Robinson Managing Just Fine : He Doesn’t Want Satisfaction, He Wants Orioles to Win AL East

Vindication? Redemption?

Frank Robinson says no, that he had nothing to prove as a manager.

Satisfaction?

Yes, of course. Satisfaction, he says, in the sense that his young and anonymous Baltimore Orioles have given him more effort than any team he has ever been associated with, that he has enjoyed this season more than any other and that he continues to evolve and mature as man and manager, in control of himself more than ever.

“I know what people said because I heard it,” Robinson said, sitting in the dugout at Milwaukee’s County Stadium the other day. “They said I was the wrong person to manage this team. They said I couldn’t handle young players, that I’d screw it up. I wonder what they are saying now?”

Many are saying that Robinson should be the American League’s manager of the year, and if that doesn’t erase the memories of his firings in Cleveland and San Francisco, if that doesn’t change the view that he was too combative, arrogant and short-tempered ever to succeed in managing players with only a fraction of his Hall of Fame talent, if that doesn’t amount to vindication, it’s definitely satisfaction.

Many are also saying that Robinson and his Orioles, losers of 107 games last season, are assured of a satisfying season no matter what happens in this final weekend, this showdown series for the Eastern Division title with the Toronto Blue Jays at the SkyDome.

Robinson doesn’t buy it.

“People have been suggesting for two or three months now that it doesn’t matter if we don’t win, that we’ve had a tremendous year as it is, but I don’t agree,” he said.

“We have a championship within our grasp. Let’s go for it. Let’s finish it off.

“We’ve definitely exceeded our expectations, but I’ve told the players that if we fall on our face the last week, if we quit and say we’ve accomplished enough, that’s what people will remember and the only thing we’ll remember.

“But if we give 100% and fall short, we have nothing to be ashamed of. We can tell ourselves then that the other team was simply better. We’ve taken that approach all season or we wouldn’t be here.”

Here is one game behind the Blue Jays at the start of the season-ending three-game series.

Here is being assured of a 31-game improvement over last year’s 54-107 record, the fifth-biggest jump ever.

Here is also being assured of two major league records:

--Spending the most days in first place the year after finishing last, 116.

--Holding undisputed first place later than any team that finished last the year before, Aug. 31.

And the comparatively no-name Orioles have done it with one of the youngest rosters ever. Baseball’s masked marvels?

“I think that’s right, and it’s worked to our advantage,” former Dodger Brian Holton said.

“The less people know about us, the better it is. There’s no pressure because we have nothing to lose. People have been waiting for us to fall on our face all year.”

Of the 40 players who have performed for the Orioles in 1989, 22 began the year with two years or fewer of major league experience, 19 made their Oriole debuts, and 13 are rookies.

Of the 24 players who were on the roster in August, 17 spent part of last season in triple-A, and the amazing relief ace, Gregg Olson, was coming off only a partial year in double-A after signing out of Auburn.

“No one knows any of our players except for (Cal) Ripken, (Jeff) Ballard, Olson, (Mickey) Tettleton and (Phil) Bradley, and they probably knew only Ripken and Bradley before the season started,” Holton said. “But we’ve proven to ourselves we can play, if not to anyone else.”

The decay of the Eastern Division contributed to the Orioles’ ability to come back so far so fast, but it remains a remarkable turnaround, and Robinson’s impact on it should not be diminished, General Manager Roland Hemond said.

“Fabulous, incomparable,” Hemond gushed. “I mean, Frank isn’t one to boast, so I know he’s never going to say he had as much to do with this as the players, coaches or front office have, but I’ll say it for him. I believe this has been one of the best managing jobs I’ve ever seen.”

Hemond cited Robinson’s spring preparations, his handling of a pitching staff that, with only two reliable starters, Ballard and Bob Milacki, has produced 49 wins or saves by rookies and the patience and support necessary to keep a young club on an even keel.

“We’ve made fewer errors than any team in the league,” Hemond said. “A young team has played like a veteran team.

“The other night in Milwaukee, some scouts came over to compliment me on how well the players work before a game. They prepare well and perform well.

“They personify Frank’s pride and competitiveness. They play hard.”

Robinson played with such intensity that teammates feared him and opponents hated him. He is fourth on the all-time home run list and the only man ever to win most-valuable-player awards in both leagues.

Pride and competitiveness may have been trademarks, but in some ways, some believe, they were detrimental to his managerial success.

Both at Cleveland, where he became baseball’s first black manager in 1975, and San Francisco, his tactical skills weren’t the issue. He had problems dealing with anyone less talented and less intense, which was just about everyone.

He acknowledges that when it came to managing a clubhouse of individuals, dealing with players of varying ability, potential and motivation, he often resorted to intimidation and manipulation. He would yell and attempt to embarrass.

Richard Justice, who covers the Orioles for the Washington Post, often attempts to have Robinson demonstrate the way he was for the younger Baltimore writers.

“No,” Robinson will say. “I don’t want to make ‘em cry.”

Sitting in the dugout in Milwaukee, Robinson said: “You grow, you mature, you adjust. I’ve benefited from my experiences and understand things differently than I did 15 or 20 years ago.

“That second time I was fired I finally got a different perspective of myself. I realized maybe I was wrong more than I was right.”

He realized there was a need to be more patient, more communicative.

“People say I’ve mellowed out, that I’m, like, laid back now, that I don’t have the same fire and determination, but it’s just that I’m able to control it better,” Robinson said.

“I still don’t like losing, but I’m able to live with it now. I’m able to look at a loss, analyze the reasons for it, and let it go. I used to take losing personally. I’d take it home with me and bring it back the next day, and I’d finally let it out.

“I don’t have those outbursts anymore. If I screamed and hollered with these kids, I’d lose them. I have to teach here. I’ve had to stay on an even keel.”

Robinson maintained that equilibrium even when the Orioles went 2-12 on a trip in late July. The players were still giving the effort, so Robinson didn’t get upset, didn’t holler. Instead, he called in veterans such as Ripken and Bradley and quietly asked for suggestions as to how to snap the slump.

There are other snapshots of the restrained Robinson:

--When outfielder Brady Anderson irritated Robinson in April by failing to run out a pop fly, he was replaced between innings without a word said until Robinson held a team meeting after the game. Point made.

--When Olson encountered control problems during a tense situation in a recent game, Robinson came out, put an arm on his shoulder, said, “Hey, I’ve got enough gray hairs.” That was it. Robinson left, leaving his 22-year-old reliever relaxed and laughing.

--When Keith Moreland recently lost his job as designated hitter to Tettleton and angrily reacted by saying he didn’t expect to get another at-bat this season and would retire when it ends, he was summoned to Robinson’s office and told selfish disruptions would not be tolerated and he could retire immediately if he chose. Moreland apologized and stayed.

Before games now, even during the final week of this stumbling division race, Robinson, 54, plays cards with players in the clubhouse and exchanges needles during batting practice.

His loudest outburst of an unlikely season wasn’t directed at a player but at a group of American League umpires, whom he accused of unfairly preventing him from defending his team. Even for that he apologized.

“Frank played like a machine,” coach Tom McCraw said. “He realized every ounce of his potential. He’s come to accept the fact--if not understand--that it’s a different era and not every player is going to give him 100% all the time.”

There’s more to Robinson’s success with the Orioles than maturity and acceptance, however. Insecurity is no longer a problem. Unlike at Cleveland and San Francisco, he was allowed to select his entire coaching staff and has the ear and support of the front office.

In Cleveland, where he led a team of only modest talent to an 81-78 record in his second season, General Manager Phil Seghi would pound the table in his executive box with such force when he disagreed with a managerial move that Robinson could hear him in the dugout.

“How would you like that?” Robinson asked.

Fired by the Indians in 1977 and hired by the Giants in 1981, Robinson missed winning the title in the National League West by two games in 1982.

But there was no rapport between Robinson and General Manager Tom Haller, and at the end of that season, Haller traded second baseman Joe Morgan and allowed first baseman Reggie Smith to leave as a free agent.

Without what Robinson called the heart of his club, the Giants didn’t come close in either ’83 or ‘84, after which Robinson was fired. He returned to the Orioles as a coach in 1985.

The late owner, Edward Bennett Williams, appointed Robinson as a special assistant to Hemond, the new general manager, after the 1987 season, and subsequently asked Robinson to replace Cal Ripken Sr. as manager after the Orioles opened last year 0-6 on their way to 0-21.

Barbara Robinson, a successful Los Angeles real estate agent, told her husband he would be crazy to take the job, that the obviously bad team would damage his reputation, but Robinson didn’t listen.

“Mr. Williams (then dying of cancer) wanted me to do it and I felt an obligation to him and to an organization that had done so much for my career,” Robinson said. “I knew it would be a difficult year, but I knew it was a much better situation than I had in either Cleveland or San Francisco.”

Said McCraw, who has coached under Robinson in all three locales:

“I think (front office) people were intimidated by Frank. Here was an intelligent black man who knew how to put a ballclub together and was a little arrogant along with it.

“This was new to baseball people and they resented it, but I’m sure Frank feels he could have done (in Cleveland and San Francisco) what he has done here if given the support and talent.”

Support?

Robinson ended ’88 believing that certain things needed to be changed and urged the trading of Eddie Murray, which Hemond supported.

It was Robinson, as well, who wanted the inexperienced Olson and comparably inexperienced Steve Finley, an acrobatic outfielder, retained after spring training, and again he was supported.

“It comes down to everyone pulling in the same direction,” Robinson said. “I’ve been given that here and it’s made it easier.”

Said Hemond: “Frank’s goal was to improve the speed and defense, and we’ve tried to give him the type of players he wanted. He has a great concept about the game in entirety. I wasn’t concerned when we turned a young club over to him. I felt he had benefited from his experiences and was ready for whatever type club he was given.”

For Holton, the move from Los Angeles to Baltimore has been more than culture shock. He said he has gone from the roller-coaster emotions of Tom Lasorda to the hands-off style of Robinson and isn’t sure he’s adjusted yet.

“No hugs and sometimes not even handshakes,” Holton said of Robinson. “He kind of just sits there and you don’t know what he’s thinking.

“But he’s kept everything on an even keel and I think his approach has been good for this club. He has good know-how as to when to communicate.

“There were a lot of times we could have folded, but he didn’t let it happen. He’s kept everyone’s confidence up.”

Said Robinson: “The satisfaction is not in proving to some people I could manage. I never doubted that. The satisfaction is in the attitude of the players. There hasn’t been one confrontation. There hasn’t been one player ask me why I did this or that, and I’ve never had that before.

“I’ve never been on a team with a better attitude. I’ve never had more fun. I don’t know how some people gauge managers, but I’ve always felt I did as much as I could with the talent we had in Cleveland and San Francisco.

“I mean, the thing that separates managers is the ability of the players and this is the first time I’ve had 24 players giving the effort and doing the little things necessary to win.”

Having finally reached that stage, Robinson may return to the front office and quit managing next year, he said, citing the tedium of the road and some uncertainty as to whether he wants to make the three- or four-year commitment that a team in development deserves.

There is speculation, as well, that Robinson believes his Orioles did a lot of overachieving this year and may not be ready to maintain a contending level.

Said McCraw: “Frank was a winner as a player. By his nature he doesn’t give up anything until he’s won, and I don’t believe he’ll give this up until he’s won.”

By Sunday, of course, Robinson might have accomplished that.

FRANK ROBINSON AS A MANAGER Frank Robinson’s managerial record in the major leagues.

YEAR TEAM W L PCT. GB FINISH 1975 Cleveland 79 80 .497 17 Fourth 1976 Cleveland 81 78 .509 18 Fourth 1977 Cleveland 26 31 .456 8 Fifth 1981* San Francisco 56 55 .505 ---- Fifth/Third 1982 San Francisco 87 75 .537 2 Third 1983 San Francisco 79 83 .488 12 Fifth 1984 San Francisco 42 64 .396 22 Sixth 1988 Baltimore 54 101 .348 34 1/2 Seventh 1989** Baltimore 86 73 .541 1 Second Totals 9 Seasons 648 704 .479

* --Split season

**--Through games of Sept. 28