Robinson's Advent

The men who own and control major league baseball, Frank Robinson said earlier this season, "can afford whatever they want." Robby was talking about lavish six-figure salaries (his own is estimated at about $200,000). He was too polite to add that for all their cash, none of the owners of the 24 major league teams felt that they could afford to have a black man calling the shots from the dugout. Until last week, that is. Then, with a ceremonial roll of the public relations drums, the Cleveland Indians announced that Robinson had stepped across baseball's ultimate color line and become the team's new manager.

For Robinson, 39, the appointment was the culmination of a carefully orchestrated campaign that officially began six years ago when he became a manager in the Puerto Rican winter league. "All I want," he said, "is the chance to manage." He still spent his summers slugging home runs as an All-Star outfielder for the Orioles, and later the Dodgers and Angels, but two pennants in Puerto Rico proved that he deserved the big opportunity he sought.

Coming 27 years after Branch Rickey put a Dodger uniform on another Robinson and summarily broke the color line on the playing field, the appointment ends what had become a national disgrace. Team owners had simply lacked the guts to select any of the blacks who have enriched the game in recent years. Today, 150 of the sport's 600 major leaguers are black. Earlier this season, even Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn felt constrained to issue a public call for the selection of a black.

With his new one-year contract, Robinson will be guiding a team of limited talent in a town traditionally known as the "graveyard of managers." His job will not be made any easier by a barely concealed black-white schism on this year's team. But Star Pitcher Gaylord Perry, who had earlier threatened to leave the club if Robinson took over, joined with other players to say that they would give their new skipper a chance.

Despite his obvious problems, Robinson will have at least one player of considerable skills on his side: himself. The only man ever to win the Most Valuable Player award in both leagues, Robby will double next season as the team's designated hitter. He thus becomes the game's first playing manager since Hank Bauer at Kansas City in 1961. Cleveland's last double-duty manager, Lou Boudreau, led the Tribe to a World Series victory in 1948.

It is doubtful if Robinson can match that feat with his present players. But given his reputation, he may manage some surprises. Win or lose, he intends to remain a stubborn, combative athlete; he feels no urge to play the role of ball-park civil libertarian. "The only reason I'm the first black manager," he says, "is because I was born black."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.