Career Year: Frank Robinson - 1966

Frank Robinson was not only a great baseball talent. He was also someone you didn’t want to make angry.

That’s what Cincinnati Reds general manager Bill DeWitt did when he justified the 1966 trade of Robinson to the Baltimore Orioles by referring to the slugger an “old 30.”

The Orioles should be forever grateful to DeWitt for not only shipping the 1961 National League Most Valuable Player to Baltimore, but also for stoking Robbie’s competitive fire with the “old” comment.

Robinson tore through American League pitching from Opening Day on (he hit a home run in each of the first 3 games). At the All-Star break, he was hitting .312 with 21 home runs and 56 RBIs, and he hit even better in the season’s second half, finishing 1966 as the American League Triple Crown winner with a .316 batting average, 49 home runs and 122 RBIs.

Frank Robinson

Offensively, the 1966 season produced a career-best for Robinson only in the home run category. He had had better seasons in terms of hits, doubles, runs batted in, runs scored and batting average. And in his 21-year career, he was the league leader only once each in home runs, RBIs and batting average  – all in 1966.

In a game on September 21, 1966, Robinson’s performance was not only outstanding, but mostly typical for his 1966 productivity. The Kansas City Athletics had built a 6-1 lead through the fifth inning. In the top of the seventh, Robinson cut the lead to 3 runs with a 2-run homer off the A’s ace reliever Jack Aker. In the top of the eighth, the Orioles chased Aker and the 4 Kansas City relievers who followed him with 7 runs, capped by Robinson’s second 2-run homer of the game.

The victory clinched the American League for Baltimore … and, for all intents and purposes, it cemented Robbie as the American League’s MVP, the first player to win that award in each league.