. For the season he hit only .208 in 173 at bats, and had 36 base-on-balls.

Robinson was the oldest living Major League player who began his career during or after the 1940s, and he was the last living player whose Major League career was interrupted by World War II service. (Chris Haughey never made it back to the majors, and Eddie Basinski and Tommy Brown were civilians throughout the war.)

Upon retirement, he became a coach for the Baltimore Orioles and then moved into their player development department. A protégé of Orioles manager and fellow Texan Paul Richards, he followed Richards to the Houston Astros, then worked as the farm system director of the Kansas City Athletics during the tempestuous ownership of Charlie Finley in the mid-1960s. In 1968 he rejoined Richards in the front office of the Atlanta Braves. He succeeded Richards as general manager of the Braves during the 1972 season, serving through early 1976 in that post.

Robinson then returned to the American League as a member of the Texas Rangers front office. In 1977, Robinson was named co-general manager (with Dan O'Brien Sr.) of the Rangers, and became sole GM from 1978–82. Although the Rangers posted winning seasons in 1977, 1978 and 1981, a disastrous 1982 campaign cost Robinson his General Manager job.

Continuing in baseball as a scout and player development consultant, he found his last position as a scout for the Boston Red Sox, the only team of the "original eight" American League clubs that he did not play for.

The last living Cleveland Indians player to win a World Series championship (there are no living players who played on an earlier World Series championship team than Robinson's 1948 Indians), Robinson attended Game 6 of the 2016 World Series between the Indians and Chicago Cubs at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Robinson currently lives in Fort Worth, Texas. After the death of outfielder Val Heim, Robinson was recognized as the oldest living baseball player.

Eddie Robinson enlisted in the U.S. Navy after the 1942 season; he served three years. After basic training, he married Elayne Elder in February 1943. They had two children, one of whom died in childhood, and divorced in 1951.

He married the former Bette Farlow, a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1955. The couple raised three sons — Marc, Drew and Paul. As of 1993 they had lived in Woodhaven Country Club Estates for 15 years and also grew and sold pecans from a farm near Austin.

He resided in Fort Worth, Texas, where he and Bette moved in 1984.

On December 15, 2020, Robinson turned 100. He was working on a podcast, "The Golden Age of Baseball", through which he hoped to eventually have donations made to the Alzheimer's Foundation.

Robinson then joined the Rangers in 1976 and was with the club until the 1982 season when he was replaced by Joe Klein. He finished his career working as a scout for Boston. He was, however, never far from the game. He published an autobiography on his 65 years in the game in 2011 entitled “Lucky Me.”

He had planned to go spring training again in 2020 but opted not to go after doctors mentioned the risk associated with the emerging COVID-19 virus. In December, he was honored with a drive-by birthday celebration as he reached 100 years.

“It’s just something that’s happening,” Robinson said about a week before the celebration. “It’s just another birthday. But, of course, it’s an important birthday.”

Service arrangements are still pending.

Some of his former teammates, owners, managers and coaches include: Alva Bradley, Roger Peckinpaugh, Lou Boudreau, Allie Reynolds, Bob Lemon, Roy Weatherly, Jack Graney, Bill Veeck, Bob Neal, Bob Feller, Sherm Lollar, Frankie Hayes, Van Patrick, Larry Doby, Tris Speaker, Jim Hegan, Ray Boone, Satchel Paige, Clark Griffith, George H. Richardson, Joe Kuhel, Arch McDonald, Bob Wolff, Eddie Yost, John Jachym, H. Gabriel Murphy, Mickey Vernon, Bucky Harris, Grace Comiskey, Frank Lane, Jack Onslow, Red Corriden, Jack Brickhouse, Cass Michaels, Billy Pierce, Nellie Fox, Luke Appling, Chico Carrasquel, Frank Lane, Jim Busby, Marv Grissom, Doc Cramer, Joe Dobson, Earle Mack, Roy Mack, Arthur Ehlers, Jimmy Dykes, Eddie Joost, Bobby Shantz, Harry Byrd, By Saam, Dan Topping, Del Webb, George Weiss, Casey Stengel, Phil Rizzuto, Bob Grim, Enos Slaughter, Ralph Houk, Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Bill Skowron, Gil McDougald, Ralph Branca, Whitey Ford, Jerry Coleman, Bob Cerv, Mel Allen, Jim Woods, Red Barber, Billy Martin, Bobby Richardson, Don Larsen, Elston Howard, Bob Turley, Ralph Terry, Hank Bauer, Arnold Johnson, Tommy Lasorda, Clete Boyer, Jim Bunning, Jack Tighe, Al Kaline, Harvey Kuenn, Hank Aguirre, Joe Altobelli, Russ Nixon, Herb Score, Roger Maris, Dick Williams, Mel Harder, Eddie Stanky, Kerby Farrell, Rocky Colavito, Early Wynn, Hoyt Wilhelm, Don Mossi, George Kell, Brooks Robinson, Milt Pappas, Dizzy Trout and Connie Johnson.