50 years ago, Brooks Robinson made last trip to minors

By David Driver
Posted: August 19, 2009

Even future Hall of Famers go back to the minor leagues sometimes for more seasoning. That’s what  happened 50 years ago this season to Oriole great Brooks Robinson. “It was the best thing that happened to me, but I wasn’t happy about going out there,” Robinson told me in a recent phone interview of his stint in Vancouver, British Columbia, in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.

Robinson began the 1959 season on the Opening Day roster of the Birds, even though he had spent most of the previous offseason performing military service with the Arkansas National Guard. “I was with the Orioles all of 1958. I joined the Arkansas National Guard the day the season was over. I tried to work out as much as I could,” said Robinson, a native of Little Rock, Ark. “When the season opened up in 1959, I started on Opening Day. There were two or three third baseman and I figured it was a matter of time before I was the third baseman every day.”

He was wrong. Paul Richards, the Orioles’ manager in 1959, approached Robinson at breakfast in Chicago about a month into the season. Robinson was told he was headed to Vancouver, which was in its first season as a top farm club of the Orioles. “That was a little bit disappointing. It was a blow to my ego. I had played about 150 games in the majors,” said Robinson, who had played in 216 big league games before 1959.

He began his career in York, Pa., in 1955 and split time between the minors in San Antonio and the Orioles in 1956 and 1957. But the 1959 trip to the minors was different because it came after he had played in 145 games with the Orioles in 1958, when he hit .238. Robinson was 21 when the ‘59 season began.

“It turned out Paul Richards knew more than I did. Turns out I did very well. It turned out to be a beautiful place to play,” he said of his time in Vancouver. Robinson, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983, said Vancouver was the most scenic place he ever played. From downtown Vancouver you can see snow-capped mountains, even during the summer months. Today, Vancouver is the minor league affiliate of the Oakland A’s in the short-season Northwest League, although baseball cards of Robinson and other Orioles are posted on a wall near the home clubhouse to mark the two years as a Baltimore farm club in 1959-60.

More important than the setting for Robinson in British Columbia was that he got to play every day at third and regained his batting stroke. He hit .331 in 163 at-bats at Vancouver. Among his roommates was shortstop Ron Hansen, who would be named the American League Rookie of the Year with the Birds in 1960. Robinson said Hansen, who also has a home in the Baltimore area, has been one of his best friends in the game for five decades.

The Vancouver manager was Charlie Metro, a native of Nanty Glo, Pa. (near Johnstown and Altoona), who would go on to manage the Chicago White Sox in 1962 and Kansas City in 1970. After 42 games in Canada under Metro, Robinson was sent back to the Orioles.

“When I came back I was a little stronger physically. I didn’t want to go back (to the minors), but it turned out to be the best thing for me. I seemed to get it together out there,” he said. Unlike today, in the 1950s and 1960s players normally spent the entire season with the same team in the minors. There was not the constant shuttling of players back and forth from the majors to the minors, which might explain why it was not a major problem that a top farm team of the Orioles was on the other side of North America.

A few years ago, Robinson returned to Vancouver while going on a cruise through the Pacific Northwest, and stopped by Nat Bailey Stadium. Today, Robinson is with Opening Day Partners, which is involved in the ownership of three teams in the independent Atlantic League: in Waldorf, York, Pa., and Lancaster, Pa. The offices for the York Revolution are on 5 Brooks Robinson Way and a statue with his likeness is outside the stadium.

Robinson ended up hitting .284 in 88 games for the Birds in ‘59 . In 1960, he hit .294 with 14 homers and 88 RBIs in 595 at-bats over 152 games. Robinson, now 72, was in the big leagues to stay, and you probably know the rest of the story.

Comment on this entry • View 1 response

user josephma56 says...

Brooks Robinson was not only a great player but a great person. Several years ago, a friend of mine was having major eye surgery and all his friends knew that Brooks was his idol growing up. Somehow, they contacted him and Brooks called my friend the day before the surgery to wish him luck. That's the kind of person Brooks is. On the field, Brooks was not only the human vacuum cleaner on the field but probably the greatest clutch hitter ever. He was very tough in the 7th, 8th, or 9th inning and was the "king" of the sacrifice fly. This story reminds me of what a great team player he was.

Posted 5:11 PM, 08.19.09 | Permalink