Good grief, the guy looked good in a baseball uniform.

Just my opinion — and I say this in as manly a way as I can — but no one could wear a uni like Lou Brock.

But Frank Robinson, who died at 83 Thursday after a long illness, is right there.

He doesn’t get credit for it. He’s sort of taken for granted.

But that’s because, like the rest of the baseball world, you aren’t looking hard enough.

Robinson has got to be one of the Top 20 baseball players of all time. You can make an argument about Top 10, but when you start forming your Top 10 lineup, he probably never crosses your mind. Probably doesn’t cross your mind when you’re even thinking of the Top 20.

Take a look at his numbers though. You’d want him on any team you’d ever suit up with.

Mercy, how both quietly and loudly efficient he was. A guy who played hard and let what he did on the field speak for itself.

How would you have liked to have been the GM of the Cincinnati Reds in 1966? That’s the year Robinson led the Baltimore Orioles to a World Series victory and won both the Triple Crown and the National League MVP award. In 1965, he’d played for the Reds, the team he’d been NL MVP for in 1961 or thereabouts. The team who’d traded him after the 1965 season.

Oops.

The Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966. Too late to grab the baseball hart of a little boy who was growing up in South Carolina was already 7. Before the Braves moved in. Baltimore was the closest team to Route 1, Lake View. I was hooked. We already had Brooks Robinson, and now we had Frank. Must be his brother!

Kids won’t believe it now, but Lordy Lord the Orioles were good. Winningest team in baseball, 1960-80. Look it up.

And look up how good Frank Robinson was, God rest his soul. And no, he did not especially shine, haberdashery-wise, in the almost-all orange uniforms of the Cleveland Indians when he was named player-manager for the 1975 season and hit a home run — on Opening Day.

But he was such a stud that he made even bad uniforms look good. Or at least semi-good.

Please appreciate what a good player and baseball guy — and what a professional — he was.

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