UNWANTED VACATION : Robinson Had Hoped for All-Star Trip

Jeff Robinson’s trip from the All-Star break into the second half of the 1988 baseball season wasn’t what he had hoped it would be.

Oh, the drive up Interstate 5 from San Diego to Anaheim with Detroit Tiger teammate Matt Nokes and their wives was pleasant enough. And a few days at home with his parents, his wife Stefanie and their eight-month-old daughter, Shaylyn, was nice.

But with a 10-3 record and a 3.02 earned-run average, Robinson had hoped that the family gathering would be in the Midwest. He wanted to make the trip to Anaheim from Cincinnati, site of the All-Star game.

But it wasn’t to be. Teammate Doyle Alexander (8-4, 3.15) was chosen as the lone Tiger All-Star representative, and Robinson got a three-day vacation.

“I felt like I had a real good chance to make it,” said Robinson, who will pitch against the Angels at Anaheim Stadium Saturday afternoon. “But I didn’t spend a lot of time worrying about it. If I made the team, great, and if not, hopefully, I’ll get another opportunity.”

If he continues to pitch as he has this season, Robinson should have plenty of other opportunities.

“Robinson has the best stuff on the staff,” said Sparky Anderson, the Tiger manager. “He throws a hard slider, and he has the best forkball you’ll ever want to see. He’s got stuff like (teammate Jack) Morris has.”

Not only does Robinson have big league stuff, he has big league dimensions--6-feet 7-inches, 210 pounds.

“He’s a horse,” Anderson said. “There’s a big difference between a 6-7 man coming off the mound and a 6-3 man.”

Robinson’s size is certainly to his advantage, but his success this year is not because of height alone. He has undergone some subtle transitions during his major league career, which began on April 9, 1987.

“Obviously, he’s pitched very well this year--and the key word there is pitched,” said Alexander. “He hasn’t just thrown the ball. He’s been a pitcher. He goes out there and makes good pitches.”

Robinson throws four pitches--a fastball, slider, forkball and changeup. His out pitch is the fastball, which ranges in speed from the upper 80s to low 90s.

He has not added any pitches to his repertoire since last season, when he went 9-6 with a 5.37 ERA. What he has added is confidence.

“You’ve got to remember it’s another year,” Anderson said. “He’s had another year for confidence, another year of spring training. A young guy has to be around for a while, get to know the hitters.

Said Robinson: “I’ve been a lot more consistent this year than last. I have an idea of what I want to do with each hitter.”

There was no sudden awakening, no moment when Robinson knew he had what it takes to pitch professional baseball. But his first start this season was as good a starting point as any.

The Tigers lost to the Kansas City Royaos, 3-2, but Robinson pitched 6 innings in what is described these days as a quality effort.

“That was a big boost,” he said. “Knowing that if I can go out there every day and do the things I’m capable of, I can win in this league.”

Although Robinson said he has picked up confidence since that first start, relief pitcher Mike Henneman, who has been a teammate of Robinson’s since 1984 in the minors and majors, recalls a different moment.

He and Robinson were talking in Texas one day before a game in April. They were discussing preparation.

“I was throwing ideas out, and he was throwing them back,” Henneman recalled.

Their conversation got around to Robinson. Henneman suggested that Robinson warm up in the bullpen as if he were already in the game. Henneman also suggested that Robinson try to achieve a level of intensity in the bullpen.

“With his size, he ought to be intimidating out there (on the mound),” Henneman said.

To hear Robinson tell it, his confidence level did not increase when he competed in athletics at Christian High School in El Cajon.

Robinson, who graduated from Christian in 1980, played baseball for four years there and basketball for three, and he played both sports at Azusa Pacific University.

His memories of high school are “bad ones,” he said. “It was a tough time for me. It was a small school, and I’ve always had a lot of confidence in myself. They (some of his coaches) misinterpreted it for self-pride and spent three of my four years there trying to break it out of me. . . .

“I’m not saying everybody there was against me. I felt some coaches were behind me. But it’s not a place where I’ll go to homecoming games or 10-year reunions or anything like that.”

The end of last season didn’t help his confidence much, either. The Tigers acquired Alexander in August and relegated Robinson to the bullpen for the stretch drive because Anderson wanted to use veterans. The Tigers won the American League East pennant, and Robinson had less and less work.

“It was a tough situation to be in,” he said. “I was a part of the team, but I wasn’t getting a chance to contribute every day. Yet I understood exactly what Sparky wanted to do. If I was the manager, I would have done the same thing.”

Those times are distant memories for Robinson now.

“I don’t concern myself with winning games for myself,” he said. “My train of thought is to keep this team in the game for as long as I can so we have a chance to win. Whether I win or someone else does, it doesn’t matter. My personal statistics are not going to get us to the World Series.”

Said Anderson: “I’ll go with (Robinson) no matter what. This guy is for real. He’s not no fly-by-night guy.”

There will be other All-Star game opportunities in the future, as well as other stretch drives and chances for postseason appearances. For now, Robinson is earning his stripes with the Tigers.