Robinson Refuses to Budge When It Comes to a Grudge

I put on my official Los Angeles Angel baseball cap, the one with the Brea Mall embroidered white “L” in front of the red halo “A,” and went to Angel Stadium on Wednesday to show my support for our local cheaters.

My first stop, of course, was with my old pal, Frank Robinson.

For some reason I got the impression he wasn’t happy to see me. I hope it wasn’t the baseball cap.

You know me, I’ve got that “can’t we all just get along” kind of attitude about life, so I hoped to play the role of peacemaker, putting Robinson and our manager, Mike Scioscia, back together.

Never know when they might run into each other at a Laker game, and how would it look to see the two of them rolling around in the aisles? If there is going to be any fighting at a Laker game, it should be between Phil and Kobe.

Robinson insisted on remaining cranky, however, saying, “as far as forgiveness, no,” he would never make nice with our manager.

I suggested that’s “kind of silly,” and he said, “It probably is.”

So while Scioscia carried the lineup card to home plate Wednesday night, giving Robinson the opportunity to meet him halfway, Robinson continued to carry only a grudge.

“I’m not that type of [forgiving] person,” he said, and I reminded him that he had forgiven me, but he said I was mistaken.

“You step on my toe, it hurts for a while,” he said. “When it stops hurting, then I might think about it. But until then, no. But if you stomped on my toe, I might not ever forgive you.”

If Scioscia stepped on my toe -- you see how big that guy is -- I’d never forgive him either. But I was under the impression there had been no physical contact except for the bearhug three of Jose Guillen’s comrades put on him to keep him from being arrested for assault a night earlier to cap off the Brendan Donnelly pine tar fiasco.

“[Scioscia] had no reason to come over to me,” Robinson said. “I wasn’t out there in the middle of things.... He had no right to walk over there and say what he said to me. He had no right to even come over to me.

” ... I wasn’t going to let him intimidate me; I am the intimidator.”

I laughed, which actually drew a smile from the intimidator. I wish I had said, “Hasta la vista, baby,” but I didn’t think of it at the time.

Robinson said the reason he lost all respect for Scioscia was because Scioscia “very angrily said, ‘Every one of your pitchers that come into the game I’m going to have them undressed.’ ”

Well now, I’ve got to admit, if I was a manager and someone was threatening to undress all my players publicly, I’d be peeved too.

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BEING A Los Angeles Angel fan as long as I can remember, I was probably a little startled to learn our guys have been cheating. I would’ve thought they’d have a much better record.

Apparently it’s company policy because Dallas McPherson said before Wednesday’s game, “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.” I guess that’s the team’s motto.

Everybody pretty much agrees now that Donnelly was cheating. He was using pine tar to get a better grip on the ball so he didn’t throw wildly, and you know, maybe plunk someone like Guillen because the ball was slippery. He said pine tar gave him no advantage on the opposition.

Robinson said that once Donnelly admitted he got a better grip on the ball, he was getting an advantage. I guess Robinson, like the rest of us, wouldn’t mind seeing Guillen get plunked every so often.

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WHEN Robinson and our manager began to discuss the possibility of all the Nationals getting undressed, Guillen became very angry. He must be a really modest guy.

It took two teammates and a coach to keep Guillen from charging the field, and when someone asked Robinson if Guillen “had snapped,” Robinson said, “That’s not snapping.”

He said when someone snaps, they lose control of themselves, and Guillen had not lost control. To be accurate, the three guys holding Guillen had not lost control.

If Guillen hadn’t been restrained, Robinson said, “he probably would have [hit someone]. I can’t guarantee it, but he probably would have.”

As a Page 2 rule, I like to jump on stupid quotes like this, so I asked Robinson if he thought it was all right to hit somebody.

“If he feels like he has a good reason to, yes,” he said, and I noticed he was just staring at me -- for no good reason, I thought.

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ROBINSON SAID he “would bet the ranch on it,” that our pitching coach, Bud Black, and our manager knew Donnelly was packing pine tar on his glove.

I thought gambling on baseball was illegal, but then maybe I’m nitpicking too.

He said he spotted Donnelly using pine tar on his glove by watching videotape. Makes you wonder why he just underwent corrective eye surgery if he already had the ability to spot pine tar on a black glove.

Robinson said Donnelly was also using sandpaper, and from what I was able to determine, he sees things that no one else does.

“He went off the back of the mound and out toward [Adam] Kennedy and gave him the sandpaper,” Robinson said, and why is it there’s always a Kennedy involved when it comes to some kind of conspiracy?

“I won’t bet the ranch he had sandpaper,” Robinson conceded, but a bigger concern might be the manager’s obvious gambling problem.

Kennedy said there is no magic sandpaper, never saw it, never took it from Donnelly and the pair of pants he wore the night before were in his locker, but oddly, the pockets were all turned inside out.

I’d like to know who let Robinson into the Angels’ clubhouse.

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THE DODGERS did something no one else in the league has been able to do this season. They made a winner out of Jose Lima, bringing back fond memories of the Choking Dogs.

Lima now has the same number of wins as Mr. Lisa.

T.J. Simers can be reached at

t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.