October 6, 2021
Eddie Robinson was the oldest living former
Major League Baseball (MLB) player and the last surviving member of the 1948
World Series winning Cleveland Indians.
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Died: October
4, 2021 (Who else
died on October 4?)
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Details of death: Died
at his ranch in Bastrop, Texas at the age of 100.
Robinson got his start in the minor leagues before being called
up by the Indians in 1942. His career was interrupted by military service: He
served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before returning home, and to the
Indians, in 1946. Robinson went on to play for seven of the eight teams that
were then in existence – after being traded to the Washington Senators in 1949,
he played for the Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia/Kansas City Athletics, New
York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, and Baltimore Orioles. A first baseman, he was a
four-time All Star.
After his retirement from his playing career in 1957, Robinson
became a coach for the Orioles and later worked in the front office for a
variety of MLB teams. He was general manager of the Texas Rangers for several
years, and his last MLB position was as a scout for the Boston Red Sox. In
2020, Robinson began hosting the podcast “The Golden Age of Baseball,” which he
continued recording until shortly before his death.
“I lost three seasons serving in the Navy. I don’t think any of
us wanted that war to happen, but it did. They had a team here, so we played on
the team, and I had a good time doing it. We were called the Naval Training
Station Bluejackets and we had guys like Phil Rizzuto and Dominic DiMaggio on that squad. We beat up on
pretty much everybody—man that team was loaded. We were the equivalent of a
Triple-A team. Everyone knew that if you didn’t do well, you might have to go
to sea, and that was a great motivating factor.” —from an interview for This
Great Game
Full obituary: The Washington Post