Breaking another barrier
Frank Robinson acknowledges the crowd before his first game as a manager
Up to this point in 1975, season openers have been going on in Major League Baseball for a century with great fanfare in the moment, but those games usually have a short shelf life in the sport’s collective memory.
Just another game out of 162 on the schedule.
Only Opening Day 50 years ago today is different as 39-year-old Frank Robinson formally becomes the major leagues’ first Black manager when the Cleveland Indians host the New York Yankees at old Municipal Stadium.
That would be player-manager in Robinson’s case as the Indians first trade for the future Hall of Fame hitter late in the 1974 season and then immediately after that season announce Robinson would both manage and play in 1975.
“Sooner or later, someone was going to hire Frank (as a manager),” Indians team president Ted Bonda later tells author Terry Pluto.
Frank Robinson on-deck before homering in the bottom of the first
“Teams were just reluctant to be the first to hire a Black manager,” Bonda says. “Someone had to go and take the first step, and to me it was a privilege to do it.”
Penciling himself into the lineup for his historic game as the Indians’ designated hitter, Robinson bats second and he promptly gives Cleveland an early 1-0 lead with a one-out homer in the bottom of the first inning off Yankees starter Doc Medich.
Cleveland starter Gaylord Perry gives up three runs in the top of the second inning and then gives Robinson no reason to consider making a pitching change as Perry scatters five singles for the rest of the game.
Less than three hours after Robinson the designated hitter homers to give Robinson the manager a 1-0 lead, Perry retires Thurman Munson on a grounder back to the mound to finish off a 5-3 victory before a Tuesday afternoon crowd of 56,715.
Robinson’s first season as manager ends with Cleveland finishing 79-80 before improving to 81-78 in 1976.
The Indians start the ’77 season with a pedestrian record of 26-31 when Bonda turns the majors’ first Black manager into the majors’ first unemployed Black manager.
Robinson, though, ends up managing for 16 seasons in the majors, following his start in Cleveland with longer stays in San Francisco, Baltimore, Montreal and Washington.
Frank Robinson finishing his managerial career in 2006 with Washington
His first game as manager, the one from 50 years ago today, is the one that creates an instant memory for Robinson to always remember.
“Right now,” Robinson tells the Cleveland Press after the game, “I feel better than I have after anything I’ve done in this game. Take all the pennants, the personal awards, the World Series, the All-Star Games together and this moment is the greatest … the greatest.
“The crowd? Unbelievable,” Robinson says. “I’ve played in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and Baltimore, never a crowd like this. It sent chills up my spine. If I could have asked God for a good kind of day, I never would have asked for something like this and expected it to happen.”