Eddie Robinson Early Life
Born on December 15, 1920 was born in Paris, Texas to William Edward Robinson. His father was an automobile electrician and left the family and his parents divorced when Eddie was 12 years old. He enlisted in the US Navy in 1942 and served for three years. After basic training he married in February 1943 to Elayne Elder and they had two children. They divorced in 1951. In 1955 , h married Bette Farlow and they raised three sons, Paul, Marc and Drew.
Eddie Robinson Baseball Life
He made his debut on September 9, 1942 with the Cleveland Indians. In that game he pinch hit for catcher Jim Hegan and made an out . He was 0-for-1 in the game. He played in 8 games in 1942 and when he returned from the service, he played 8 game in 1946 in an Indians uniform. On December 14, 1948, he was traded by the Cleveland Indians with Joe Haynes and Ed Klieman to the Washington Senators for Mickey Vernon and Early Wynn. He played in 143 games and hit .293 for Washington an they traded him in the off-season onMay 31, 1950, gain traded by the Washington Senators with Al Kozar and Ray Scarborough to the Chicago White Sox for Bob Kuzava, Cass Michaels and Johnny Ostrowski.
For three seasons he played 425 games for the White So and average a .296 batting average including his best year in 1951 with 29 home runs and 117 runs batted in. Then on January 27, 1953, he was traded by the Chicago White Sox with Joe DeMaestri and Ed McGhee to the Philadelphia Athletics for (minors) and Ferris Fain.That year he smacked 22 home runs with a .246 batting average. They unloaded him in the winter, on December 16, 1953, he was traded by the Philadelphia Athletics with Loren Babe, Harry Byrd, Tom Hamilton and Carmen Mauro to the New York Yankees for Don Bollweg, Jim Finigan, Johnny Gray, Vic Power, Bill Renna, Jim Robertson and $25,000.
By mid-season he wasn’t playing well and they moved him. On June 14, 1956, he was traded by the New York Yankees with Lou Skizas to the Kansas City Athletics for Moe Burtschy, Bill Renna and cash. s his production was decreasing, he has a series of signs and releases. They were:
May 17, 1957: Released by the Detroit Tigers.
May 20, 1957: Signed as a Free Agent with the Cleveland Indians.
June 29, 1957: Released by the Cleveland Indians.
September 1, 1957: Signed as a Free Agent with the Baltimore Orioles.
October 7, 1957: Released by the Baltimore Orioles.
In his 13 year major league career , he played in 1315 games with a ,268 career batting average. A four-time All-Star, he was the American League’s starting first baseman in 1949 and 1952.
Eddie Robinson Post Playing Days
After he retired from playing, he became a coach for the Orioles. HE followed Paul Richards to work for the Houston Astros. He worked for Kansas City owner Charlie Finley for many years in the 1960’s and he went to work in 1968 in the front office for the Atlanta Braves. from 1972-1976 he was the General Manager for the Braves. In 1977, he became c0-general manager of the Texas Rangers for a bit then as the GM from 1978-1982 for the Rangers. He was didmissed in 1982 and hooked on as a scout for the Boston Red Sox,
Oldest Living Former Players List
Eddie Robinson History Maker
He is the last living member of the Cleveland Indians o win a World Series. Currently he lives in Fort Worth, Texas.
On December 15, 2020, Eddie Robinson turned 100. Even at his advanced age, he is working on a podcast, “The Golden Age of Baseball”, with donations made to the Alzheimer’s Foundation.
more baseball articles at Baseball Spotlight
About the author– Tom Knuppel has been writing about baseball and sports for a few decades. As an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan he began with the blog CardinalsGM. Tom is a member of the United Cardinals Bloggers and the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. He also maintains the History of Cardinals website. More recently he has been busy at KnupSolutions and the primary writer of many sports at KnupSports and adds content at Sports 2.0. Tom is a retired High School English and Speech teacher and has completed over one hundred sportsbook reviews. He also can be followed on Twitter at tknup.
Feel free to contact Tom at tknuppel@gmail.com
