Today's "Super Veteran" is none other than all-time great Frank Robinson.
Take a look at my card design:
Even though I could have easily used a 1976 card format (since he
should have had a card in that set), I went with what was his last
"official" player card set, 1975.
By the time the '75 season opened, as we all know, he was the
Cleveland Indians player-manager, very significant since he was the
first African-American manager in baseball's long history.
He was also established as one of the game's greatest players, well
on his way to the Hall of Fame along with his contemporaries like
Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente.
It's easy to forget that at the time of his retirement as a player,
Robinson was fourth all-time in home runs with 586, only behind Aaron,
Ruth and Mays.
He also did something that would be unheard of in this day and age
when it comes to "magic numbers": he retired just short of 3000 hits,
with 2943.
These days, unless you are pretty much forced out of the game under
a dark cloud (see Barry Bonds or Alex Rodriguez), that's just not
happening. The player will stick it out to get that 3000th.
He also had over 1800 runs scored and runs batted in, just monster numbers from a monster of a player.
A Rookie of the Year in 1956, two-time Most Valuable Player (1961
& 1966), and Triple Crown winner (1966), he finally had his
Cooperstown day in 1982, getting named to 370 of 415 ballots.
How he was NOT named on the other 45 is beyond me.
But that's something for another day…
