This Is a New Frank Robinson--or Is It?

Frank Robinson insists he hasn’t changed.

Yet there he is signing all those autographs for fans. And there he is in those clubhouse card games with players. And what about those funny exchanges in his pre-game sessions with reporters?

These were not part of his first two swings as a baseball manager.

Still, Robinson says, “I think I am still the same person I always was.”

When pressed, he admits, “I have come to know what I have to do and how to approach a situation. This (managing the Baltimore Orioles) is a situation with younger players. I have to be much more patient, take a gentle-type approach. I knew that coming in.”

The patience and gentle intuition Robinson has shown this year has been a big reason why the Orioles, with the youngest roster in baseball, have made their unexpected run for the American League East Division crown.

Robinson, 53, may be as big a surprise as the young team that has been on top of the American League East most of the season.

“I had the impression last winter that Frank had matured and mellowed,” Milwaukee general manager Harry Daulton told the Washington Post. “Lord knows, he knows the game as well as anybody. He understands the importance of doing the intangible things.

“I can’t say I expected it. At one point, you wondered if he’d adjust -- looking at what happened in Cleveland, San Francisco. Some fellas don’t catch up to the new generation.”

What happened in Cleveland (1975-77) and San Francisco (1981-84) could be described as a manager lacking patience for the errors of that new generation. In both places, Robinson was quick to lash out at players and reporters alike.

“Certain things used to set me off,” Robinson said. “When players or reporters would say things challenging my position sometimes, challenging me ... in years past, they’d ask me questions and I’d come back at you.

”... Now, I’m able to kind of absorb it. I understand where they’re coming from.”

It is an understanding that did not come easy for Robinson, an uncompromising competitor who hit 586 home runs during his 21-year playing career -- fourth best in history -- and also was hit by a pitch 198 times. He didn’t speak to opposing pitchers and would yell at a teammate who’d made a mistake.

That kind of hardnosed approach, which he carried over to his term with Cleveland as the first black manager in baseball history, has not been there this year.

“After I was fired for the second time as manager, I think I finally got a different perspective on myself,” Robinson said. “After I looked at myself and the way I’d lived, maybe I was wrong more than I was right. Maybe it’s not the way you look at yourself, but the way other people see you.

“I studied Frank Robinson, putting things in order and deciding this is what Frank Robinson wants to accomplish and this is who he wants to be.”

Regardless, Robinson still draws the line when he believes he has to. He yanked Brady Anderson from a game for not running out a ground ball, and he called for an off-day mandatory practice when he thought it was needed.

And then there was the incident with those umpires.

After a dispute with umpires in Milwaukee on July 9, Robinson threatened to resign. He said he was “sick and tired” of the unwillingness of umpires to listen to his arguments, and that he was “seriously thinking of stepping aside.”

Robinson met with American League President Dr. Bobby Brown, and said afterwards that the matter was over and that he would not resign the position that, a couple of years ago, he thought was beyond his reach.

After he was fired by the Giants five years ago, Robinson thought he might never get another chance to manage again. “After a couple years I said maybe that was it,” he said.

Robinson was named the Orioles’ manager six games into last season and was forced to endure a miserable season in which the team compiled baseball’s worst record before overseeing the team’s plan to rebuild through youth.

“I know a lot of people thought I was the wrong man for this job,” Robinson said. “They didn’t think I had the patience to manage young players. ... People don’t think I can do a lot of things. They don’t think I’m able to make adjustments.”

This year was going to be different for Robinson no matter how the Orioles played. This was the first time he’s ever been allowed to choose his own coaching staff, and he hired former major leaguers Al Jackson and Tommy McCraw, who both had been in the New York Mets’ minor league system, as his pitching and hitting coaches.

The Orioles also have a front office confident in Robinson, and committed to rebuilding, ready for the pains and pleasures of the process. That was not the case in either Cleveland or San Francisco.

“The most important part about this situation is that we’re all going in the same direction,” Robinson said. “They know what I want. I’ve never had that before.”

He’s never had such an approachable way with his players before either.

“One thing I’ve always tried to be is open and honest with my players and do what’s best for them,” Robinson said. “It didn’t always come across that way. I think the players feel more at ease around me, that they can approach me better now than before.”

The players notice it, too.

“I heard that he was not communicative, hard to get along with, a mean guy,” said Baltimore pitcher Dave Schmidt. “I don’t see those things. As long as you play hard, I don’t see how you can have any problems with him.”

One thing about Robinson’s managing that has not changed is his personality during a game.

“I can’t laugh and joke during a game and see what’s going on,” Robinson said. “... It’s total concentration while the game is going on. You do that to get yourself an edge.”

That edge is all Robinson has been looking for.

“People think things have come easy for me,” Robinson said. “I worked hard to make myself a good player, and I worked hard to be a better manager.”

Maybe Frank is right. Maybe he hasn’t changed.