Eddie Robinson (baseball)

William Edward Robinson (born December 15, 1920) is a former American Major League Baseball first baseman, scout, coach and front office executive of the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s who, during a 13-year playing career (1942; 1946–57), was on the roster of seven of the eight American League teams then in existence. He is the author of an autobiography, published in 2011, titled Lucky Me: My Sixty-five Years in Baseball. He is also the last surviving member of the 1943 "Navy World Series".

Robinson is the last living person to win the World Series with the Cleveland Indians, as well as the oldest living player to play on a World Series-winning team and the oldest living member of the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, and Washington Senators.

Career
Born in the Northeastern Texas town of Paris, Eddie Robinson, a left-handed batter who threw right-handed, enjoyed his most prominent team moment when, at the age of 27, he contributed to his first team, the Cleveland Indians, winning the 1948 World Series. Although traded during that offseason, he was still at the top of his game and, at the next two teams, Washington Senators (1949–50) and Chicago White Sox (1950–52), experienced the most productive seasons of his time in the majors. Overall, he appeared in 1,315 games and batted .268 with 172 home runs. He did not play in the 1943 through 1945 seasons, due to his service in the US Navy during World War II.

A four-time All-Star, he was the American League's starting first baseman for the midsummer classics of 1949 and 1952. The first game was a slugfest, 11-7, won by the American League, with a Robinson first-inning single off National League starter Warren Spahn driving in Joe DiMaggio. In the 1952 game, a rain-shortened 3-2 National League victory, Robinson singled in the American League's first run, scoring Minnie Miñoso, who had led off the fourth inning with a double.

Upon retirement, he became a coach for the Baltimore Orioles and then moved into their player development department. A protégé of Orioles manager Paul Richards, he followed Richards to the Houston Astros, then worked as the farm system director of the Kansas City Athletics during the tempestuous ownership of Charlie Finley in the mid-1960s. In 1968 he rejoined Richards in the front office of the Atlanta Braves. He succeeded Richards as general manager of the Braves during the 1972 season, serving through early 1976 in that post.

Robinson then returned to the American League as a member of the Texas Rangers front office. In 1977, Robinson was named co-general manager (with Dan O'Brien) of the Rangers, and became sole GM from 1978–82. Although the Rangers posted winning seasons in 1977, 1978 and 1981, a disastrous 1982 campaign cost Robinson his General Manager job.

Continuing in baseball as a scout and player development consultant, he found his last position as a scout for the Boston Red Sox, the only team of the "original eight" American League clubs that he did not play for.

The last living Cleveland Indians player to win a World Series championship, Robinson attended Game 6 of the 2016 World Series between the Indians and Chicago Cubs at Progressive Field in Cleveland.