Winning Club Throws a Different Kind of Spotlight on Frank Robinson

It must be spring. Flowers are abloom, and Frank Robinson is in demand again on the morning TV circuit.

A year ago, the Baltimore Orioles manager’s story fell under the “earthquakes and other natural disasters” category, and now he’s back, this time under “miraculous recoveries.” Either way, it’s a living.

“The circumstances are a little different this time,” said Robinson, who is scheduled to appear Tuesday on “CBS This Morning.” “A little more positive than negative.”

Actually, a lot more positive than negative, in the sense that breathing is more positive than the alternative. A year ago, the Orioles could have been poster team for the Baltimore Paramedic Society.

Not only are the Orioles prospering, they entered May in a tie for first place. Around town, this is cause for some heavy breathing as expectations, once virtually non-existent, are blossoming.

Robinson might be fighting this unexpected problem of heightened expectations a little himself. After a loss Saturday in Seattle, he held a closed-door meeting in which he told his young team that it wasn’t performing to his standards, which include playing hard and not beating yourself any more often than you can help.

Robinson wanted more. The fans want more, too, if under slightly different terms. Robinson is looking for improvement. Fans, being fans, are starting to get used to the Orioles, well, winning.

“My expectations are no different than when we left Florida,” Robinson said. “I want us to play hard each day, to concentrate on each play. At the All-Star break, we can see where we are, what we can do to improve. And at the end of the season, we’ll see where we are then.

“It would be unfair to the club to change my expectations now.”

At the beginning of the season, a .500 record seemed like the most outrageous dream, the best of all possible conclusions. Now, whatever the odds, it doesn’t seem quite as outrageous. And now, playing .500 in the American League (L)East seems as if it might win the division.

But are the Orioles that good?

We know there are weaknesses. The team, as many feared, has not hit particularly well, and there’s no certainty that it will.

The bullpen, while showing flashes of near-brilliance, has yet to establish any kind of consistency.

The starting rotation is far from set. Or, let’s just put it this way: If Jeff Ballard were 2-3 instead of 5-0, the Orioles would be 9-15 instead of 13-13, and how excited would anyone really be?

As it turns out, Robinson says he would be excited anyway, and I’m inclined to believe him. Though he has always maintained that the constant losing last season never got to him on a personal level, he does concede that this season is much more fun.

“This is much more enjoyable -- not just record-wise, but because of the players we have,” he said. “Being around these players, the effort they put in each day, the enthusiasm, the willingness to listen and learn, you have to enjoy that.”

The Orioles had the day off Monday after a one-week road trip to the West Coast, where they finished 3-4. Robinson said the trip was “pretty good,” and he said that reluctantly. That’s a point worth noting. The Orioles could easily have been 5-2 on the trip. On the other hand, they came back in the eighth inning to win two of the games, meaning they could have been 1-6.

For Robinson to be satisfied would be to sell the team short. That’s the rationale for the team meeting, called by Robinson because he felt his players were losing focus. Little mistakes they had avoided were beginning to crop up. Cutoff men were being missed, bases weren’t being backed up. They needed reminding.

“We weren’t playing the way we had the first 17 games,” he said. “We needed to get refocused. Some teams can get away with that, if you have a lineup like Boston or all that talent, like the Mets. We can’t. We have to be the type of ballclub that plays as hard as it can.”

To this point, none of the Orioles weaknesses is a surprise, though some of the strengths are. The Orioles were concerned about getting some punch from the first-base position. They were concerned about getting any kind of hitting from the second-base position. They were worried about a lack of power from the outfield. They were wondering when and if Larry Sheets would re-emerge.

Despite these problems, the Orioles have won half their games, a start that means much more than anyone can say. It means that the Orioles, who have shown astonishing resiliency, are allowed to believe in themselves. That’s why the final game of the trip -- a 4-3, come-from-behind victory over Seattle -- was so important. Otherwise, the Orioles would have spent their off day at the end of a four-game losing streak, and the world, especially in the rain, would have seemed unnecessarily gloomy.

Instead, with 13 of the next 15 games at home, the Orioles must see a baseball world that looks surprisingly bright.